So, during my first Y flights on EK last week from GLA-PEK via DXB, had a bit of an unpleasant experience during my transit in DXB. I briefly mentioned it in this thread: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/emira...-please-5.html , but will expand on it a bit more to see if others have had any experience and how others may have handled it.

I don't want the thread to go into OMNI/PR territory so grateful for balanced views.

Got off my GLA flight at concourse B and my PEK flight was departing B29. Great, still in the same concourse, but realised when I got to the lounge and my usual hangout areas (sorry skywardhunter & m3red), the smoking area, that B29 was the furthest gate that could have possibly been allocated in B. So calculation of walking times and what time I would leave the lounge worked out, found a spare seat, sat down and had a well earned nicotine stick.

The smoking lounge was very busy and there were a few spare seats dotted around so after my first ciggie, I went and got a drink and some smoked salmon. As I was at the drinks counter, a group of maybe 10-12 younger men & women came into the smoking area. I went back over to my seat with my fare, got out my ipad and started having a look at FT as I was eating/drinking (see, men can multi-task too ). Two of the goup, a man(Mr NA) and women(Miss Beauty), came over and sat in the two spare seats across from me and after a few moments, the gentleman in the seat next to me left.

For the next five minutes or so, the seat next to me remained available and the two other pax were having a conversation amongst themselves. The man had a North American accent (possibly Canadian) and the woman was of South Asian origin and very attractive looking (I only point this out as these are part of the reason this all nearly kicked off).

Sat behind the man & woman were a couple of South Asian men, one of which had obviously been making the most of his time in the lounge. One of those men got up and left and the indulgent man(Mr Whisky) looked round and noticed the Miss Beauty sitting across from me. Cue the Dutch courage. He stood up and came around to the set of four seats I was sitting at, sat down at the spare seat and started talking to Mr NA & Miss Beauty and commenting on how attractive Miss Beauty was. Mr NA started playing the game, seeing how inebriated this other guy was and played along. It was all jovial at first and I just continued having my smokes, drinking my drink (water) and reading FT.

And then the question came from Mr. Whisky, "are you boyfriend & girlfriend?". Answer "No, just friends". Conversation went on and all played along then Mr Whisky asked Mr NA where he was from. Now this is where I don't want things to go into OMNI/PR territory. Mr NA proudly claimed he was from Pakistan. Mr Whisky didn't like this and proudly announced he was from India then started denouncing his northern neighbours. Mr NA tried to stay calm and steer the conversation away but Mr Whisky was having none of it for a time. After a couple of minutes of this, the conversation became amicable again...but not for long .

Mr Whisky brought up the nationality topic again and Mr NA diplomatically (I'm being diplomatic in my language here) pointed out that they were in an airline lounge and the topic of conversation Mr Whisky wanted to train on was not the best idea. Meanwhile, Mr NA & Miss Beauty's other 8 or 10 friends who were mostly male and had been scattered around the lounge noticed something was amiss in our corner of the lounge and started congregating towards us. The lounge had also started clearing out a bit and more seats around us had become vacant.

Mr Whisky played to the audience and continued on his train of conversation and on a couple of ocassions got up out of his seat to approach Mr NA (in a drunken manner). Mr NA's patience was as thin as a gnats ball hair and I could see where this was heading. By which time a large group had formed, all standing, consisting of all of Mr NA & Miss Beauty's friends. One of them told Mr Whisky to shut up and mentioned the poor guy in the corner having to listen to this bull**** (that would be me). There was one or two mentions of a slap being dished out and at that point I stood up and volumously proclaimed that I wasn't putting up with this s88t.

As I walked over to the lounge entrance desk, Mr NA and entourage got up and found a group of alternative vacant seats. Mr Whisky stood up and sat himself in my seat. I explained to the lounge attendant what had gone on that Mr Whisky was obviously inder the influence of copious amounts of alcohol and being extremely rude to some other passengers. At this time, one of the waiters walked by and heard my conversation and also told the lounge staff about Mr Whisky. Why wait for a passenger to complain? He should have pointed this out earlier to the desk staff. The state of Mr Whisky hadn't happened in the space of twenty minutes.

So I made my way back to my (now occupied) seat where I abruptly told Mr Whisky to sling his hook, he was sitting in my seat. He stood up and sat in the seat next to mine, where I told him to go and sit where he was originally sitting or preferably as far away from me as possible. The desk agent came over and started talking to Mr Whisky but I couldn't quite hear the jist of the conversation but I could see he asked Mr Whisky for his boarding pass.

So for another twenty minutes, I chilled, had another drink, filled up the nicotine pouches and then packed up to make my way to the gate. As I was walking out of the lounge, a few of Mr NA's companions apologised as did Mr NA. And as I walked past the drinks counter, there was Mr Whisky ordering himself another alcoholic drink .

Not the most pleasant experience and have got to say, for me, the first ever experience of this kind in an airline lounge.

So, what do you guys think? Any similar experiences? The one thing that jumps out at me is that the desk agent didn't instruct the serving staff to stop giving Mr Whisky any more alcohol.

Anyway, thought I would share and sorry for the length.

Safe & Happy Travels

S

Quite surprised at the reaction of Mr. NA, being Pakistani, I would think he'd just become very defensive and start a fight right then, since that is what usually happens.
Mr. Whisky may not have been to Dubai then, since over there most Pakistanis and Indians are very good friends regardless of the political situation between the two countries. Don't know why people still get aggressive over stupid things like this.

Anyway, thanks for sharing this. Enjoyed reading it, reminded me a little bit of an eightblack style trip report.

Have had similar things happen to me a few times over the years both on board (usually in Y) and in the lounge.

In the lounge its easy. Just walk away at the first sign of trouble. Let the people who want to fight sort it out among themselves.I won't spoil my lounge experience because of someone else and later be accused of taking sides.

Had something similar happen in Y on a flight from DXB to MAN a few years ago. Verbal spat between two groups of pax with racial insults thrown in (both groups had a fair bit of alcohol onboard). I was caught in the cross fire :-(.
and I couldn't move anywhere else as it was a full flight.

The only thing which saved the day was a very good purser who was very firm and told both groups exactly what they were in for on landing and stopped serving more alcohol to them .

No more problems after that though we were met by police at MAN who were having a word with both groups.

murtaza

My bolding, could not agree more. In all fairness, Mr NA saw it initially as a bit of banter but his breaking point was very nearly reached despite his efforts to change the subject of conversation on more than one occassion.

I only became concerned when all of the friends appeared and the threat of slaps being dished out started (and could look on it as possibly justified), but I was wedged in the corner and wasn't going to be drawn into such a stupid conflict.

S

On a plane? That would not be pleasant........

S

This was so entertaining to read I'll forgive you for the nicotine sticks

Having spent a few years living in India I can picture this all to well. The anti-Pak propaganda machine is very much alive and kicking and one sees these group mobs on the streets every now and then when someone's run over someone else's mother in the chaos that is traffic there. Entertaining until you're caught in the middle.

In fact just remembered a fight at a dive bar in Hyderabad that I saw in October. Was kind of upset at not getting a chance to get involved but the bouncers were looking like little children who's candy had been taken away, quite hilarious.

(Involved because through no fault of my own I got punched in the face in a club in Bali last year and ever since been annoyed that I didn't punch back but ran like a whimp and have a need to now prove to myself that I too can punch someone...silly I know.)

Most sensible self defence experts say that even if you defend or attack your attacker, it should only be done as a last option and to move away from the site as soon as you can.

Similar thing happened a few years ago to me on a LHR-DXB flight (I believe I reported it on here).

I think you did the correct thing ^

I was expecting Dubai Police to have shown up and arrested everyone for illegal drinking though I mean, you have to be an absolute moron to start anything in an airport or airplane anyway (it's not as if you can get away with it as any ground staff member can pull up your passport details, address, telephone number, email, credit card etc.), but in Dubai? Ha!

Well done, not only keeping your cool, but doing the right thing.

Only incident I experienced was a male passenger punched another passenger, knocking him straight out, after an argument about who was next in line for the toilet! He then started kicking off to the crew, I stepped in and they told me not to get involved and they would get the captain.

So I arrested the male under suspicion of assault, and the crew help me restrain him until we landed.

That was a big mistake, as I didn't even think about the paperwork and statements I would have to do when on the ground, just what you need after a long flight.

Correct, live to fight another day. Unless you have to fight, dont. Run and hide.

If it really kicks off, observe and watch for info to give to the pros when they turn up.

Yeah I mean obviously it was the right thing but doesn't mean my pride wasn't hurt. Was kind of an all-our brawl and a bouncer who punched me so... That's the most zonked out I've ever been on a flight when I was on a Tiger Air flight to Singapore 4hrs later still barely able to stand straight and with a nose the size of a football

I was hoping for an appearance by Mel along with the camera crew from Airport Dubai... now that would've been cool to watch.

did you deserve it?

No, that's the most annoying part... some guy punched a friend of mine, bouncers pulled everyone out and suddenly they started punching everyone, but this is quite off topic