There’s a saying about airlines being “bad on the ground, but good in the air”. Basically, it means that booking, checking in and so on may be a hassle, but the airline compensates for all that by offering superior service during the flight (which is pretty much all that matters to most passengers.)
If there are scales of good to bad both in the air and on the ground, I’m not sure where Thai Airways sits after a recent debacle concerning passengers who were bumped back from first class to the business cabin to make way for two off-duty pilots.
According to the Bangkok Post, “The issue sparked outrage on social media, with users criticising the airline for being unable to settle a relatively trivial mix-up between its pilots and ground staff [in Zurich], with passengers effectively being held ‘hostage’ while it was being resolved.”
The two passengers who gave up their upgrades reportedly included a senior Thai official, who made a complaint.
The pilots who stood their ground, so to speak, about being entitled to fly first class, say they were going by the book, which states they must be well rested for their next on-duty flight, which was to begin when they arrived back in Bangkok.
The incident, which is still being investigated at the time of writing, raises a few questions.
First: Why did the airline not factor in the needs of the off-duty pilots before they offered upgrades to the passengers?
Second: Were the passengers right to complain, considering they (among others) had been upgraded to first class in the first place? (The type of aircraft originally scheduled for the flight did not include a first-class cabin, but a change to another plane was made in Zurich.)
Third: Were the pilots being unreasonable or should the crew’s needs be paramount? After all, we all want well-rested pilots.
Fourth: Should passengers be concerned when what seems to be a minor problem can’t be solved internally and quietly?
Hopefully, this will be a learning experience for Thai Airways and other airlines, and protocols will be established to ensure there are no more “hostages” waiting on the tarmac while airline employees bicker.
