Who Has The First Class Passenger’s Look?

I work for a giant IT company as a consultant for the last 9 years, which means I mostly fly 80 – 90 trips and spend 200+ nights in the hotels per year. As a reward, I get to collect a lot of precious metals and stones from various airlines and hotels (diamonds, platinum, sapphire, ruby, etc… you name it). Along with those “shining” statuses, I have been given privileges to fly first class for free, special shorter lines at the security and some club accesses to get free drinks and food. But I have noticed that I don’t have the million dollar babe’s look to go with it.

A few years back when I was working in Hartford, CT and stayed in a Marriott, I got kicked out from the concierge lounge when I tried to get some breakfast after a workout. The lady took me to the entrance, closed the door and asked me to insert the card again to make sure I indeed had access. After the light turned green, I was further questioned about my stays in the hotel. I was questioned all the time when I stayed in New York’s Marriott hotels and thought it must be my age ( I was in my mid 20’s). So it didn’t really bother me. Some guest from the concierge lounge must have reported the incident because later that night I got an apology fruit basket with free dinner coupons from the hotel. That was 1999.

Now let’s fast forward to year 2005. I probably got yelled at half of the times when I was lining up at Denver airport’s First Class check-in counter or the “Premium member” security line, The usual responses I got were , “Are you first class?” “This is first class only. Please go to the general line. “ “Ma’am, you are in the wrong line.” One time after the lady took a real careful look at my boarding-pass, she turned around and asked the gentleman behind me, “Is she with you?” I finally lost it and got into an argument with the security guard. Well, of course, I ended up being searched all over the place and lost a good half an hour of my own time. I started to wonder if it was because of the pink head wrap I was wearing.

Head wrap or not, it is our nature to pass judgment based on how our social environment is shaped around us. Although we are all taught not to be judgmental, it’s rather difficult to alter the thinking structures that we have already established. I am guilty as charged myself I must admit. I did question about a Middle Eastern guy on the plane shortly after 911 only to find out that he was just another ordinary business traveler working for Oracle.

The stereotype may always be there in our society. It is what we do after being treated unfairly that could make some positive changes. Here are some of my suggestions to deal with unfairness:

1. Remember to remain calm. Yelling back with any offensive words doesn’t do any good
2. State the facts to correct the person. Do not be judgmental. Just state the facts. When I got yelled at last weekend again at the airport, I said to the lady, “No, I am not flying first class. But I am American Platinum member. I think the board says all premium members can come in here.”
3. After all the misunderstanding is cleared, calmly state that you don’t appreciate the way you are treated, but you understand where the misunderstanding is coming from and hopefully that won’t happen again. A little humor can definitely help . I later said to the security lady, “It must be my climbing outfit, yeah?”

People don’t like to be accused of anything even if they did something not so right. So when the problems are still at presence, focus on solving the problems rather than blaming the other party. It won’t get you anywhere if you start yelling and screaming. Or worse, they could use their power to punish you like I got punished by the security guard the other day.

I will still wear my pink head wrap and line up at the airport’s special line. I don’t feel the needs to change myself so that I can be accepted by others. I don’t have the million dollar babe’s look or a billion dollar sugar daddy accompanying me, but I am sure a million dollar positive attitude can go a long way here.