Indian woman flags 'discrimination' over 3 incidents on Emirates business class

An Indian woman wrote a detailed X post about three lounge interactions during her first Emirates business class trip that left her feeling ignored. The airline has responded to the post.A startup founder shared a post about getting ignored thrice by the Emirates staff. (representational image/Pexels)An Indian woman has said that she felt “discriminated” against while travelling Business Class with Emirates, as she flagged three incidents that made her uncomfortable during the flight. In a post on X, Rachana Ramchand, who founded a UK-based startup, shared her experience after travelling Business Class with Emirates for the first time. She began by describing an interaction in the lounge, where she was speaking to a male passenger when an attendant came over and asked him about lunch. Ramchand claimed that the attendant did not ask her about her meal. She eventually called the staff member back herself and said she wanted lunch too after which the attendant took her order. “I was completely ignored,” Ramchand said. The same thing happened when the attendant returned with the man’s drink. Ramchand detailed in the post how the attendant asked him if he wanted a refill but did not extend the same offer to her. Then came an interaction that made her particularly uncomfortable.An attendant approached both of them and asked them to speak “softer.” Ramchand explained that the man she was speaking to had hearing difficulties: “So, we were deliberately and unknowingly speaking louder.” For Ramchand, however, the three incidents added up to an experience that made her feel out of place in the premium cabin.“I run my own business. I paid for my upgrade. But I felt unworthy of sitting in Emirates business class today,” she wrote.The experience was so different from what she had expected that she added, “I miss the ease of economy.”Read the post here:Her post has gone viral with over one million views so far, following which Emirates reacted to it.Meanwhile, several users said that they were rather surprised that an experience many consider a luxury could leave a passenger feeling uncomfortable and overlooked. Others questioned whether the incidents necessarily amounted to “discrimination.” They suggested the interactions could have been misunderstandings, especially since the other passenger’s hearing difficulty explained why the conversation was louder.This article will be updated when Emirates shares a detailed statement on the allegations made by Rachana Ramchand.- EndsPublished By: Srimoyee ChowdhuryPublished On: Aug 17, 2026 10:56 IST