Dear Sir/Madam

Last July 21st, on my Doha-Paris QA 019 flight, I suddenly felt squeamish and on the verge of fainting and throwing up. I thus got up to go to the nearest toilet to my seat as its light showed green.

I had been up since 10pm Doha time, having just before taken a first QA flight from Chennai at 4.45 am local time.

A sleepless night, plus jetlag, all very ordinary.

I am not prone to air sickness, but I did feel particularly bad just then.

As it happened, the toilet closest to my seat 'belonged' to the VIPs... which I did not know.
As I proceeded behind the curtain, my way was blocked by a cabin attendant who said 'No, you may not come to this toilet, you belong in economy class, your toilets are over there, please go.'

I was stunned and argued a little, because I felt sicker and sicker, but complied and turned away.

At the other toilets down the aisle, there was a long queue... Two people said they had been waiting for twenty minutes !!! Resigned, I waited with them. Nothing happened. I really felt sick and I decided to have another go as there was NO-ONE queuing in the 'VIPs toilets'!!!

Again, a very sharp refusal, and very angry cabin attendants. Meanwhile, their boss had joined them and I was faced with several hostile faces. I said I felt very bad, that the plane was landing soon (we had all been called back to our seats) and that I didn't see the problem since I was bothering nobody. Another cabin attendant replied that the VIPs had paid extra for their 'own' toilets, that it was not my case, and (in so many words) could I please be sick in my own passenger class.

I realized they had LOCKED the toilets so I could not get in.

I have never seen anything so shameful in my life. A total disgrace. Are we, in economy class, just cattle relegated to their stables???????

I insisted, as I could foresee being sick just there and then.

Finally, yet another cabin attendant, extremely angrily, told me to follow her down the aisle, where half a dozen people were still waiting, and asked a man (rather rudely I thought) to let me pass.

Afterwards I still felt very bad, so a fourth cabin attendant, somewhat more sympathetic, handed me an ice cold napkin and a glass of water.

I have no words to qualify this 'I will stick to the rules' attitude towards someone who is overtired and squeamish.

Only in apartheid regimes are there any such things are 'reserved toilets'.

If I get no answer from you, I will file an official complaint to your company for mistreatment of customer.

In no way can I recommend your airline to any of my friends, acquaintances or family, even though everything else during my 4 QA flights was satisfactory.

Yours faithfully,

Mrs C Fremont

Are you kidding me? They are right, those people paid extra to sit in the premium cabin with ALL the facilities that entailed.

Ok the crew could have done it sooner but the most they can do is as they did- let you jump the queue in your own cabin.

It'd be like you staying in a 5-star hotel, and guests coming from the 2 star hotel next door to use the facilities, because they don't like those facilities or the wait is too long. I bet you would be the first one complaining because you have p[aid good money to stay in that hotel and they have not.

First Class is for people who pay a first class fare. I am so sick of seeing my fellow passengers demanding something they have not paid for, who are you to be so 'special' and deserve something you're not entitled to?

Perhaps if you had asked the crew to assist you in your own cabin they would have done it right away, rather than you starting an argument because you wanted to use the toilets outside of your own cabin, which to me says a lot about you not feeling sick but just overtired and argumentative...