OMAAT Is Now Blocked In The UAE, Following My Etihad Coverage

If you’re trying to access One Mile at a Time from the United Arab Emirates and are finding the site blocked, you’re not alone. I’m sure it’s obvious to regular readers what’s going on, but let me explain…

My blog is being blocked in the UAE following Etihad posts

It would appear that OMAAT is being blocked by many network providers in the UAE. So if you try to pull up the site, you’ll just get a blank page, as it won’t load. This isn’t yet 100% consistent across the country, but at least seems to be the case for connections through Etisalat.

The timing here of course isn’t a coincidence, and it’s not too hard to connect the dots. Last week, I covered how Etihad Chief Commercial Officer Arik De suddenly left the airline. I can’t say I had a great impression of him, but little did I know the can of worms I was opening, and just how much employees had to say.

What followed was hundreds of comments from frustrated employees, exposing what can only be described as an incredibly toxic culture. Not just your typical problems at big corporations, but something that goes way beyond that.

However, that was only the tip of the iceberg. I received more messages than I can count from current and former employees, many very senior, sharing what I’d consider to be some really shocking details. Honestly, just to get a sense of things, check out the comments on both the first post and second post.

Based on what I’ve been told, my posts made it all the way around the company, from senior management to frontline employees. Some people even messaged me to ask me to delete the comments they left, telling me that some of the senior managers were essentially starting a “witch hunt” to determine who left which comments (again, that’s what I have been told by multiple current employees, and I can’t speak to how true it is).

Let me also note that the entire topic of my post is nothing at all against the UAE, but instead, it’s about the (reportedly toxic) ex-pats running the company. And let me also emphasize that there are a ton of incredible employees at Etihad, including many Emiratis, who do an amazing job, and are the real victims in all of this.

That’s the UAE’s prerogative, and I have no regrets

If the UAE wants to block OMAAT, well, it is what it is. I get that the country cares a lot about its image, I just hope that government authorities actually read what I wrote, which is entirely about the (non-Emirati) people running the company, rather than the country as such.

Honestly, I have no regrets here. Perhaps I’m too principled of a person — I’ll stand up for the things that I believe in, and do my best to communicate how I feel in a fair and ethical way. I’m not trying to over inflate my importance here — I don’t claim to matter in any way — but if I can use my voice in some small way to even have a remote chance of impacting positive change, I’ll use it.

It goes without saying that I’ve historically been a huge supporter of Etihad, and the carrier’s product (my record speaks for itself). But I’m not willing to overlook what sounds like arguably the most toxic airline work culture I’ve heard of because it costs me a few clicks, or because they have nice first class suites.

I’m also not going to hold any grudges. I’ll keep covering the airline as I have before, as fairly as possible, while of course remembering how management is handling this situation.

To the senior Etihad executives who are responsible for what the culture at the company has become, you can of course try to do everything in your power to cover up the extent to which this is exposed, but I hope you at least know the extent to which many employees lack respect for you, due to how you’ve treated them.

For that matter, you should also know the lack of respect that your industry colleagues have for you. I’ve also received a countless number of messages from senior people in the industry not associated with the airline, who had some choice words. It’s pretty clear this is currently being treated by the company as something that needs to be swept under the rug, rather than something that actually reflects a systemic problem, and which should be addressed.

I’ll also say that I’m not going anywhere. So the Etihad senior leaders can of course try to silence me, but it won’t change the fact that I’m here to stay. I’ve been doing this for over 18 years, and God willing, I’ll be doing it for at least another 18 years (hopefully more, but…!).

I do hope that others in the media at least keep this saga in mind, and read what actual Etihad employees have to say about their experience working there, before cozying up too much with some of the people in the company’s senior management team. There are too many people out there who are just willing to overlook things because someone is nice to them, or willing to offer them something, without thinking of how they act toward others.

Bottom line

OMAAT is now being blocked in the UAE, clearly due to my recent Etihad coverage. I wrote about an Etihad executive suddenly leaving the company. I was happy to see him leave the airline, though little did I know how much current and former employees would have to say not just about him, but about several other members of the senior management team.

Obviously that negative coverage was too much, and got my site blocked in the UAE. I had nothing bad to say about the UAE, and for that matter, I have huge respect for the hardworking employees who keep Etihad running.

I’ll never be silenced just because it’s inconvenient, so I have no regrets here. I’m just letting y’all know, in case you’re accessing OMAAT from the UAE without a VPN, and are confused what’s going on.