A Melbourne woman has accused Qantas airlines of being homophobic and discriminatory after herself and her partner were asked to give up their seats for a husband and wife.
Kristina Antoniades was travelling from Brisbane to Melbourne with her partner Merrin Hicks and their daughter Lilly, and decided to book their seats alongside each other the previous evening on the Qantas website.
While the family were waiting to board the flight, Merrin’s name was called over the intercom.
In a post outlining the events, Kristina wrote:
“Merrin was advised that Qantas had made the decision to move her seat to another row so that a married couple could be seated together. They did not acknowledge that we were a family and wanted to sit together.
“I argued the point that they should not take priority over our family being seated together.”
In a post, which has now gone viral, Kristina says that although they were eventually reissued with the boarding passes for the seats they had originally selected, they were later approached by an air steward who again requested they moved seats:
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A spokesman for Qantas told the Herald Sun that staff had contacted the passengers to explain there were two requests to be seated next to each other:
“We completely understand that it can be frustrating to be asked to change seats when you have already chosen where to sit.
“In this case, Kristina, her partner and their daughter travelled in the seats originally assigned to them while the other couple were sat separately.”
Speaking about her experience and lack of support from the airline staff, Kristina told media:
“I have never experienced such blatant discrimination.’’
