Lesbian Couple Claims “Awful Discrimination” Over Seating on Qantas Flight
Jeff Edwards November 10, 2015
A couple traveling with their young child says they were left humiliated after Qantas employees repeatedly insisted that their family sit apart from each other to accommodate a heterosexual couple.
When Kristina Antoniades booked business class tickets for her family on Qantas Airways, she took special care to make sure that her partner, Merrin Hicks, and the couple’s young daughter, Lily, were seated with her. Antoniades says she even checked-in online early the previous day to ensure her family would have seats next to each other, but while the couple and their daughter were waiting for the flight from Brisbane Airport (BNE) to Melbourne Airport (MEL), a gate agent informed the couple traveling with the toddler that the seating assignments had been changed and they would be separated on the flight in favor of allowing a married couple to sit together instead.
According to Antoniades, after some back and forth and the same-sex couple’s firm insistence that they were as much a family as the heterosexual couple, the gate agent relented and restored the original seat assignments. It’s possible that this is where the story would have ended and perhaps Antoniades might have chalked the whole incident up to a misunderstanding, but what happened next caused her to take to social media in a Facebook post detailing her ordeal that is now making headlines across Australia.
The family says that after taking their seats on the plane, it became clear that the flight attendant did not agree with the gate agent’s decision and clearly placed a greater value on the heterosexual couple’s relationship than she did with the less traditional family. Antoniades says the flight attendant demanded to see her family’s boarding passes and then asked her why the family of three took it upon themselves to separate the married couple.
“I told her we had just as much right to be seated together as the married couple,” Antoniades wrote in her Facebook post. “She simply walked away.”
“We completely understand that it can be frustrating to be asked to change seats when you have already chosen where to sit,” an airline spokesperson told the Herald Sun. “In this case, Kristina, her partner and their daughter travelled in the seats originally assigned to them while the other couple were sat separately.”
The spokesperson said the airline has reached out to apologize for the “misunderstanding” and offered an unspecified amount of air miles as a good will gesture.
[Photo: Facebook]
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Good points, @BJM. I might add that under Australian law it's not possible for a lesbian couple to marry (or a gay male couple either), but in any case I don't know what the protocol for a same-sex couple is in regard to changing names when they wed. You are 100% about platypus, they have poisonous spurs on their legs and I certainly wouldn't get into an argument with one :) While we all love a good conspiracy theory, I suspect that Katrina and Merrin took their facebook post down because they were sick of the attention and just want to get on with their lives. They're Australians and while we won't let anybody walk all over us we're not a litigious society so I guess they're letting things go. If you travel with friends, of course you are related. I have a relationship with all my friends, my colleagues etc. It's not up to an airline employee, or some random poster on the internet, to judge that my relationship with someone on the same PNR is more or less important than someone else's. If three of us are traveling together and are seated in 2A, 2C and 2D I'm going to kick off if someone at Qantas decides that 2D should be moved to 3D at someone else's whim just because a couple with the same surname feel more entitled.
Yes, same PNR means you are RELATED. Not that you are necessarily married. Why does a marriage trump a non married relationship? What makes marriage more deserving or afford more priority to an unmarried couple wanting to sit together? Can you imagine QANTAS asking two Tasmanian devils to split up because two kaolas wanted to sit together? Passengers are passengers regardless of who they are and all deserve to be treated with the same respect. Except if you are a platypus. Then you should be able to sit where ever you want.
Then you are one of those people who have to re-read more than once. You asked how Qantas knew the hetero couple was married and not just friends. I suggested they may have the same name. This does not mean Qantas thinks that all the people with the same name on the same reservation are married. As the fact of 'being related' because on the same reservation, then every time I travel with friends or work colleagues on the same reservation are we supposed to be 'related' ? The FA might have asked why they were so keen on separating the married couple because Merrin was already separated from her party and chose to keep her seat, with minimal proximity to the others, rather than let the married couple seat in close proximity to each other. Also, I suspect, Merrin's reply might have been rather curt, given the previous experience at the gate. Finally, reading the replies to this thread, even you are able to understand why Qantas swiftly tried to appease the women. Looks like they succeeded since their fb post is gone. That, or they are mulling some more serious complaint.
@ thesaints: you brought up the thing about the same names, and then proceeded to ask what it had to do with anything. I certainly read what you wrote, but your points are becoming more confused and contradictory with each post. She wasn't "simply asked", it's clear that she was being pressured: " (the crew member) asked her why the family of three took it upon themselves to separate the married couple." That's not "simply asking", that's applying pressure. I've certainly never asked to get a better seat at someone else's expense. And no, I've never actually asked at the gate, and since it's been years since I've ever taken anything but an aisle seat I've never felt the need to. Unlike the married couple I won't take it for granted that people will bow down to some selfish need I might have. Neither you nor I were there, so we can only depend on the story as reported. The fact that Qantas apologised and awarded frequent flyer points shows that they are admitting that their staff acted improperly. Qantas does not throw its points around likely, believe me.
"QANTAS has no way to know they are realated, since child has the same name of wonan #1 and woman #2 has a different name and reservations do not contain yet a record field for love. " Of course they do. If the three people are in the same PNR they are related. By the way, the Amades format for Love Status is: LSxx-n/n Where xx equals JS - Just Friends FB - Friends with benefits EG - Engaged MC - Married couple OC - Old Married Couple MS - multi spouse arrangement FM - Family Members Followed by a dash and then the element number of each of the related passengers, separated my a slash.