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Shilpa Shetty says Australian airline staff was racist towards her but not everyone agrees

"I don’t see anything related to racism or even discrimination on the basis of color," replied one Insta user

24 Sep, 2018

Shilpa Shetty was recently travelling from Sydney to Melbourne and claims that Australian airline Qantas treated her poorly due to her skin colour.

She posted about the incident on Instagram and tagged the airline in hopes of receiving a response.

"Travelling from Sydney to Melbourne and at the check-in counter met a grumpy #Mel (that’s her name) who decided it was “OK” to speak curtly to “US” ( Brown people!!) travelling together," she wrote.

"I was flying business and had two bags (my allowance) and she insisted and decided my half empty duffel bag was oversized (to check in!!) So she sent us to check it in at the other counter dealing with “Oversized luggage” ...there a Polite lady (yes this one was) said... “this ISN’T an oversized bag, pls check this in manually if u can at another counter” (all this happening while the counter is going to shut in 5 mins)."

View this post on Instagram

Subject: #Qantas airways @qantas This should get your attention! Travelling from Sydney to Melbourne and at the check in counter met a grumpy #Mel ( that’s her name)who decided it was “OK” to speak curtly to “US” ( Brown people!!) travelling together ,I was flying business and had 2 bags (my allowance)and she insisted and decided my half empty Duffel bag was oversized( to check in!!) So she sent us to check it in at the other counter dealing with “Oversized luggage” ..there a Polite lady(yes this one was) said ..”this ISN’T an oversized bag, pls check this in manually if u can at another counter” ( all this happening while the counter is going to shut in 5 mins) As the manual check in wasn’t going thru for 5 mins( we tried) I went upto #Mel and requested her to put the bag thru as her colleague said it wasn’t an oversized bag.. She refused again.. Just being adamant especially when I told her this is causing a lot of inconvenience .. We had no time to waste so we ran to the oversized baggage counter and requested her to put the bag through which she did after I told her that #Rude #Mel had issues !!!.... to which another colleague joined in an reiterated my duffle wasn’t oversized and could’ve easily been checked in. The point is .. This piece is only for #quantas airlines to know and take cognisance .. that their staff must be taught to be helpful and TONE can’t change with preference to #COLOUR .”WE” are NOT #pushovers and they MUST know that being #callous and #Rude will NOT BE TOLERATED 🙏✋🏼💔. Ps: Please tell me if that bag in the picture is oversized??!! @australia @visitmelbourne @travel #truthmustbetold #bemused #uncalledfor #standup #equality #whatswrongisnotright #instapic #travelwoes #shocking #nightmare #notcool

A post shared by Shilpa Shetty Kundra (@theshilpashetty) on Sep 22, 2018 at 6:37pm PDT

"As the manual check in wasn’t going thru for 5 mins (we tried) I went up to #Mel and requested her to put the bag thru as her colleague said it wasn’t an oversized bag... She refused again... Just being adamant especially when I told her this is causing a lot of inconvenience..."

She continued, "We had no time to waste so we ran to the oversized baggage counter and requested her to put the bag through which she did after I told her that #Rude #Mel had issues !!!... to which another colleague joined in an reiterated my duffle wasn’t oversized and could’ve easily been checked in."

"This piece is only for #quantas airlines to know and take cognisance .. that their staff must be taught to be helpful and [their] TONE can’t change with preference to #COLOUR .”WE” are NOT #pushovers and they MUST know that being #callous and #Rude will NOT BE TOLERATED."

The post doesn't explicitly explain why the actor feels that her mistreatment was due to her skin colour and Instagram users were quick to point that out.

Others agreed with Shilpa and said that the staff member should be penalised for her treatment towards a customer.

Comments

SIAK Sep 24, 2018 11:53am

Diva Alert!!

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NitinG Sep 24, 2018 12:16pm

Airline staff may be discourteous...but raising race card is stupidity of the highest order. I don't know how people can raise such allegations without enough substantiation.

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Dipanjali Sep 24, 2018 12:19pm

so called Celebs and their hunger to be in news... huff !!! move on

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Hyder Sep 24, 2018 12:24pm

Sir You are not in India where you can have your cake and eat it too. Grow up!!! Thanks

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Changez Khan Sep 24, 2018 12:31pm

I agree with Shilpa Shetty, the Australians are racist.

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syed s ahmed Sep 24, 2018 12:32pm

Can't read minds but the decision was their unhelpful behaviour, not colour biased.

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Ranjit Haripur Sep 24, 2018 02:49pm

Qantas staff have a reputation of being rude and unhelpful even on a good day.

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Sandy Sep 24, 2018 02:52pm

Shes just playing the skin colour game to get attention. There are rude people everywhere and indiams cannot complain against racism as ours is the worlds most racist country. Somebody should tell Shilpa that castesim is the worst form of racism and exists only in India. Dont play the victim. Stand up and fight like an equal.

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Hassan Sep 24, 2018 02:54pm

Definitely bad service but not racist.....

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Nasir A. Sep 24, 2018 04:30pm

That looks like a pretty big bag, full or not. I don't know of any airline that would pass that as carry on. Following and enforcing rules always causes an inconvenience. Nothing to do with rudeness or racism.

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Babu Sep 24, 2018 05:16pm

Mel should be punished.

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Mr.T Sep 24, 2018 05:30pm

It happen all the time with everyone, it's not shilpa only or indian only, mind it she is not the only one who have brown skin and is celebrity...

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Nasir Sep 24, 2018 10:34pm

Customer is always right (especially when paying business class rates)

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imran Sep 25, 2018 12:07am

Her bag really looks on the Big side.

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gp65 Sep 26, 2018 02:50am

@Nasir A. "That looks like a pretty big bag, full or not. I don't know of any airline that would pass that as carry on." Where did she say that she wanted to take it as a hand carry? She was trying to check it in. But the counterclerk said it was outsized and had to be checked in at a special counter for outsize luggage (presumably with associated fees). Anyway, even if Mel provided bad customer service, there is no reason to believe that it was racially based, unless she was polite to others but rude to Shilpa.

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sri1 Sep 26, 2018 07:18pm

@NitinG "Airline staff may be discourteous...but raising race card is stupidity of the highest order" Come on buddy, have you traveled in European or some western airlines? Shilpa did explicitly praise two of the Qantas staff for being courteous, non-racist and helpful - so one of the significant reasons for Mel to purposely be discourteous and condescending was racism - would she dare do that to a white Causasian, mostly not.. Indians are normally pretty agreeable and not too discourteous towards others. Anyway, Racism towards Indians is thankfully decreasing with our growing tourist heft and airline staff are being rapidly sensitized, but this has been the norm since decades.

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