Qantas have been accused of “blatant homophobia” after they asked a lesbian couple to separate during a flight in order for an elderly married couple to sit together. Kristina Antoniades (left) and her partner Merrin Hicks Kristina Antoniades and her partner, who were travelling from Brisbane to Melbourne with their daughter, say Qantas staff did not acknowledge that they “were a family” during boarding and asked that they separate. “We travelled Business Class and checked in online the day prior so that we were all seated together,” Antoniades wrote in a post on Facebook. Arguing that they should not have to be separated to accommodate the elderly couple, eventually the issue was resolved and her partner’s boarding pass was re-issued however Antoniades says that during the flight a Qantas staff member demanded to see the boarding pass and accused her partner of separating the elderly couple. says "I thought that would be the end of it but once the plane took off the flight manager asked why Merrin was seated next to the man and his wife seated behind them. "I again advised the flight manager that we were a family and wanted to be seated together. She asked me why I had taken it upon myself to move the wife away from her husband. I advised her that we were in our designated seats. "She demanded to see our boarding passes. We produced them and again she asked why we were not allowing the married couple to be seated together. "I again told her that Merrin was my partner and Lily our daughter. I told her we had just as much right to be seated together as the married couple.” Humiliated and in tears, she wrote that she had never experienced "such blatant discrimination” “It was a terrible experience and I am saddened that our daughter had to witness this,” she says. Qantas says they have contacted the couple to apologise for the understanding and it is understood the staff were working off an old passenger manifest, causing some confusion.
Credit: GayNZ.com Daily News staff
First published: Wednesday, 11th November 2015 - 1:49pm