The Australian airline issued an apology on Twitter saying that they have passed her feedback to the relevant team.
“We’re sorry to hear that you have had a negative experience with us today, Shilpa. We have passed your feedback on to the relevant team and we hope that you have a great experience with us onboard! Khalid.” A representative of Qantas Airways wrote on their Twitter.
We're sorry to hear that you have had a negative experience with us today Shilpa. We have passed your feedback on to the relevant team and we hope that you have a great experience with us onboard! Khalid
— Qantas (@Qantas) September 23, 2018
Before that, the Baazigar actress Shilpa Shetty accused Australian airline of racism. The 43 year old actress took to Instagram and alleged that she had to face racism at the Sydney airport because she was brown. She added that she was treated in a very inhuman manner and she had to go through a lot of hassle just to talk her bag with her.
“At the check-in counter, met a grumpy Mel (that’s her name) who decided it was ‘okay’ 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.’” She wrote.
Her anger didn’t end here. She continued “There a polite lady (yes this one was) said, “This is not an oversized bag, please check this in manually if you can at another counter (all this happening while the counter is going to shut in five minutes).
“As the manual check-in wasn’t going through for five minutes (we tried), I went upto Mel and requested her to put the bag through as her colleague said it wasn’t as 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 bagger 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 and reiterated my duffle wasn’t oversized and could’ve easily been checked in.”
She ended the note saying that her intention is just to make Qantas Airways look into the matter.
“Their staff must be taught to be helpful and tone can’t change with the preference to color. We are not pushovers and they must know being callous and rude will not be tolerated.” She wrote.
She also posted a photo of herself with her bag and wrote “Whether it is oversized or not.”
This is not the first time that the actress had to face racism. In 2007 she had to deal with Racism when she was a contestant on the fifth season of British reality show Celebrity Big Brother, which she later went on to win.