Shilpa Shetty slams Qantas airline ground staff for rude behaviour

Actress Shilpa Shetty has slammed a Qantas airline ground staff for rude behaviour at the Sydney Airport. Shetty narrated her ordeal through an Instagram posted wherein she hit out against the 'rude' official at the airline's check-in counter.

Shetty was travelling from Sydney to Melbourne, when an official named Mel, refused to check-in her Duffle bag. The actress has also suggested that she was thus treated because of the colour of her skin.

“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' [sic],” the actress wrote.

With barely five minutes remaining for the counter to shut, Shetty went up to Mel again who allegedly refused to listen.

“I went up to #Mel and requested her to put the bag through 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 inconveniences.. 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 a reiterated my Duffel wasn’t oversized and could’ve easily been checked in [sic],” Shetty further wrote.

Not pleased by the alleged rude behaviour, Shetty wanted to bring the incident to the notice of the airline and also hint at racial discrimination.

“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 [sic],” Shetty clarified.

Efforts to contact Qantas airline has yielded no response. 

This is not the first time Shetty has had to face allegedly racist behaviour from a foreigner. She was a contestant on the Celebrity Big Brother 5 (UK) in 2007, when her co-contestants Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo O’meara had passed racist comments against her. After her stint at the television reality show in UK, Shetty returned to host the show's Indian version, Bigg Boss 2.