Serah Nathan claims staff asked her to stop sitting on her boyfriend's lap. Photo / Facebook
Serah Nathan claims staff asked her to stop sitting on her boyfriend's lap. Photo / Facebook
A Melbourne woman has slammed Australian budget airline Jetstar, claiming she was a victim of "sl*ut-shaming" while waiting to board a flight at Sydney airport.
Serah Nathan, 33, who was flying home to Melbourne with rival airline Tigerair, alleges she was waiting to board her flight at 3.20pm on Sunday, November 3 when the "strange" altercation occurred at a Jetstar designated gate at the airport.
Nathan, who had been visiting her boyfriend with whom she has a long-distance relationship, claims she was sitting on her partner's lap when approached by ground staff.
"I sat on his knees and we just talked about mundane nothingness for a couple of minutes," Nathan told news.com.au, adding the pair weren't going to see each other again until Christmas.
"A uniformed Jetstar representative … sidled up and instructed me to 'sit on a separate seat because there were children watching.
"My partner and I saw no children in the immediate vicinity and were bewildered at both this request and it's relevance to how I was seated."
Within a minute, Nathan said the airline ground staff representative returned accompanied by a "Team Leader" who relayed the same instruction for Nathan to sit next to her partner rather than on his knee.
Serah took a photo of what she was wearing at the airport.
"I calmly asked her to clarify why I couldn't converse with my partner while sitting on his knees," Nathan, a writer, said.
"She reiterated there were children around and added, 'you're disrespecting the parents here by straddling your boyfriend'."
"I wasn't treating a domestic airport terminal like a strip club."
Nathan, who is half Sri Lankan, claims she felt "sl*t-shamed" and believes she was targeted because of her nationality.
"(The Jetstar employee) alleged my full-length trackies, runners and crop top combo might get me refused on a flight," Nathan said.
"I noted the caucasian woman sitting opposite me wore a very short strapless dress but was left to her own devices.
"It seemed to me that Team Leader was in the mood to bully a woman of colour who looks a lot younger than my 33 years of age, and is therefore an easy target."
Jetstar, however, has denied that any such discriminatory behaviour was conducted by the airline staff.
"We don't tolerate discrimination in any form and our teams dispute allegations they were acting in this way," a Jetstar spokesperson said.
Nathan, who says she was "shocked, humiliated and enraged" by the ordeal, said the behaviour didn't stop once she boarded the Tigerair flight home.
Upon returning to Melbourne, she contacted the Jetstar Customer Service team via their live-chat service, providing them with an account of what had occurred in Sydney and an image of her airport outfit.
The exchange Nathan had with a Jetstar Customer Service representative (blue text) through the airline's chat portal.
"There were some very odd responses from their online complaints handling team, which only added salt to the wound," she explained, questioning the online chat system whether her outfit was considered "inappropriate" to fly.
"I have checked the photo and I think you are very beautiful, your boyfriend must be very lucky to have you," the alleged response from Jetstar read.
After additional investigation, the customer support agent said that they too didn't think it was "appropriate" for Nathan to be sitting on her boyfriend's knee and that the ground staff were only trying to protect other passengers seated in a public place.
"I can understand that you were not engaging in sexual activity, but then again I believe that this kind of body language must be done in a private place," the response read.
A spokesperson from Jetstar said an investigation into the incident is continuing.
"We are speaking to our airport team to better understand what happened," a Jetstar spokesperson said in a statement to news.com.au.
"We apologise to Serah for the manner in which her query was handled by our online customer service representative which fell well short of the standards we expect."
