Not Everyone Is Impressed With Virgin's Plans To Honour Military Veterans On Aussie Flights

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Not everyone is impressed with Virgin Airline's new plans to honour military veterans with priority boarding and discounts.

The airline announced they would be taking a leaf out of US airlines and honour defence force veterans on its flights before take-off. It also plans to offer priority boarding but has stopped short of offering discount fares.

However Pauline Hanson has labelled it as an "embarrassing" marketing ploy.

The One Nation leader said ex-service men and women had no desire to enter planes ahead of other passengers, including the aged and feeble.

"I think this is a marketing ploy by Virgin, good luck to them if they want to use it as a PR exercise," Senator Hanson told the Seven Network on Monday.

"I wish they would concentrate on some of these airports to get your luggage out first and make sure you don't get your luggage lost. I think it's more important to people to do that."

Qantas also, disagrees, defending it's decision not to follow Virgin's lead.

"We're conscious that we carry a lot of exceptional people every day, including veterans, police, paramedics, nurses, firefighters and others," the airline said.

"And so we find it difficult to single out a particular group as part of the boarding process."

Independent Senator Derryn Hinch agrees, saying Australia is less "outgoing" than America in saluting its former soldiers.

"A lot of veterans would be a bit uncomfortable drawing attention to themselves," Senator Hinch said.

However Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Defence Industry Minister Steve Ciobo praised Virgin's proposal.

However, Veterans' Affairs Minister Darren Chester acknowledged some veterans would be uneasy about the extra attention.

"Australians, by nature, tend to keep their light under a bushel. Some would be happy to get on the plane without anyone knowing they are there," he told the ABC.

4 November 2018




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