Military veterans in Australia turned down Virgin Australia’s offer for priority boarding.

“It’s a very American thing to do. We’re not quite as loud or noisy as that,” said Mike Carlton, the author of several books about Australia’s military history, according to The New York Times. “Australians are a little more subtle.”

“It’s just not in our nature to do stuff like that. Almost any veteran I can think of would be hideously embarrassed by being singled out like that,” Mr. Carlton added. “I’ve interviewed a lot of them for my books: World War II vets, vets from the Burma-Siam railway. They would hate the notoriety of being singled out like that.”

More backlash came from Neil James, head, Australian Defence Association, who called the recognition “tokenistic.”

“The first problem is that there’s other forms of service to the community like policemen and ambos, and so would you actually start a queue of such announcements? That’s a real worry,” James told ABC Radio Melbourne. He also said it can be mentally taxing for military vets to be singled out.

“There’s a fine line between embarrassing them and thanking them and, in some cases, where they’re suffering a psychological illness, effusively thanking them in public might not necessarily help them,” he said.

The pushback led national carrier Qantas to end its priority seating for veterans.

“We’re conscious that we carry a lot of exceptional people every day, including veterans, police, paramedics, nurses, firefighters and others and so we find it difficult to single out a particular group as part of the boarding process,” Qantas said in a statement.

Virgin Australia also changed its tune.

“If this process determines that public acknowledgment of their service through optional priority boarding or any announcement is not appropriate, then we will certainly be respectful of that,” the airline said on Twitter.