{"id":828037,"date":"2026-07-28T01:01:15","date_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828037\/"},"modified":"2026-07-28T01:01:15","modified_gmt":"2026-07-28T01:01:15","slug":"so-how-do-you-get-access-to-the-qantas-chairmans-lounge-alan-joyce-has-some-tips-qantas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/828037\/","title":{"rendered":"So how do you get access to the Qantas chairman\u2019s lounge? Alan Joyce has some tips | Qantas"},"content":{"rendered":"

Judges, politicians, newspaper editors and big spenders: Alan Joyce, the former Qantas chief executive, has revealed how the airline admits members to its private chairman\u2019s lounge<\/a>.<\/p>\n

In his memoir, released on Tuesday, Joyce denies using the lounge as a tool to influence politicians and claims famous Australians \u201cbegged\u201d to be granted access to \u201carguably the most exclusive club in the country\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Irish-born Joyce was one of the airline\u2019s longest-serving heads, leading the company from 2008 until his resignation in 2023.<\/p>\n

He has previously described the lounge as a \u201ccommercial arrangement\u201d but the comments in his memoir, Riding the Jet Stream, provide his most expansive explanation of how access to the luxury private zone in Australia\u2019s major airports operates.<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Joyce writes that neither he nor the Qantas<\/a> chair personally handled invitations to the lounge and had only occasional input.<\/p>\n

Membership of the \u201cinvitation-only\u201d club was approved by a small group of senior executives, he says.<\/p>\n

The \u201ccore\u201d membership included \u201cfederal politicians, most state politicians, high court and federal judges, editors of national newspapers, a few journalists, and high-profile celebrities\u201d.<\/p>\n

Companies that spent about $1m each year on Qantas flights \u201clikely\u201d received one lounge membership each, which could be rotated between executives, Joyce writes.<\/p>\n

In 2023 the company told a Senate inquiry it also extended invitations<\/a> to secretaries and deputy secretaries of federal departments, agency chairs, chief executives and commissioners.<\/p>\n

Qantas has been contacted for comment.<\/p>\n

\u2018You cannot buy your way in\u2019<\/p>\n

In his book, Joyce writes that the company once had to rescind memberships after numbers grew \u201cout of control\u201d, due to \u201cinconsistent oversight\u201d, though he does not specify when that occurred.<\/p>\n

Qantas also maintained control of membership by requiring \u201chigh standards of conduct\u201d, he writes. Joyce gives the example of Jacqui Lambie, who was banned<\/a> from the airline for six months after a \u201crant\u201d in the Melbourne chairman\u2019s lounge, for which she apologised.<\/p>\n

Membership feels \u201celite\u201d and discreet due to the exclusivity, rather than the perks, Joyce writes.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou cannot buy your way in, and no amount of frequent-flyer points will get you a spot,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n

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Free, on-demand fine food and alcohol and comfortable facilities are available at the private lounges. Membership also gives customers free seat selection and priority for customer service, airport check-in and security, baggage handling and upgrade requests, according to the Qantas website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A number of politicians have handed back their membership<\/a> of the lounge in recent years.<\/p>\n

In his memoir, Joyce denies claims that Qantas exercised influence through lounge membership, describing it as \u201cthe wildest assertion\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf that were true, Qantas would never have lost a case in the High Court or Federal Court \u2013 yet we did,\u201d Joyce writes.<\/p>\n

He writes that the lounge was a relationship tool, not a lever of control.<\/p>\n

The memoir also contains Joyce\u2019s first public comments on claims he acceded to Anthony Albanese\u2019s requests for free upgrades on Qantas flights<\/a>, which the prime minister denied<\/a> in 2024.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have no recollection of ever receiving a call from the Prime Minister or his staff requesting an upgrade,\u201d Joyce writes.<\/p>\n

Joyce says his standard practice for such requests, which \u201cpoliticians from all major parties\u201d had made, would have been to tell his personal assistant to arrange the upgrade.<\/p>\n

But Joyce says he never asked his assistant nor was there any record of him authorising such an upgrade for Albanese.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s bunkum, but nothing grabs a voter\u2019s attention quite like suggesting a pollie has their nose in the proverbial trough,\u201d he writes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Judges, politicians, newspaper editors and big spenders: Alan Joyce, the former Qantas chief executive, has revealed how the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":828038,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-828037","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828037","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=828037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/828037\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/828038"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=828037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=828037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=828037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}