{"id":892025,"date":"2026-09-14T19:46:21","date_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:46:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892025\/"},"modified":"2026-09-14T19:46:21","modified_gmt":"2026-09-14T19:46:21","slug":"transport-minister-catherine-king-accepts-free-lifetime-membership-to-qantas-platinum-tier","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/892025\/","title":{"rendered":"Transport minister Catherine King accepts free lifetime membership to Qantas platinum tier"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Nick<\/p>\n

September 14, 2026 \u2014 7:50pm<\/p>\n

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Transport Minister Catherine King has accepted a lifetime membership to Qantas\u2019 platinum frequent flyer rewards tier less than two years after MPs ceremonially handed over their membership to the airline\u2019s VIP lounge following public backlash.<\/p>\n

The minister, whose responsibilities include aviation and the courting of airlines to make use of the new Western Sydney International Airport, quietly updated her register of interests on Monday to reflect the gift she received from the airline.<\/p>\n

\"CatherineCatherine King at the opening of Western Sydney airport in July.Wolter Peeters<\/p>\n

The airline\u2019s second-highest tier, behind platinum one, offers free access to first and business class lounges across the globe, additional baggage allowance, priority check-in, boarding and baggage access. It also offers priority upgrades and seat selection.<\/p>\n

A Qantas frequent flyer would need to accrue 1400 status credits in a year to qualify for the platinum tier. A discount economy ticket between Sydney and Melbourne garners 10 points, meaning a traveller would need to fly between the capitals 140 times to reach the tier.<\/p>\n

A lifetime membership to the tier requires 75,000 status credits, or 7500 Sydney to Melbourne flights.<\/p>\n

In November 2024, a raft of federal MPs including Community Strong Australia representative Allegra Spender quit the VIP lounges of Qantas and Virgin after a furore over flight upgrades and special treatment for politicians.<\/p>\n

Related Article\"Immigration<\/a><\/p>\n

The saga began after the publication of an extract of The Chairman\u2019s Lounge by journalist Joe Aston, published in Good Weekend<\/a>, claimed that Prime Minister Anthony Albanese had received at least 22 free Qantas upgrades over the past decade, and that he had liaised directly with former Qantas chief Alan Joyce over upgrades.<\/p>\n

Albanese admitted at the time that he spoke to Joyce about two non-commercial trips with Qantas but said these had also included Liberal ministers and media companies. He said he did not ever ask Joyce<\/a> for an upgrade and his office said this denial meant there were no calls, texts, emails or other communications with the former Qantas boss.<\/p>\n

In 2023, King was thrown into the spotlight for denying a Qatar Airways bid to double their flights into Australia, a move that many in the industry said would have lowered ballooning travel costs for Australians.<\/p>\n

The minister updated her register of interests with the alteration added under the title \u201cgifts\u201d. The membership came with a travel wallet and bag tag.<\/p>\n

King misspelled the tier\u2019s name in her declaration, writing that she was a member of the \u201cPlatnium\u201d tier.<\/p>\n

King\u2019s office was contacted for comment. A spokeswoman for King told the Australian Financial Review \u2013 who first reported the gift \u2013 that the minister received the status by virtue of the extent to which she has travelled with the airline.<\/p>\n

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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\"NickNick Newling<\/a> is a federal politics reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.Connect via X<\/a> or email<\/a>.From our partners<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"September 14, 2026 \u2014 7:50pm Save You have reached your maximum number of saved items. Remove items from…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":892026,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99],"class_list":["post-892025","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\/892025","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=892025"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/892025\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/892026"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=892025"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=892025"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=892025"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}