Anthony Albanese’s new secret Qantas perk revealed

It’s the secret Chairman’s Lounge perk that not even all members of the invitation-only club enjoy and now Qantas insiders have lifted the lid on how it helped the Prime Minister get freebie upgrades.

While humble mortals need to use their frequent flyer points to upgrade their flights, current and former Qantas insiders have revealed that’s not the case with favoured politicians.

Qantas executives call it “reputational management”. Another word might be soft diplomacy because it’s clear Qantas didn’t dish out the flying favours to everyone.

It’s also provided a neat “fix” after former Labor Finance Minister Lindsay Tanner abolished the accrual of Qantas frequent flyer points for politicians for taxpayer-funded flights in 2009.

Qantas decided to simply offer upgrades to favoured politicians for free. And that’s how Anthony Albanese lived the high life when travelling overseas ever since.

And under the current disclosure arrangements, that doesn’t break any rules because he simply declared the upgrade without having to say how much it is worth.

On some estimates, the flight upgrades are estimated to amount to a six-figure sum over the course of his career.

It’s also worth remembering that all MPs and ministers are authorised to fly business class domestically. So, when you see a politicians has received an upgrade for international travel unless it’s for first class on a work trip, it’s generally an upgrade freebie for a private holiday.

VIPs offered flight upgrades without using frequent flyer points

The special deal was offered to politicians and key stakeholders. In other words, anyone that Qantas thought was important enough to enjoy freebie upgrades that on some international flights could be worth $10,000 if you actually paid for the upgrade.

There were two ways that it worked. First, according to senior Qantas staff, if you are a Platinum One or Chairman’s Club member when you made an economy booking you were often automatically put on a waitlist for an upgrade.

How it worked for international flights was as follows. When then-Transport Minister Anthony Albanese booked a private holiday he was red-flagged on the system and offered an upgrade.

“So there’s no request. There would be times when someone on the Chairman’s team would say, ‘I’ve got a VIP, let’s get them an upgrade’,” a Qantas insider explained.

“Or there are times when we spot someone important flying and someone says ‘Let’s give them a good experience’.”

Prime Minister ‘good mates’ with Qantas CEO and government relations boss Andrew Parker

This is where someone like former Qantas government relations executive Andrew Parker was likely to step in. As a direct report to Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, he was authorised to grant space available upgrades allowing MPs to move from an economy flight to business.

A guaranteed flight upgrade could only be granted by Mr Joyce and he hasn’t revealed if he was in the habit of doing that for Mr Albanese and his family when they knew he was flying.

“But the idea of someone calling up the CEO directly and asking for an upgrade, that isn’t happening,” a Qantas insider said.

Instead, the reality was far more subtle.

As the Transport Minister, Mr Albanese would have understood how the system worked.

If he booked an economy flight overseas he would likely be granted an upgrade. This is a lesson he learned as far back as 20 years ago.

How the Chairman’s Lounge hotline works

Former Labor staffers have told news.com.au that it was not uncommon to secure flight upgrades from Qantas for MPs by calling someone in Qantas’ “government relations” division.

“Generally how it works is you book economy and then you call up Alan Joyce or (Qantas) government relations and they then process what is a space available upgrade,” a former staffer said.

Other Labor staffers suggested there was a designated line for Chairman’s Lounge members where Qantas would bend over backwards to deliver magical upgrade outcomes.

In Joe Aston’s book he also refers to the “space available” upgrades.

“While other Qantas executives could authorise ‘space available’ upgrades in flight bookings, meaning an upgrade would occur only if there was an empty business or first class seat after check-in had closed, only Joyce could issue ‘confirmed’ or guaranteed upgrades, the kind that Albanese was treated to,” he writes.

“None of this made Albanese Robinson Crusoe in the parliament – far from it – but neither did that make it right.

“In all of these cases, Albanese was either transport minister or shadow transport minister, so he was accepting gifts cumulatively worth tens of thousands of dollars from one of the largest and most important stakeholders in his area of policy responsibility, creating at the very least a perceived conflict of interest regarding the independence of his decision-making. Yet nobody batted an eyelid.

“That was the most disturbing part – that it was utterly common practice in Australian politics.”

Former Qantas executive David Epstein works in Anthony Albanese’s office

During these years he also enjoyed a close working relationship with Qantas’ former communications supremo David Epstein who had worked for Kevin Rudd and government relations executive Andrew Parker, who was well-known for organising flight upgrades for politicians and their staff.

Indeed, at least one former Labor staffer has told news.com.au that when staff wanted to upgrade they could call Mr Albanese’s office when he was Transport minister and it would be sorted out for the right person.

PM fights back over Qantas mess

Mr Albanese has broken his silence on the Qantas upgrade mess revealing an audit of his travel has confirmed he never directly called Mr Joyce about upgrades for personal travel.

The Prime Minister is unequivocally denying for the first time that he ever personally liaised with Mr Joyce directly on the subject of upgrades for family holidays.

“The Prime Minister did not ever call Alan Joyce seeking an upgrade,” a spokesperson told news.com.au.

“All travel has been appropriately declared and is a matter of public record.”

The new account directly contradicts an account in a new book The Chairman’s Lounge by Joe Aston, that asserts “Albanese would liaise with Joyce directly about his personal travel”.

Government sources said it had taken two days to issue the firm denial to allow staff to go back and check the records as far back as 20 years ago.

Albo and the ‘unholy cabin’

The splitting of hairs over who asked who for an upgrade follows the publication Aston’s book.

On page 230 of the book, Aston writes: “According to Qantas insiders, Albanese would liaise directly with Alan Joyce about his personal travel.”

He claims the PM scored 22 flight upgrades including for personal holidays to Europe and Hawaii.

“It would be a safe presumption that (Albanese) paid for an economy ticket in the full knowledge he would never have to set foot in that unholy cabin,” Aston writes.

But the Prime Minister is pushing back over the suggestion he personally lobbied Mr Joyce, insisting as he told reporters on Tuesday, he only recalls direct conversations with Mr Joyce over two flights that were declared.

PM’s trainwreck press conference

During a trainwreck press conference, Mr Albanese tried to get the story out on Tuesday but ended up leaving some voters even more confused.

“I have said very clearly that I recall direct discussions with Alan Joyce over the flights – the Emirates flight to Dubai and, of course, the first flight to Perth,” he said.

“Of the 22 flights, 10 of them were during the leadership ballot between myself and Bill Shorten in 2013 over a one month period where both Qantas and Virgin provided upgrades for flights that were paid for by the Australian Labor Party to make sure that there wasn’t any cost to taxpayers for what was internal business.

“Every other flight I paid for. Every other flight. These were two non-commercial flights that were declared in which transport ministers and shadow ministers travelled as well. It’s as simple as that.”

Asked directly on Tuesday whether or not he “ever called Alan Joyce directly for these upgrades?” Mr Albanese skirted around the question.

“Well you can’t just – there’s no accusation being made with any specifics at all about any of this. None. None,” he said.

“I’m asking a specific question,” the reporter replied.

Peter Dutton on the warpath

Peter Dutton has ratcheted up the pressure over the Prime Minister’s Qantas upgrade drama urging him to refer himself to the national anti-corruption watchdog.

The Liberal leader urged Mr Albanese to “get his story straight” after he repeatedly refused to go into detail over whether he had personally requested flight upgrades for private holidays.

“I think the Prime Minister should take the initiative to refer this matter to the integrity commission because I think there are many questions about Mr Albanese’s credibility and his integrity in relation to the Qatar (Airways) decision,” Mr Dutton said.

“Mr Albanese needs to be honest. He can blame other people but this is a problem of his own making.

“He’s not coherent. His story keeps changing. Australians are now starting to question the integrity and the truthfulness of their Prime Minister.”

This all came after Mr Albanese suffered a spectacular memory failure telling reporters he hadn’t declared “any flights with billionaires” like Mr Dutton, despite hitching a ride with billionaire Lindsay Fox in his private helicopter.

PM’s memory fail

Speaking in Newcastle, Mr Albanese threw shade at Mr Dutton for accepting flights with mining magnate Gina Rinehart.

“I’ve been completely transparent about this,” he said.

“Just as Peter Dutton declared his flights, or some of his flights, there is a difference between both of us.

“My flights were commercial with Qantas or Virgin or Emirates, they were all declared in the appropriate way. I didn’t have to declare any flights on private jets owned by billionaires like Gina Rinehart, because I haven’t engaged in it, as simple as that.”

But Mr Albanese appears to have forgotten a helicopter trip he took in 2023 with Victorian premier Dan Andrews.

The meeting between two of Australia’s most powerful politicians and one of the country’s wealthiest families was quietly held on Saturday afternoon after Albanese finished his official business in Victoria.