UP4014
Senior Member
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- Jul 22, 2008
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Today's SMH, I wish they (QF) hadn't reinstated him and it seems he doesn't like QF anyway.
Few clubs in Australia are quite as exclusive or shrouded in mystique as Qantas’ invite-only Chairman’s Lounge.
While the airline cultivates this by keeping schtum about who gets in, the lounge tends to be populated by federal MPs, corporate heavies and celebrities.
Losing access is therefore such a stinging symbol of one’s decline in status that even those with strong opinions about the embattled carrier and its unpopular departing boss Alan Joyce aren’t keen to leave.
Alan Joyce and Alan Jones.CREDIT:JOHN SHAKESPEARE
This week, Alan Jones was informed via email that he’d lost lounge access following one of the airline’s reviews, a brutal reflection of the radio veteran’s fall from king of Sydney’s airwaves to an old man yelling at a webcam for his online-only ADH TV.
“When a member ceases to remain in a role for which Chairman’s Lounge membership was provided or a current commercial arrangement with Qantas is not in place, membership is reassessed against our criteria,” it said.
Qantas declined to comment on the criteria, but given Jones has been a member since 1985, and retained his access through the whole Cronulla Riots situation, we reckon it’s fascinating to turf him out simply for getting older and less relevant.
Clearly, Jones’ bark still worries Qantas because on Thursday, right after CBD started making enquiries, Joyce personally called the other Alan to explain that it was all a sorry mistake, and his access had been reinstated.
That can’t have been a comfortable call for the Qantas boss. We hear the shock-jock has been giving Qantas a wide berth since Joyce took the reins in 2008. And if Jones’ recent description of the Irishman as “your typical woke corporate puritan” is anything to go by, those feelings haven’t gotten any softer.
Few clubs in Australia are quite as exclusive or shrouded in mystique as Qantas’ invite-only Chairman’s Lounge.
While the airline cultivates this by keeping schtum about who gets in, the lounge tends to be populated by federal MPs, corporate heavies and celebrities.
Losing access is therefore such a stinging symbol of one’s decline in status that even those with strong opinions about the embattled carrier and its unpopular departing boss Alan Joyce aren’t keen to leave.
Alan Joyce and Alan Jones.CREDIT:JOHN SHAKESPEARE
This week, Alan Jones was informed via email that he’d lost lounge access following one of the airline’s reviews, a brutal reflection of the radio veteran’s fall from king of Sydney’s airwaves to an old man yelling at a webcam for his online-only ADH TV.
“When a member ceases to remain in a role for which Chairman’s Lounge membership was provided or a current commercial arrangement with Qantas is not in place, membership is reassessed against our criteria,” it said.
Qantas declined to comment on the criteria, but given Jones has been a member since 1985, and retained his access through the whole Cronulla Riots situation, we reckon it’s fascinating to turf him out simply for getting older and less relevant.
Clearly, Jones’ bark still worries Qantas because on Thursday, right after CBD started making enquiries, Joyce personally called the other Alan to explain that it was all a sorry mistake, and his access had been reinstated.
That can’t have been a comfortable call for the Qantas boss. We hear the shock-jock has been giving Qantas a wide berth since Joyce took the reins in 2008. And if Jones’ recent description of the Irishman as “your typical woke corporate puritan” is anything to go by, those feelings haven’t gotten any softer.
