The Australian Financial Review may be out, but it appears Alan Jones is back in.
The long-time broadcaster has had his membership to the invite-only Qantas Chairman’s Lounge reinstated.
The Chairman’s Lounge is a bit like the Order of Merit. It’s so exclusive you usually only lose your membership when you die.
But, Jones reportedly received an email earlier this week informing him his membership had ended following a review by the airline.
The businessman now presents his own online talk show called ADH TV.
Visiting the show’s website, the most interesting part of the experience was discovering the show’s theme song is “Gloria.”
Perhaps the connection between Jones and this song is this line in its chorus:
“If everybody wants you, why isn’t anybody callin’?”
Following calls from the media to confirm Jones had been turfed out of the VIP club, his membership was apparently reinstated by outgoing Qantas CEO Alan Joyce.
Joyce’s act was one with levels of privilege not seen since Boris Johnson nominated his father for a knighthood as part of his resignation honours.
Jones first became a member of the Chairman’s Lounge in 1985, the same year the airline celebrated 50 years of international operations.
A lot has happened since then.
In 1995, the airline became publicly listed.
2004 brought the launch of Jetstar.
Its first Airbus A380 arrived in 2008.
2010 saw ‘that’ QF32 incident near Singapore.
The Boeing 787 Dreamliner took to the skies for the airline in 2013.
And, at some point during that time use of the name “Chairman’s Lounge” became outdated and inappropriate.
While one of Joyce’s last actions as CEO was to get Alan Jones back into the man’s lounge, perhaps one of incoming boss Vanessa Hudson’s first will be scrapping its name altogether.
This is an opinion piece from the editor of Travel Weekly.
