Phillip Adams dispirited as Qantas shuts him out

Phillip Adams has had his exclusive Chairman’s Lounge membership with Qantas torn up and he doesn’t know why.

Phillip Adams, at Scone Airport in the Hunter Valley, a far cry from Qantas’ exclusive Chairman’s Lounge, from which he has been expelled. Picture: Peter Stoop

Phillip Adams, who coined the phrase “Spirit of Australia” for Qantas, has had his exclusive Chairman’s Lounge membership with the airline withdrawn.

The Weekend Australian columnist, Radio National broadcaster and former advertising guru said he was dismayed to be informed by Qantas that after a review of lounge memberships, his would not be renewed.

To add insult to injury, the letter came shortly after independent senator Fraser Anning was expelled from the Chairman’s Lounge based on the censure motion passed against him over his comments about the Christchurch shooting massacre.

Despite admitting he rarely flew anymore, Adams said he had been a member since the invitation-only Chairman’s Lounge was established by ­Qantas about 40 years ago.

“Because of age and decrepitude, I haven’t been using it much at all, but that’s not the point,” said Adams, who was also responsible for Qantas adopting Peter Allen’s song I Still Call Australia Home in its marketing campaigns.

“I was hardly cluttering up the facility and I was really quite surprised because I do have a large media footprint.”

He said it was not unusual to rub shoulders with captains of industry, politicians, a few high-­profile media identities and previously even Cardinal George Pell at the Chairman’s Lounge, known to members as “CL”.

“I have to say the people in the lounge, those who get in, they regard it as much more important than being members of the Melbourne Club,” he said.

“It’s probably regarded as the greatest perk a traveller can get. It’s not much posher I’m sure than the other lounges, it’s just the sense of being special.”

Qantas has a policy of not ­publicly discussing the Chairman’s Lounge or its members, who pay no annual fee, and ­refused to comment on Adams’ loss of membership.

Current members were just as reluctant to disclose secrets from the “inner sanctum”, although one former deputy prime minister said he was always concerned about the cocoon effect of spending time with fellow VIPs rather than mixing with the masses at airports.

Generally hidden behind nondescript doors without signage, the CL has an exclusive club feel about it, with designer furniture, top-shelf liquor, five-star food, ­private meeting rooms and large shower suites with fluffy bathrobes.

There are no intrusive public announcements — instead, members are quietly informed in person that their flight is boarding and handed their boarding pass.

Although members are issued with a membership card, they are always greeted by name at the door without having to go through the indignity of proving their eligibility.

Members of the federal government are gifted with CL membership as a perk of being elected, in recognition of the millions of dollars MPs and senators spend on air travel each year.

It is not clear whether Qantas chairman Richard Goyder or chief executive Alan Joyce has a direct say in who gets in but The Weekend Australian understands membership is generally about expenditure on flights, rather than celebrity.