Top executives at Australian flag carrier Qantas have just had one of their best employee perks stripped away after they were told they will not be allowed to travel in the airline’s luxe new First Class suites that will debut on the Airbus A350-1000 next year.
At the very least, however, chief executive Vanessa Hudson is making the stingy new policy as fair as possible, as not even she will be eligible to fly in First Class suites that will fly on the world’s first non-stop flights between Sydney and London and New York.
Qantas tells executives that their First Class perks won’t extend to the A350
Although running a few years later than planned, in early 2027, Qantas will start operating the world’s first non-stop flights between the east coast of Australia and London and New York.
This amazing feat is only possible because Qantas will start operating specially adapted Airbus A350-1000 aircraft, which form part of the airline’s flagship Project Sunrise program.
The aircraft will feature brand new First Class suites, but Qantas International CEO Cam Wallace has written to former executives at the airline that their ex-employee perks, including positive space available First Class tickets, will not apply to the Airbus A350.
In the past, senior leaders who left the airline retained their First Class privileges for the same number of years that they had worked at the airline. In fact, it wasn’t only them who got access to First Class but also their partners and children.
Explaining the decision, Wallace said the rule change isn’t just going to apply to ex-executives like disgraced former CEO Alan Joyce but also to all of Qantas’ existing management team, including group chief executive Vanessa Hudson.
First Class perks will remain in place on aircraft like the Airbus A380 superjumbo, which has a whopping 14 First Class suites, but with just six suites on the yet to be delivered A350s, Qantas needs to make sure these seats are available for paying passengers.
What will the Qantas A350 First Class experience be like?
Qantas first unveiled its all-new A350 First Class suites in 2022. Fully enclosed with high walls and sliding privacy doors, the suite features a separate bed and a recliner lounge chair, along with a 32-inch in-flight entertainment screen, a personal wardrobe, and ample storage.
Qantas’ top brass will be relegated to one of the 52 Business Class Suites with sliding privacy doors, bespoke mood lighting, and 18-inch entertainment screens.
Given that Qantas plans to operate the A350 on flights of 20+ hours, the airline has had to put a lot of thought into the design of its cabins in an effort to make the journey as comfortable as possible for everyone on board.
Compared to some airlines that can squeeze more than 300 passengers onboard an A350, the Qantas cabin will have space for just 238 passengers, along with a special ‘webeing zone’ where passengers can stand up and stretch during the long flight.
First A350 will be delivered to Qantas in late 2026
At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Qantas was forced to pump the brakes on its Project Sunrise ambitions, and it wasn’t until February 2022 that the airline announced that the program would be resumed.
Since then, Qantas has had to wait patiently for Airbus to get to building the A350-1000 planes that will operate these flights.
Last month, however, Qantas shared the first official photos of its first A350-1000, having had all its key sections fitted together at Airbus’ final assembly line in Toulouse, France.
Qantas will operate a special variant of the A350 known as the A350-1000ULR, which stands for Ultra Long Range. Given that this is the first A350 with an additional 20,000 litre rear centre fuel tank, the aircraft has to complete extensive test flights throughout 2026 before it can be cleared to fly commercially.
How does Qantas’ policy compare to other airlines?
Travel benefits are one of the biggest perks of working for an airline, and given that many frontline employees not only have to work incredibly unsociable hours on low pay, making sure the travel perks are as good as possible is one of the easiest ways to improve employee retention.
The cabin that employees are entitled to fly in, however, can vary massively from airline to airline, and with the push to attract premium leisure travelers, getting a seat at the pointy end of the plane is becoming harder than ever.
In some cases, however, certain workgroups have it written into their contract that they are entitled to a premium cabin, especially if they are on so-called ‘duty travel’ – in other words, they are flying as a passenger for work and not just taking a vacation.
At a certain point, you would always expect key executives to be entitled to First Class when on duty travel, so it’s interesting that Qantas has taken the view that Business Class is just fine.
