TRAVEL: The Miracle Qantas First-Class Upgrade

Okay, so Rachael Oakes-Ash is a professional travel writer. And an Editor at Holiday Goddess. So maybe she deserved that miraculous Qantas first-class upgrade. But what’s it really like to fly at the pointy end of the plane? And can you ever slink back to economy?

I have a travel alter ego called Mary Millionaire. She drinks French champagne for breakfast, after a glass she demands a bottle and after a bottle she shouts the bar and leaves me with the bill.  If a car isn’t German she won’t be driven in it.  She slathers her breakfast toast with foie gras as if it were peanut butter and wouldn’t dream (pun intended) of anything less than five-hundred thread count sheets to rest her coiffured locks upon.

So let’s just say Mary Millionaire was in her element on a trip to Los Angeles from Sydney recently when she was upgraded from cattle class to lie-flat business class, on none other than the A380. And also given what is akin to Willy Wonker’s Golden Ticket for grown-ups – access to the Qantas first class lounge.

The trouble with flying at the pointy end of the plane is once you’ve peered past that curtain divide between life with the masses and life with the chosen, going back to the masses just isn’t an option.  Airlines know the lure of soft cotton pyjamas, a la carte dining, leg room, personal entertainment systems and freshly made sky beds and they’re not afraid to use it.

Richard Branson turned the once humble business class lounge into a rock star haven complete with day spa and cinema room in the Virgin Atlantic Clubhouse in London’s Heathrow in 2006 and Qatar airlines offered their First and Business class passengers their own terminal at Doha airport in the same year.  But Qantas upped the sophistication ante and knocked them both for six when they swung open the doors on the Marc Newson-designed den of high class iniquity they call their First Class Lounge in 2007.

To those in the design world Australian born Marc Newson is a god.  Time Magazine named him one of a hundred most influential people in the world and his work is exhibited in museums of note including MoMA, Pompidou and London’s V&A. His work is considered to make up a quarter of the world’s contemporary design market with collaborative projects with G Star, Dom Perignon, Nike, Lanvin and any brand looking for serious kudos.

But enough of Marc, it’s back to Mary.  Stepping, sorry, gliding into The Qantas lounge is like slipping back in time when men dressed in blazers, slacks and loafers – and women swept their tassels into sleek turbans tied with a diamante clip. All sticking to a dress code appropriate for sipping olive martinis mid-flight.

Some would say it’s the Jetsons on crack, but my alter-ego Mary prefers to think of it as Star Trek with design substance and oozes of soothing neutral toned space, white leather lounges, chocolate and caramel chairs and Carrara marble. Newson’s futuristic curved lines of American oak are repeated throughout the vast lounge space that takes in a 180 degree view of Botany Bay with floor to ceiling glass that many a collagen lip has got stuck to.

Qantas darling chef Neil Perry’s Sydney based Rockpool restaurant is consistently in the top fifty restaurants of the world and his menu features in the 24 seat open kitchen restaurant in the First Class lounge.  Shucked oysters and champagne?  Oh, if you insist.   Airlines of the world take note, half stale rice crackers in plastic wrapping no longer rate as appropriate business class lounge fare.

Mary is like Hugh Hefner at Venice Beach, unsure which way to look lest she miss out on something even better.  The Patrick Blanc designed vertical garden (he’s a big time botanist) that greets guests upon arrival features over eight thousand four hundred ferns and their mossy relatives. This living jungle sets the textural tone and is found again in the treatment rooms of the Payot Paris Day spa.  Of course the entire layout has been Feng Shui’d by the masters.

Cleanliness is next to godliness and those seeking divine intervention will find it in eight shower suites with radiant heating, Payot skin products, Kevin Murphy hair products and individual stereo and lighting control.

Did we mention the mobile-free zoned circular library of oak shelves serving up literature and news from around the globe? Then there’s an entertainment zone with four plasma screens, Sony Playstations and PSPs and a business centre with complimentary secretarial services, conference facilities in two private meeting rooms and an array of computers and wireless broadband.

I, along with Mary, have spent many a stopover hour or ten in numerous airports around the world, sometimes in airline lounges paid for by my employers and sometimes (much to Mary’s chagrin) stretching across public seats with my carry-on bag as a pillow.  The Qantas First Class lounge sets a tone of airline travel unsurpassed by other lounges and a tone I lust after but sadly, for Mary, cannot afford.

It hasn’t stopped her peppering her conversation with First Class lounge jargon since though – dropping in Marc, Neil and Patrick as if they’re personal friends. Apparently you can dine out for a long time if you’re a chosen one, if only for a few pre-boarding hours.