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Federal Transport Minister Catherine King has attained Qantas lifetime Platinum frequent flyer status, according to a recent declaration of interests.
As reported by The Australian Financial Review, the Transport Minister noted the status, which requires 75,000 lifetime Qantas status credits to attain, in her register of interests this week. According to the Minister, she had accrued these credits through flights.
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“I received Qantas lifetime Platinum. I declared this on my register of interests, to ensure full transparency. The Qantas website confirms the only avenue for reaching this is via flights,” Minister King told Australian Aviation in a statement.
“As a Member of Parliament for over twenty-five years, I am required to travel regularly to fulfil both Parliamentary and Ministerial duties.”
The news comes after the Department of Finance earlier this year opted to continue allowing government travellers to claim airline status credits for official travel.
Finance decided against banning bureaucrats from accruing status credits on official bookings, but has made it clear that public servants should not be eligible for promotions offering bonus credits.
“On 14 November 2025, Finance released an Approach to Market (ATM) to establish a new Australian Government Air Travel Services Arrangement. The ATM closed on 23 December 2025, with the new panel expected to be in place by 1 July 2026,” a Finance spokesperson said at the time.
“The ATM specified that Government Travellers may accrue status credits for Official Travel, but airlines must not provide Government Travellers with access to any additional status credits as part of any promotional, marketing or incentive activity.”
Finance’s Report of the Review of Australian Government Travel Policies last year found that the airlines have a fair split of official bookings, according roughly with the share for the general public, and did not recommend banning government travellers from claiming status credits.
As of August 2025, around 3.3 per cent of Qantas bookings and 1.4 per cent of Virgin bookings were for government travel.
Government travellers have not been allowed to claim frequent flyer points for official travel since 2010. In an FAQ on Finance’s website, the Department notes that the government’s travel booking supplier CTM “will arrange for the airline to suppress any reward points associated to the booking”.
“Status credits, however, are granted to Australian Government travellers for official travel,” the FAQ reads.
“In the event that a traveller receives Loyalty Points for official travel, the impacted traveller should contact the airline and request a reversal of the points. If the airline is unable to assist, the entity should escalate the matter to their travel team and/or Finance.”
The decision by Finance to continue to allow status credits for official travel had been backed by Qantas but opposed by rival Virgin Australia.
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