Tesla Races a 737, Wins, Gives Free Qantas Club Membership to Owners

by Gary Leff

Qantas and Tesla raced a Boeing 737-800 against a Model S P90D in ludicrous mode on a runway at Avalon airport Southwest of Melbourne.

I drove a Tesla last summer at a Hyatt event. It was super cool, I loved it, but would never buy a $100,000 car even factoring tax breaks and savings on gas. (I also wouldn’t pre-commit to a cheaper model with a quarter million preorders, that’s too much demand outstripping supply and despite the price hard to imagine it’ll be a ‘good deal’.)

So how did the electric Model S do against a plane? The Tesla appears to win in the video. But the Boeing 737 takes off.

As cool as a Tesla is, it lacks a feature that was included in The Jetsons and the second model of the DeLorean time machine from Back to the Future: flight.

Nonetheless, the stunt highlights a new collaboration between Qantas and Tesla.

There’s actually a bit of substance here, not just an attention-grabbing video: Tesla Model S owners will receive Qantas Club membership and Qantas will offer electric power wall connectors at valet facilities in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane and Adelaide.

In addition, Tesla will “offset all the car maker’s domestic corporate travel emissions as part of Qantas’ Future Planet Program” although carbon offset programs are questionable — probabalistic environmental benefits at best, they sell indulgences at a profit while much of the money goes to overhead of the offset organizations themselves.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  5. “(I also wouldn’t pre-commit to a cheaper model with a quarter million preorders, that’s too much demand outstripping supply and despite the price hard to imagine it’ll be a ‘good deal’.)”

    Do we really care what you THINK? Another a-hole that has to get a jab in..

  6. @Mitchell Burns isn’t sharing what i think the whole point of a blog? And isn’t your reading it suggestive that there are folks who ARE interested?

  7. i think the A hole post is not only ridiculous, but frankly offensive.

    why not work off the anger in the gym or elsewhere?

    or join a civil discourse course.

  9. The $100,000 price for a Tesla is a bit of a misnomer. My Model S cost $70,000 and some versions cost even a little less. Sure I could have made it cost $100K+ by adding lots of extra features. Personally I wouldn’t pay $100 grand for a car either even though I can afford it.

  10. Anyone else here put in a pre-order for a Model 3? Overall it seems like a good car for the money, although I’m not a big fan of the front end and more so the fact there is no gauge cluster…or anything else on the interior besides the 15″ touchscreen.

  11. @Gary – I think you’d buy it if you could get double Chase Sapphire Preferred Card points….

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