Qantas are paying for the introduction into service of the E-Jets. Not Alliance. Its a deal like with the 717s. The aircraft are owned by Qantas but operated by the contractor.
So because of this Qantas gets to decide who flys them. Not Alliance and not whingers about fairness on PPrune. Its a business decision Qantas has made.
The fact that the E-Jet seats will be available for Qantas mainline pilots, has been confirmed in an email by the current Qantas chief pilot.
The email says the endorsement costs will be covered by Alliance, but in reality QF will pay Alliance for this as well.
So the question is, why would QF do this ? Its not from the goodness of their heart. Its so they can keep the majority of the longhaul pilots stood down indefinitely without redundancy provisions applying.
At some point in the next 3-5 years, where mainline pilots are still stood down, but Network, Cobham and Alliance pilots are flying full lines and being paid their full salaries, somebody will challenge the refusal of QF to pay redundancy packages in court. The challenge being that those stood down pilots are actually redundant under the fair work act (they are actually redundant right now TBF)
That court case will fail if the complaining pilot can be proven to be have been 'offered' a position in another 'group company'.
Now my bet is the location of the E-Jet slots will be in places that are not popular with existing pilots who are settled with their families - say Darwin or Cairns - so the majority will not be taken up.
Last point again - QF will own these jets and will decide who flys them. In the same way they decided that mainline pilots could not fly for JQ or Network. This time they have decided otherwise.