Qatar Airways, commonly praised for being among the world's best airlines, has recently come under negative spotlight over its reaction to a flight review posted on YouTube.

 

 

Context

 

Josh Cahill, a popular aviation YouTuber specializing in airline reviews, published a video titled "The Shocking Decline of Qatar Airways" in August 2023. The video has since garnered nearly 600,000 views, something the higher-ups at Qatar Airways have noticed.

In the video, Cahill recounts his experience flying with Qatar Airways from Colombo, Sri Lanka, to London Heathrow via Doha. On both flights, he notes that various aspects of the experience did not feel like Cahill was flying aboard one of the world's best airlines. Josh notes that dirty bathrooms, old cabins, and unmotivated crew were among the highlights of his rather poor Qatar Airways experience.

 

 

The "old cabin" note is attributed to the fact that Josh was flying one of Qatar's aging Airbus A330-300s from Colombo to Doha, an aircraft type that features the oldest hard product in the fleet. Qatar's A330 fleet should have been retired a few years earlier. However, due to the now-resolved A350 issues, select aircraft were reactivated to accommodate that disruption.

In the grand scheme, Cahill simply made an unbiased flight review video expressing his concerns about his underwhelming experience on Qatar Airways, an otherwise world-renowned airline for its amazing service. While this honest review was appreciated by many of Cahill's viewers, not everyone took what he had to say lightly.

 

 

Qatar Airways' Negative Reaction

 

Upon seeing the video, executives at Qatar Airways reached out to Cahill, asking him to hop on a video call with them, to which he agreed. However, the kind of discussion that unfolded was different from what Cahill or anyone of that matter would expect from such a trusted airline.

 

 

A few days ago, Josh posted a video detailing how the call and discussion with Qatar Airways higher-ups unfolded. According to Cahill, various parts of the discussion were quite sketchy. Shortly after joining, representatives from Qatar Airways immediately requested that whatever was discussed in the meeting would not be disclosed elsewhere. Understandably, Cahill was taken aback and did not agree to this.

 

 

The representatives then asked Cahill the motive for such a negative review, completely disregarding that Cahill had clarified that the videos were unbiased and unfiltered. More on the "negative review" part, the representatives argued that Cahill's video painted a negative picture of Qatar Airways. They then offered Cahill a free flight if he deleted the video.

When Josh rejected this offer, the representatives then asked Josh to delete any negative comments on the video involving Qatar Airways. Again, this request was understandably rejected. Fast forward sometime later, and Josh was booked on Qatar Airways again, this time flying from Abu Dhabi to Bangkok via Doha. 

 

 

Upon checking in at the Abu Dhabi Airport, Cahill was notified by the check-in staff that his booking had been canceled and that Qatar Airways was not allowing any further bookings from him. Cahill received an email regarding the ban. The email from the airline referenced Articles 8 and 12 of its "Contract of Carriage." These require permission to film on an aircraft, though Josh notes that this was never enforced for not just him but various other YouTubers who have posted positive reviews of Qatar Airways in the past.

Long story short, Qatar Airways was unsuccessful in pressuring Josh to delete his video. However, Josh claims to have received reports from various sources that the cabin crew working the flights he was on in the infamous video have since been fired. This is allegedly all because the airline could not delete the video.

 

 

Social Media Response

 

Cahill's recent video detailing his discussion with Qatar Airways representatives has since amassed over 450,000 views within four days of publication. Cahill has called for his viewers to pressure Qatar Airways by commenting the hashtag #UnbanJoshCahill across the airline's various social media outlets.

This "movement" has been rather successful. While Qatar Airways has not made any progress towards unbanning Mr. Cahill, every recent post on the airline's Instagram can be found spammed with comments calling for Josh to be unbanned. Overall, while we maintain an unbiased view on this platform, it does seem that Qatar Airways' initial response to Josh's "negative review" was unprofessional at best.

 

 

These "negative reviews" are meant to be taken by airlines as advice. They are meant to showcase where an airline messed up and how they can make improvements. The video went to show that even the world's greatest and most-renowned airlines can have a bad day. 

What do you make of this news, and how do you think this scenario could have played out better?