Apparently, Insulting Your Crew on the Plane’s Wi-Fi Can Go Very Wrong
Quick summary
Turns out inflight Wi-Fi might cause more trouble than it's worth ($1 to $20). At least, that was the case for travel blogger and YouTuber Josh Cahill when he took to Instagram to complain about the insufficient service midway through a Malaysia Air flight.
The story begins quite innocently. Cahill, who has a following of about 24k on Instagram and 59k youtube subscribers, actually expressed his excitement over flying Malaysia Airlines flight MH004 from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to London (LHR) the day prior. "There are only a handful of airlines that make you feel loved... @malaysiaairlines is one of them!" reads the caption of an Instagram that Cahill posted the day before boarding. "It always puts a big smile on my face when flying the Malaysian Flag carrier. Tomorrow I finally get to experience their new Flagship, the Airbus A350 to London." He had reached out to the Malaysia Airlines social media coordinator to secure permission to film as well.
However, according to Cahill, things took a sharp dive for the worse upon boarding. Seated in economy, Cahill says his inflight entertainment device froze on the loading page. When he requested help from the crew to fix the problem, he didn't get much of a response -- leaving him on a 14-hour flight with no entertainment. On top of that, the complimentary breakfast he had was "dreadful" and served on a "sticky and filthy tray."
So, angry and disappointed, Cahill accessed the inflight Wi-Fi to air his grievances via Instagram.
Apparently, it didn't take long for the flight crew to catch wind of the scathing post. Following this, Cahill claims that the treatment only got worse. After being confronted by a crew member, he was snubbed for beverages and told he would only be served his next in-flight meal if he stopped recording -- which he didn't do, despite eventually getting his dinner.
When the flight landed, Cahill was met by a Malaysia Airlines representative that apologized for the behavior of the crew and overall poor experience. However, despite Malaysia Airlines' attempts to make things right, Cahill recalled the experience in a 20 minute-long YouTube video as "very humiliating."
So, moral of this story: Maybe you're better off saving your airline criticisms for when you're on the ground and NOT trapped in an aircraft, thousands of miles from home with a vengeful crew. But you live and you learn.
(By the way, we had one of our TPG staff review a Malaysia Airlines Airbus A350 --- and spoiler alert: we loved it.)