YouTuber and travel blogger Josh Cahill explains his 'horror' experience with Malaysia Airlines. Photo / YouTube
Josh Cahill had a "horror" flight to London. But when he whinged about it on social media mid-flight, things in the cabin got a lot worse, news.com.au reports.
A frequent flyer says he was bullied by Malaysia Airlines crew mid-air after he slammed the "horror" flight in an online review posted during the journey.
But the passenger, who is an award-winning travel blogger who shares airline reviews with his 53,000 YouTube subscribers, has released a video explaining his "horror flight", despite what he believed was the airline's attempt to stop him.
Josh Cahill, who runs the blog GoTravelYourWay, takes about 150 flights a year.
He was only a few hours into Malaysia Airlines flight MH4 from Kuala Lumpur to London when he decided it was a "nightmare" and "the most disappointing flight of the year".
Taking to his Instagram page, where he has close to 20,000 followers, Cahill wrote: "Very unfriendly crew (where did the amazing Malaysian hospitality go?), broken in-flight entertainment (asked the crew to fix it and they never got back to me) which leaves me 13 hours without entertainment, dreadful food served on a sticky and filthy tray and on top of that I was probably assigned the worst seat on that plane."
He described the airline's performance as "really poor" and said he would be posting a full review of the flight on his YouTube channel.
Cahill told news.com.au he had permission from Malaysia Airlines' social media team to film in-flight, which is how he reviews airlines.
But after he posted the mid-flight Instagram post, things went downhill in the cabin.
View this post on InstagramA post shared by Josh Cahill (@gotravelyourway) on
He said he believed someone from the airline saw the post and contacted the captain about it mid-flight.
"After the captain was informed mid-flight by the (airline's headquarters) about my post they asked me why I would post and complain," Cahill told news.com.au.
"They started ignoring me then, wouldn't offer me any water when the crew came around. They then told me I should stop filming or I won't get served anymore."
News.com.au has reached out to Malaysia Airlines for comment.
Cahill contacted customer service from the plane and got a message back, which said the they had seen his Instagram post and contacted the captain so crew could work on making his flight more comfortable.
But Cahill said he was still denied service and felt "bullied and very uncomfortable" the rest of the way to Heathrow Airport.
"When we landed in London, there was a guy standing inside the jet bridge with a sign with my name on it. I was afraid that they would make me delete my footage," he said.
He said a manager asked to meet him at the airport and apologised. Cahill also received "template" apology emails from a few airline employees, including the chief executive officer, who "didn't seem to care much".
"I think it was clearly to prevent me from getting more footage and create a bad review on my YouTube channel," Cahill told news.com.au.
"I had a rather disappointing flight with Jet Airways earlier this year and the video was watched over one million times and I guess they are afraid of bad review from me."
Cahill, who flies around 150 times a year, said he had never come across an experience like that before.
"I have had bad flights obviously, but that I was denied service and told off, that has never happened to me before," he said. "I also have never heard of a similar case."
Cahill has posted a 20-minute review of flight MH4 despite being told to stop filming on the plane.
But it would probably be the last time he flew with the Malaysian flag carrier, which he said used to have a reputation as one of the best in the world.
"In all fairness, I had a great flight with Malaysia Airlines the day before but I won't ever fly them again," he said.
"I felt bullied and treated in the worst possible way and I wont ever get on a Malaysia Airlines flight."