A poster on Reddit shared a story on their forums about his recent flight from London to San Francisco on United Airlines in Premium Economy, in which a content creator turned the flight into a miserable experience.
From the beginning of the flight and throughout the entire trip, the fellow passenger (who was allegedly reviewing the flight for The Points Guy) was seated at the window and installed elaborate camera equipment paired with constant commentary.
Filming onboard aircraft, in lounges, hotels, and other hospitality settings has become increasingly contentious, and many companies have cracked down on it either to comply with legal requirements or to avoid complaints from customers who feel disturbed or their privacy being violated.
This particular case popped up on Reddit yesterday (see here), and I was drawn to it because it didn’t involve a well-known YouTuber, but the poster alleges that this passenger filmed his experience for The Points Guy.
There are a lot of different things in this complaint, so I want to go one by one. Leaving the windows open isn’t something that he can legitimately complain about; the person sitting in the window seat controls the window shade, and unless the cabin crew darkens the entire plane forcefully on the new aircraft, the passenger can leave it open if he wants daylight (I always want daylight during daytime flights).
What would have irritated me is the filming in a dense passenger cabin and the constant commentary. I don’t understand why any commentary is necessary in the first place, as you can always do a voiceover later during editing. Doing this on the aircraft sounds horrible and annoys other passengers and I think the installation of camera arms on the walls should be prohibited in the first place.
In this situation, the passenger should have either confronted the blogger and asked him to be a bit more discreet with this project or talked to the purser and demanded that the staff stop the filming entirely.
I have experienced something similar on a Lufthansa flight in First Class, where a passenger became rather irate when a YouTuber was obviously filming the cabin, other passengers, and creating a noisy atmosphere in the cabin. He was then told to cease his filming right away and to delete any footage that contained identifying information. He was argumentative, and later the captain came out and gave him a dressing down in the galley, making clear who had the authority on the aircraft.
In the very least, content creators should seek permission these days before reviewing a flight with photographic and video material, but even then, a content creator might face the situation of being asked to cease filming when passengers are complaining. Or you might even get banned after a critical review, as some YouTubers have experienced.
There is also the issue of crew members not wanting to appear in this material, and that is a serious issue, as I don’t know of any airline that allows full filming of their crew without permission.
Conclusion
A Reddit poster documented his frustration with a content creator onboard a United flight from London to San Francisco where a blogger was conducting a flight review for a popular travel blog.
The installation with several cameras including a camera arm attached to the wall seems to be a bit over the top and it was amplified by the creators antics including constant commentary which could have been easily avoided with a studio voiceover during the editing process.
No matter who it is, I would shut something like this down within 10 minutes, either by confronting the passenger myself or talking to the purser to let the cabin crew take action.
What is your take on this?
Source
