I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened to vlogger Aljoscha Wendholt, popularly known as Josh Cahill, at a Luxair Lounge in Luxembourg and it has led to some introspection.
Cahill Denied Lounge Access In LUX: Is His Outrage Valid?
First, a brief summary of Cahill’s latest outrage:
- He purchased a ticket(s) from Berlin (BER) to Paris (CDG) via Luxembourg (LUX) on Luxair
- It isn’t clear to me if he was on a single ticket or separate tickets, which is an important point of distinction, as I will explain below
- He had an 8-hour layover in LUX
- His first leg was in business class, his second leg in economy class
- He purchased lounge access for 35EUR, but was denied access upon arrival, with a lounge agent explaining that lounge access is only available three hours before a flight
- Cahill did not take no for an answer and insisted there were no time restrictions noted when he bought the lounge pass
- He demanded the name of the lounge agent, but she refused to provide it, though she did offer her employee number
- Cahill complained on social media and Luxair responded by inviting him into the lounge
- By this point, he refused and demanded a refund of his lounge pass
- Days later, Luxair threatened him with a flight ban and defamation litigation if he posted video which showed Luxair in a bad light
First, let me say that I find no restrictions concerning time limits on lounge access so Cahill was right to be dismayed over what may have seemed like an arbitrary rule.
Second, we don’t know if Cahill was flying on a single ticket or two tickets. That may matter because denying a passenger lounge access with a long connection seems more egregious than simply saying a passenger cannot show up eight hours early (for his one-way flight from Luxembourg to Paris) and wanting to use the lounge.
Third, the threats from Luxair are laughable and make me much more sympathetic to Cahill.
But here’s the thing. Why is it constant drama with this guy? It reminds me of his recent Aero Dili experience in East Timor. Either he is the unluckiest travel blogger or maybe there is a common denominator as to why his reviews tend to go sideways…
The Type Of Clickbait Matters
As I’ve said before, I’m working on adding a video component to Live And Let’s Fly…it will be review-focused, but unique compared to the way Daniel Goz / Sam Chui / Josh Cahill compose their reviews. Stay tuned for details about that…it’s getting closer.
I do a lot of clickbait here on Live And Let’s Fly, but you will notice it is almost always about passengers who misbehave, not about my experience and assessment of carriers. My reviews are a very serious endeavor, and the photos and commentary are anything but fluff.
One thing that (I hope) distinguishes this brand from others is that I travel a lot and I take my reviews very seriously. I go out of my way to be fair and I realize that a negative flight or hotel review can have very serious consequences concerning the employees or even carriers involved.
Like Cahill, I purchase my own flights (and object to the narcissistic notion that he is the only “genuine” travel blogger, though compared to Sam Chui I’ll grant him that) and face no editorial controls over the reviews I publish.
In short, my clickbait is of the non-substantive variety. It is fluff meant to entertain more than to enlighten. I don’t mess around with my reviews and don’t make sweeping judgments or generalizations about a carrier based on one bad flight.
Cahill has taken a very different approach. I commend him for the audience has stitched together and I laud him for what he has accomplished. It’s a great business model in terms of revenue and I think he loves the work he does (we’ve chatted before, but not in-depth).
But as I said concerning the Aero Dili brouhaha, what bothers me about Cahill is his turn to the overly-dramatic on issues that matter. No doubt, it is great for clicks. No doubt issues like being denied lounge access or experiencing a bad flight are the best possible things in terms of maximizing eyeballs and thereby maximizing revenue.
But browse his videos and you will see that he is better than anyone else in manufacturing outrage. And I don’t appreciate his tone or finger-wagging toward the Luxair employee, even if she was in the wrong (and I believe she was). Furthermore, the EU is so strict with privacy…I cannot imagine he can continue to film people without their consent and not face legal consequences for it, even if he blurs faces.
Again, his business model works, but this is a very serious game when you have nearly 700K subscribers, the consequences of such reviews are real.
Saying an airline is not safe is a very serious charge. My videos will not be as exciting…that I can promise you…but I’m not going to turn service issues into final pronouncements of death about the carrier. Even the best carriers have bad days. And I’m not going to go out and look for something to be outraged about even though I know it will pay for itself many times over. Please hold me to that, dear readers.
And his approach is so off-putting to me that it has me reconsidering my whole clickbait approach to articles that are far less substantial or consequential. You do have to realize these “man pees in first class” or “woman bites flight attendant” posts pay the bills…but I don’t want to be known as someone who just does clickbait.
Anyway, much to reflect on. Cahil will do what Cahill will do and no one has to click on his videos. But I am increasingly uncomfortable with his approach and all those who are so quick to find outrage.
Cahill is obnoxious. His videos about Qatar airway, Aero Dili, and now Lux air are the reasons I stopped watching. The holier then thou outrage bit over every little slight (whether real or perceived) get a bit old. Heavens, the flight attendant didn’t great you when you boarded your economy flight, and yet somehow life will go on, and its not a blanket reason to never fly that airline again.
I get that your clickbait articles pay the bills, but they get a bit old too and your comments sections can be shall we say off putting. For whatever reason Ben seems to have far fewer of the click baity articles on his blog.
Good luck with the videos, looking forward to checking them out….please don’t be like Josh.
As an experienced traveller I know that the general time limit for lounge access is a maximum of 3 hours… This guy is clearly trying to adjust the rules to suite himself. There is only so much space in an airport lounge, they cannot accommodate people on an open ended basis. From the look of his recent blogs he tries to constantly bend the rules…..a sad little man who should realise that he isn’t the only person travelling and the rules are there for good reason.
I fly a lot in Asia and have never come across a three hour rule. That must be an american and European rule. Even in the US I have never been denied access if my connection was more than three hours. If this is a rule it is arbitrarily enforced.
Delta has no time limit when connecting. But, they have a 3 hour time limit if it’s the first flight on your trip.
Stop giving these assholes exactly what they want: attention. Society is a cesspool now, exactly because of the greed that YOU have bought into by promoting these jerks. YOU are to blame every bit as much as the assholes acting up. STOP ENCOURAGING THEM.
Relax occasionally .
There are lots of ways to make money in dubious or illegal ways. Some think the end justifies the means but I don’t. Money shouldn’t be the ultimate goal. Lots of unpleasant and unhappy wealthy people and I know a lot of people without much money but a lot of happiness.
Will your videos feature a Saxony accent a la Aljoscha Wendholt’s?
I know many of us here have varying opinions on many things, from politics, to preferred airlines and dogs policies, but can we all agree that Cahill is a piece of shit?
@Matthew … Your articles are Excellent . They are a Welcome Relaxation from life’s challenges .
Also , I have learned a great deal from your articles , and also from the comments of your commenters . If I ever want to know about Coffee Shops in Timbuktoo , I know where to look first : LALF .
A near parallel to you is Gary Leff , but his comments do not have a reply ability to other comments , which can help a conversation be more interesting .
About this particular complainer-vlogger , he ought to know the Golden Rule from his early days . Comes in handy everywhere in the world .
Coffee shops in Timbuktu. You made me LOL.
Noel Phillips, Jeb Brooks, and Dennis Bunnik are better than Cahill or good forbid Chui. Dan is ok. Trek Trendy while always looming high end us not bad either.
Gary Leff knows how to find the lounge buffet but nothing else when it comes to aviation. He is almost as bad as airline spelt backwards is…oy.
LOL .. or which hotels use bottled shower gel dispensers instead of mini bottles.
Oh the horror of finding seamen in your shampoo!!
LOL ..
P/s the lounge buffet comment was hilarious!! 🙂
When it comes to a wide variety of travel topics, Señor Leff is rather well-informed and much more multi-dimensional in his thoughts and interests than this vlogger. But maybe I just like The Jerry Springer Show schtick and want our “thought-leader” amigo to grow a Springer-like hair do and sprout some glasses while I have little to no patience to sit through a slow and low/“useless (for me)”-info vlog.
Mr. K taught me that this German dooosh bag’s real name is not Josh Cuckoo.
Bravo, Mr. K! Bravo!
Who says you travel bloggers don’t teach us readers new things 🙂
More likely than not Luxair does have that kind of policy and it’s their fault for only communicating that to the lounge staff and not passengers. If Cahill is such an experienced travel blogger, that should have been obvious to him, which is why his rant at the lounge staff is so obnoxious to me. It’s clearly not the lounge staff’s fault that their employer screwed this up and for him to take it out on them is incredibly rude and repugnant attention-seeking behavior.
Honestly, I wouldn’t be surprised if he knew this policy was in place and also knew it wasn’t made clear at the point of purchase and he intentionally put himself in this situation for the clicks. At the end of the day it’s an intra-Europe lounge at a tiny (for passengers at least) airport. I can’t imagine there wasn’t a shorter connection available if all he wanted to do was review the lounge.
Cahill is obnoxious. Off putting and at times “look at me” centered! His videos about Qatar airway, Aero Dili, and now Lux air is fool me once shame on me fool me twice (or more in this case) SHAME ON YOU JOSH CAHILL FOT MANUFACTURED DRAMA ALL TO GET VIEWS & CLICKS! Isn’t there more substantive stories about humans to elevate? I think so!
The most obnoxious of these airline vloggers is between Josh and that Non-stop Dan guy. Seriously, for people who fly so much they seriously act like it’s always their first time.
Dan complains about food a lot because he’s vegan, but otherwise he’s pretty balanced. Cahill does indeed manufacture outrage especially if throngs don’t go his way,
Your excellent reviews are miered by your clickbaity crap posts, which are further dragged down by Kyle’s scheduled rubbish.
“Don’t read it, just scroll past it!” is often the response… but I’ll counter with asking, how does it feel to author this blog with so much lousy content intermixing with your good work?
I hear you Alex, but the people have spoken. I appreciate that you don’t like that content, but when I spend three hours writing a hotel review or eight hours on a cruise review and a tiny fraction of the folks click on it that click on the latest dick to expose himself on on a plane, it is hard…
Rest assured Matthew, as your biggest fan, I can assure you that I read the flight, hotel, and cruise reviews, even the “great coffee in X” articles, which I used to find dull.
Thank you for your thoughts as I share them as well. Cahill comes across as an entitled brat. He is very dramatic and too negative when he is upset with an airline. Things happen. Especially in commercial aviation. Thank you & I look forward to your new videos.
I happen to know Josh and have communicated quite regularly. Yes, some if it is definitely marketing toward what pays the bills. I mean, he’s managed to get himself in dozens of papers around the world over this. That definitely drives the clicks. In this case, he was traveling on one ticket.
I know that he does have passion for travel and aviation.
I finally watched the video this morning while on a flight. I don’t find his behavior to the lounge supervisor particularly obnoxious. Maybe a bit assertive but then again you don’t get anywhere sometimes by being docile. I mean, certain other bloggers would be “lucky” to even make it home in some IROPs because they don’t want to have to interact with an airline employee and complain out of timidity. I don’t think most people criticizing the video have bothered to actually watch it, as all this outrage seems to stem from about 15 seconds and one movement of the finger.
But if you don’t like it, then you don’t have to contribute by promoting and watching. He’s helped me out of a pickle or two in my travels through some of the many great airline contacts he has made (I share the same philosophy – opposite of Scam Chui- that it’s best to have friends in low places than high in this business). I have found that he is receptive to feedback.
However if you’re going to be a full time blogger/contributor to YouTube/whatever, let’s be honest: nobody goes to YouTube to watch a video like, say, of a First Amendment “auditor” making a FOIA request at a city hall where everyone greets them, doesn’t mind being filmed, and is all smiles. No, “Tyrant Public SERVANT Clerk SCARED of a CAMERA and CALLS COPS!” That’s what gets clicks and views.
I don’t think Luxair is in the right here by any means. Do I think Josh acted 100%? Probably not. But then again, I’d bet something tangible there’s few amongst us who wouldn’t get a little assertive if we were blatantly being told something we know is wrong and took our money.
On the contrary , always better to be docile and meek .
May be in some situations. I love passengers like that. They’ll take what they are told in first go. Sorry, we aren’t giving hotel vouchers for this. Oh, okay.
Curious what your sample size is of his videos? Have seen far and away more positivity and praise.
You write that [this Cahill] has “passion for travel and aviation” .
“Passion” is generally barely controllable foolish emotion .
Hi Josh.
The little persuasive tactics of trying to include all of us in his/ your behavior are cute. Indeed we all have acted badly, the more mature of us just don’t try to make money off of it when we do, and feel badly about it later.
P.S. numerous people watch totally relaxed travel review videos on YT. Vicarious Voyager produces the most beautiful reviews online without yelling or fighting anyone. But it’s probably because he has a real job and doesn’t need to feed faux outrage to massively boost his numbers.
Who you calling Josh? Me?
+1. Vicarious Voyager is by far the best of the bunch. Just doesn’t publish much, cause like you said, he has a real job.
I am curious if he hears about the policies and practices of some airlines and then decides to set up an incident for him to capture and generate as click-bait but ends up as a casualty because of that.
He sort of reminds some people of Elon Musk and his brother as children: always looking for a fight and then blaming others when the others ganged up together against the bully brothers.
Similar to Trump and the election , Baldwin and the parking spot , or the various “Karens” ?
I hope you don’t believe that today’s possible assassination attempt against Trump in western Pennsylvania was set up by some Trump fan to get Trump attention for the election. That would be plain nuts.
I stopped watching his videos a long time ago. They are useless, as all he does is whine. He’s obnoxious and entitled. If airlines ban him, that’s called karma.
PLEASE dont be one of the narcissists who keep the camera pointed at their faces for extended periods of time (here’s looking at you Cahill, Noel, etc) instead of the products they’re reviewing.
His real name is “Aljoscha Wendholt“?
Hot damn, why doesn’t he use that publicly?
I love it that he’s been banned from entering the US! No visa for you Wendholt! Hah!
You better go find a real job, you’re vlogs going down the crapper.
I think they just cancelled his ESTA and he is too lazy or too dramatic to apply for a B2.
I mean “banned from the US” gets more clicks than “ESTA cancelled,don’t feel like applying for a B2”
You remind me of why I despise influencers.
er ist sehr cute
The luxair policy is bad, but not as bad as the AC one of only allowing *G members access within three hours of departure in contravention of their alliance obligations. Frequent flyers don’t turn up at the airport six hours early in order to eat all of your bland chili sin carne and/or drink the lukewarm no-name prosecco you leave on the table- there will be a reason for being there early.
It’s extremely poor taste for you to smugly use a name he hasn’t chosen for himself as his public name.
Air Coconut or whatever posted his passport information as an act of revenge. You using that information is participating in this revenge act.
I don’t have opinions either way on Josh, but I do have opinions about this kind of behavior.
Grow up, Matt.
Look up Josh Cahill on Wikipedia. What are the first two words? Aljoscha Wendholt. There is no secret being revealed.
And why is that information there, missy? Yeah, Air Leprosy again. My point stands.
Make a point. Someone points out your overreach. Stand by your comment. Is there a future in politics for you?
It’s not my problem everyone hates you, Dave. Go somewhere else. Nobody likes you.
Sorry Loretta, his name has been on Wikipedia longer than that. And by the way, what is your name? That’s what this is really about because if I exposed your real name you might be out of a job for the vile comments you spew on this blog and others. Josh has nothing to worry about but I can smell your fear, dear.
Is this a threat?
Just an indication about what your motivation may be for the position you now take? Or maybe a hint about how inconsistent you are when it comes to this kind of thing?
Oh Bull…that dude is trouble for any airline. I never heard such a whinier! I just wish he’d go away and be banned by everyone. His name is his name…no some stupid alias
I recognize travel writers will often take inconvenient routing to review things, but, in case you were wondering, Berlin to Paris is under 9 hours by train (one connection).
Most normal business travelers won’t do Berlin to Paris by train for work trips. It’s generally done by air.
But on one of the many <2 hour nonstops, I assume. I, as a pure leisure traveller, would opt for the train.
At best, it’s around an 8 hour minimum trip by train in each direction. It’s the exceptional business traveler who does that roundtrip by train.
It’s not the EU cutting flights. It’s airlines getting ever greedier and exercising capacity restraint which cut flights and routes in the EU.
Lufthansa Group frequent flyers might well fly via FRA on a route like this, services are very frequent so it should be possible to travel pretty quickly and without much downtime (internet in the lounge etc).
I went to their website. You cannot book a BER to CDG flight (N/S or connecting in LUX). I assume it’s part of the EU push to move shorter flights to train. He must have had two tickets. A business ticket comes with lounge access. They discuss the option to buy lounge access. They do not have wording limiting how soon before the flight you get access. Of course, there could be wording when you add it to your flight.
JC is just generally wilfully ignorant. He didn’t even know what languages they speak in Luxembourg.
Luxair only sells lounge acces in Luxembourg airport to certain destinations, Paris CDG is not in the list. See here: https://www.luxair.lu/en/offers/new-lounge-access
IMHO they communicate very clearly who may and may not enter the lounge.
I dropped this over entitled vlogger like a bad habit months ago.
The fact that travel vlogging even is a business model is the core problem. With some notable exceptions, ad-based free online content is a malignant cancer.
I had never heard of Luxair before he posted his video. He probably knows it won’t matter if they ban him, as there are several other airlines flying the same routes Luxair does and it is a tiny, not-very-well-known airline.
Here’s the problem – once you start flying to create content to monetize to pay for the next flight, the money becomes more important than the flight. It just becomes about making as much money as possible to pay for the material that creates more money. Vicious circle.
I don’t think any of these travel vloggers set out to be drama queens, but as you’ve identified in your own posts Matt, once you realise that click-bait is more profitable than a boring staid review (“the steak was nice, the seat was great, the champagne was 8/10…..”), this is the road you go down. At least the Noel Philips of this world mix it up with trains and coaches etc.
If a vlogger just got paid a set salary, they wouldn’t have to do these stunts. And then when it comes to Sam Chui, yes, he’s getting paid to say nice things, but he then doesn’t have to make a drama out of a non-crisis.
The love of money is the root of all evil.
I’m just imagining Sam Chui’s face as he reads this, looool.
Re the single ticket, should that really matter if he can show a separate ticket for an inbound flight confirming he’s actually in transit?
Cahill is a bit German about these things, seeking a fight. But it is warranted I think.
The manager had a super German unfriendly reaction.
We need people to teach these German-style companies that this behavior must end, even though applying German-style arguing is maybe not the best way to do it.
Cahill was just fighting fire with fire here, which I personally would not have, but you need people like him to expose such stuff that airlines are doing.
Even more so, since Luxair decided to go after him although he was maybe a bit rude himself, but factually correct, is just unethical.
You can never threaten a journalist with publishing facts and that is exactly what Luxair did.
Well on that last point I agree – shame on Luxair for coming after Cahill. It’s despciable.
Cahill is an entitled, obnoxious, insufferable prat. I for one would love to see less of him so please, bring on the bans all airlines.
That is not even his real name. He is German. Why didnt he speak German to the lounge access direector Luxembourger?
What do you mean that is not his real name? I would think the lounge matron would speak Luxembourgish, but maybe just French?
Regardless of who was or was not in the right in this situation, what I find offpitting is that *this* was the hill that Josh choose to fight on. He wasn’t allowed into a Business Class Lounge.
This is a perk that many travellers rarely or never access, and the energy he employs in the video makes it seem like they were demanding that he transfer to Ryanair and get to Paris via 5 layovers (or something equally unpleasant).
If he had been one of the other AV Vloggers I enjoy, he might have cut away from arriving at the lounge and then go: «Hey guys, got denied at the lounge, really annoying. So….How are we going to kill the next 5 hours? *Cue montage of him trying to find things to do*» Instead he’s in a strop because he didn’t get a premium perk.
I don’t watch Sam Chui because he is *only* about Premium perks (and is an airline shill for hire), I stopped watching Non-Stop Dan because he seems allergic to Economy products, and Josh has eventually landed onto this list with me because although is is not Sam Chui (and even mentions this himself sometimes) his almost singular focus on premium products makes his reviews increasingly difficult to relate to.
Many seasoned travellers like myself have had to stay good chunks of a day (and sometimes overnight) in an uncomfortable terminal with maybe little more than a book to keep you entertained. Josh complaining about not getting to spend 4-5 hours in what amounts to fancy waiting room with free food and a coffee machine, does not endear a lot of sympathy alas. It just makes him look spoiled and entitled.
What I think is amusing is that airlines like Luxair and Qatar ought to know better than to respond they way they have. At this point, every airline’s PR and protocol departments ought to have flags in their systems for well known travel media folks.
Should travel vloggers and influencers get better treatment than the rest of us? Empirically no. But if I’m running an airline and there’s a chance I can avoid (or at least salvage) a bad PR opportunity by monitoring my passenger lists for people like Josh, Noel Phillips, or Nonstop Dan, and then I don’t do everything I can to make sure that they’re shown the best possible version of my airline, that person ought to lose their job.
Luxair’s lounge manager might have been following policy as she understood it. Whether the policy was at odds with the marketing messaging or if that employee simply failed to their job, Luxair’s biggest mistake wasn’t denying Cahill access. The big mistake was doubling down on a policy that was, at best, hard to discern, then admitting that fact, then doubling down again in a threatening way.
The old adage is that people enjoy killing giants, but don’t get the same pleasure kicking those already down, especially if the person in question has acknowledged their own failures.
Luxair issued Josh a full apology for its reaction, threats, etc., and issued a refund in full yesterday.