Not Satire: Influencer Says Airline Rules Don’t Apply To Him, He’ll Do As He Wants

This might just be the most entitled influencer I’ve ever seen, and that’s saying something…

Influencer doubles down on violating airline rules

Yesterday, I wrote about how an airline and travel content creator made a post about how Qatar Airways needs to do a better job providing good service to influencers, because on three of four flights, he was asked not to record the crew, while he and his wife (who is “the kindest person you’ll meet”) boarded with cameras, videoing the cabin and crew as they boarded.

Virtually every airline has a policy against recording crew members without their permission, but he insists that they should first let him record his content, and then he can blur their faces after the fact, so they don’t ruin his content. Oh, but then he proceeded to post the video of the crew without blurring their faces.

Generally when people are called out for their entitled behavior, they respond in one of three ways — they go quiet, they apologize, or they double down. Well, want to guess which approach this guy took? Oh, did he ever double down in response to comments.

Frankly, most of his responses to others are just so absurd. For example, when someone proposed he simply film after passing the crew members upon boarding, he claimed “it wrecks the whole video, I have a format on how I record videos because I know they perform when recorded that way.”

But nothing compares to his response to someone who pointed out that if his “experience” falls apart because the crew enforces basic boundaries, that’s on him, and not the airline:

well my bubble ain’t broken, but guess what, in my world, neither you nor some employee is gonna tell me what I can record or NOT record on my experiences, and just like you if they do, I have no issues in telling them where to go.

Difference is, yes I am paying for the experience, if you ain’t adding to it, stay the F*** away cause I don’t want your energy around me.

So this guy is literally saying he doesn’t care what airline employees say, because no one is going to tell him what he can and can’t record.

Also, I of course have no bias against those redeeming points, because that’s how I book most of my flights. And I think those redeeming points deserve respect, like any other passenger. But when he keeps justifying his poor behavior by pointing out how he’s “paying for the experience” while redeeming points, well that reeks of absurd entitlement. Dude, I’m sure Qatar Airways can live without your points redemption “business.”

“But you shouldn’t give this guy any attention!”

Understandably, some people might ask why I’m even giving this guy any attention. After all, we live in a world where many people operate under the system of “any publicity is good publicity.” You’re right, certain people probably shouldn’t get the negative attention, because they thrive on that.

But I don’t think this is the case here at all. Quite to the contrary, I really do think this is getting under his skin, given the extent to which this guy is being defensive and doubling down. If he’s unbothered by this feedback, he wouldn’t be responding this way.

Frankly, this guy’s whole online presence strikes me as being very… umm, insecure? I’m not saying the guy bought most of his followers, but he has nearly 500K followers, and gets no comments (or a couple of comments) on much of his content. Makes you wonder, eh?

Also, this dude’s level of gaslighting is next level. In reference to the video, he claims he “actually didn’t record him, I recorded his hands lol, because I know specifically in this airline they make a huge deal about it, so a purposely didn’t record his face, but I figured I’d post it to create so debate and it’s working lol.” Yeah, man, lol.

By the way, if someone wants to tag @daddisnacks in all of this (he’s the ultimate anti-influencer), I think this would be a great opportunity. 😉 “Lol.”

Bottom line

An influencer took to social media to complain how Qatar Airways doesn’t cater to influencers enough, and that they should let content creators film employees, without interrupting them. That violates airline rules, but he doesn’t care.

What’s amazing is the extent to which he’s doubling down on his take. In response to critical comments, he says that no one is going to tell him what he can and can’t do.

What do you make of this whole situation?