YouTuber Josh Cahill published an interesting video about a situation he encountered with Luxair, whereby he believes he was “scammed” out of lounge access, and later threatened by the airline. Cahill is no stranger to controversy — he was also threatened with a ban from Qatar Airways, while Aero Dili posted his passport information online.
Josh Cahill’s Luxair lounge access drama
YouTube flight reviewer Josh Cahill flew with Luxair from Berlin to Luxembourg to Paris, with a long layover enroute. He was in business class for the first segment and in economy class for the second segment. He bought lounge access for the second segment, which Luxair sells for most fare types directly through its website as a ticket add-on, at a cost of €35.
Cahill had a roughly eight hour layover in Luxembourg, and when he arrived at Luxair’s lounge, he was informed that the lounge couldn’t be accessed so far before departure, and he’d have to come back closer to departure to use it.
He filmed his interaction with the woman who claims to be the lounge’s manager, and you can see that interaction starting 8min25sec into the video. The conversation gets quite heated — he accuses the airline of scamming people, she says there are no exceptions and refuses to give her name, etc.
Immediately following this interaction, Cahill took to social media to complain. A short while later, the airline sent him a message, stating the following (this is discussed 13min25sec into the video):
We sincerely apologize for the inconvenience you experienced at the lounge. Our team has been informed, and we are ready to welcome you back.
However, he informed them he wasn’t comfortable using the lounge anymore due to the rude staff, and requested a refund.
But that’s not the end of this story. A couple of days after his flight, Cahill received a “warning letter” from the airline, that if he posts this video and it causes damage to the brand, the airline will go after him, and will ban him from flying in the future, while retracting the previous apology. You can see this discussion starting 17min40sec into the video.
My take on this Luxair lounge access situation
Nowadays we’ve seen quite a few airport lounges introduce time limits for guests, to help with crowding issues. So it seems pretty clear that Luxair has such a policy limiting when guests can use the lounge, but there’s a breakdown in communication.
If an airline has a time limit for lounge access, it should be clearly disclosed. Nowhere on Luxair’s website, and not even on any terms page, does it list a limit to how long you can access the lounge for. So obviously that’s something that Luxair needs to update, so that it’s doing a better job of managing expectations. Cahill wasn’t unreasonable for thinking he’d be able to access the lounge any time the same day.
Now, do I think that Luxair is trying to run a bait and switch scam here, and is trying to deceive people? I don’t think it’s quite that malicious, but rather there’s just a breakdown in communication between departments. In this situation, the lounge supervisor should have made an exception, if she had nothing she could point to supporting this policy.
Is Cahill a bit dramatic? I mean… no comment. But he’s raising a fair point, and it’s good to bring up these kinds of shortcomings in airline systems.
While I think Luxair is wrong full stop, I did want to address a couple of additional points regarding Cahill’s interaction here. First of all, he repeatedly claimed that when he purchased the ticket online, it clearly stated that the lounge access would be valid for the entire transit period:
- I haven’t been able to replicate that in any way; so it’s possible I’m missing something, but I think it just doesn’t state anything about a time limit, rather than specifically saying that lounge access is valid for the entire transit
- While Cahill doesn’t acknowledge this, I wonder if this was actually booked as one ticket, or two one-ways? When I go to Luxair’s website, there’s not an option to book a ticket from Berlin to Paris, let alone with an eight hour connection, so leads me to believe that he was maybe traveling on two separate tickets
The last point I’ll make — and it’s something I’ve noticed repeatedly in his videos — is that I think he could work a little harder on how he communicates with frontline airline staff. You can make your point without being aggressive or accusatory to an individual:
- Even at the very start of the conversation, he already puts up his index finger; body language is important, and this instantly escalates any conversation, and takes it up a notch
- It’s important to separate the airline from the person, and it’s why I never use “you,” but instead use the company’s name, in these kinds of interactions; he accuses the agent personally of selling lounge access and scamming people
- He keeps insisting on getting her name and is angry she won’t give it to him, but she does offer to give him her employee number, which I think is fair enough
None of this is to excuse Luxair here, because the airline is at fault. But c’mon, if you have a big audience, at least be a good role model with how to deal with frontline staff.
Bottom line
YouTuber Josh Cahill’s latest drama is with Luxair. He had an eight hour connection in Luxembourg and purchased lounge access, but upon arrival in the lounge was informed there was a time limit to this. The situation escalated, and ultimately ended with the airline reportedly threatening him.
Luxair isn’t doing itself any favors with this situation, both in terms of how the manager handled the interaction, and how corporate is now communicating with Cahill. I also think Cahill could try a bit harder to communicate in a polite and non-accusatory tone with frontline airline staff.
What do you make of this Luxair lounge situation?
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