- This video is going to be different.
At the beginning of this video, I will talk about my thoughts on the Skytrax Awards.
I attended the Skytrax Awards in Paris last week and I also filmed the whole awards ceremony.
I'm going to share the awards ceremony with you in the middle after my comments on Skytrax.
Then, at the end, there will also be an important message.
It's about my thoughts on YouTube, my thoughts on YouTube video reviews and my vision of
YouTube video reviews.
So, stay tuned and watch until the end guys!
Last week, I was at the Paris Airshow and the Skytrax Awards were on day two of the Paris airshow.
I was invited, as part of the media, to attend the Skytrax Awards.
It was my first time - wow, I was so overwhelmed!
We had a lot of fun and there were an awful lot of airlines represented there.
Even better, there were a lot of top management members and even CEOs who came up to me and
said: Sam, we really enjoy watching your videos.
And I was so overwhelmed.
Over the years, Skytrax has become the benchmark for airline awards.
More and more airlines have joined Skytrax and support the Skytrax Awards.
At the same time, Skytrax have made themselves very prominent as a marketing tool for the airline.
So, what you are seeing is that the airlines need Skytrax and Skytrax needs the airlines.
They are together - it is a win-win strategy for both of them.
There were definitely a few eye-brow raisers in Skytrax's awards.
If EasyJet is a four star airline, then how come Turkish Airlines is a three star airline?
Also, if Lufthansa is a five star airline then what about Swiss and Austrian airlines?
I think the little Swiss and Austrian subsidiaries are actually better than Lufthansa - that's
my opinion, of course.
Also, Air Koryo - the only one star Skytrax airline - did Skytrax really assess them independently?
Did Air Koryo will know what Skytrax was about and open up for Skytrax to go to North Korea
and assess them?
I don't know, I'm just throwing some open questions here.
Last year on my blog, my blog editor covered an article called "Skytrax is flawed but so
are everyone else's rankings," and what this article is saying is that all of the ratings
are very subjective.
You could never have the same rating with two different people rating it.
Everyone has their own opinions about airlines.
Let's say that you have a good flight; you make a good trip report.
You say good things about the airline.
If you had a bad flight or a questionable flight, then you make a bad trip report.
So this is all very subjective - it depends on the experience you receive and encounter.
I can tell you this: Even on the world's best airline, you can still have a pretty ordinary
or even a bad experience.
Do you agree with me?
Now, coming back to the Skytrax Awards that day, there were 71 awards in total which were handed out.
That was a lot of work - a two hour marathon!
Airlines, I found out, actually knew if they had won beforehand so that they could send
their crew to Paris to collect these awards and you can also see a trend: Asian and Middle Eastern airlines,
they definitely love to celebrate the awards.
They bring out all their best crew in their best dress and the performance is like a show.
Some of the more mature airlines from Western Europe and North America, sometimes they just
send one manager to collect the award and you can see a different style in the awards
ceremony as well.
Now, to me, 71 awards seems a little bit excessive because there's best airline in every continent
and then there's best airline and best regional airline in that continent, the best cabin
crew and there's also best staff and best catering and then there's also best lounge
catering and then, you know, the awards are broken down in to such narrow categories.
I figure that there are so many member airlines of Skytrax and everyone wants to win an award
and so they created so many and it's great for marketing and for the general public.
The general public doesn't know much about airlines and Skytrax, they believe that this
is the benchmark, and as an Av geek, an airline geek, we know all about it, we travel so often,
that we can tell what is good and what is not good, so, you know, perception is very different.
Now, on LinkedIn, I asked people: Is there anyway that Skytrax can do better and be more fair?
People were giving ideas like: You need an independent assessment, you need an independent
assessor to assess the airline and you need to declare your voting methodology, the weighting
of each airline because, let's say an airline like Emirates, it's so popular - there's so
much weight - people always vote for big airlines and then what about the small airlines?
So, you need to have a balanced approach to weighting.
And, you know, Skytrax usually announce ahead of time before they go and assess an airline.
That also gives an airline warning, a heads up, preparation time for showing their best.
Some people tend to suggest that Trip Advisor is a better review site.
I don't know much about the Trip Advisor awards - do you know anything about it or do you
have any suggestions?
Feel free to comment below the video.
Whether you are winning a Skytrax award or are not winning a Skytrax award, I think that
airlines should always have their own internal awards to celebrate with their staff because,
you know, I've travelled throughout all different weathers - rain, shine, snow - and I
have seen how hard the staff work in operations; at the check-in counter, at the gate, at the
ramp, the mechanic - everyone works to ensure the smooth and on time operation of the aeroplane.
So, I think that there are lots of staff who deserve an award, it's more than just the
airline that deserves that, and I hope to see more airlines recognising individual talents
within the airline and to celebrate these talents.
Welcome to the Skytrax Awards 2019 in Paris.
- [All] Hola!
- India's best airline is here, Vistara airlines.
They are from Flynas from Saudi Arabia.
Skytrax five star airline - Japan Airlines.
- [Announcer] Air Canada!
Air Asia!
Big round of applause please!
Five star rated - Lufthansa!
And a big round of applause please for Aeroflot Russian Airlines!
And the winner is Qantas Airways!
And the winner is Air Astana!
Royal Air Maroc!
The winner is jetBlue Airways!
Is Azerbaijan Airlines!
Is EVA Air!
The winner is Austrian Airlines!
The winner is Air France!
And the winner is Virgin Atlantic!
And the winner is United Airlines for Polaris in San Francisco.
Air Canada.
The winner is Air France.
The winner is the Star Alliance lounge in Los Angeles.
The award this morning goes to Swiss International Airlines in Zurich.
And a big congratulations please to Japan Airlines!
The award goes to Qatar Airways!
And the winner is Singapore Airlines!
The winner is Emirates.
And the winner is EVA Air.
The winner goes to Star Alliance.
Is Air Transat.
Award goes to Norwegian.
ANA All Nippon Airways!
The winner is Bangkok Airways.
The winner goes to Singapore Airlines.
- [Man on Stage] We have an overall winner today.
It's not the first time that they have taken the title.
In fact, it's a remarkable fifth year of achieving this award and it goes to Qatar Airways.
- [Announcer] Airline of the year!
Ladies and gentlemen...
- Congratulations, winning again the airline of the year. - Sam, how are you?
- Good to see you again. - I haven't seen you for a long time!
- Yeah, I know.
Congratulations.
- This is a tribute to the hard working staff in Singapore Airlines. - Absolutely.
- I'm very happy for them.
- Look at this, the best airline staff in China.
Best business class comfort amenities.
You've been five stars for nine years!
- Yes!
- Which award did you just win?
- Eastern Europe.
- Best airline in Eastern Europe - Aeroflot.
- The best airline in South East Asia - Air Astana.
Mr Go - congratulations!
Skytrax, the best alliance - Star alliance.
- We've won it ten times since 2005.
- Ten times winner!
- Four years in a row and we're absolutely delighted!
- Thank you, well done.
- We'd like to thank all of our customers.
- Five years in a row, Thai Airlines won the best airline lounge spa.
So guys, that was it - a big celebration and recognition for all the airlines and all of
the hard work from the staff.
I'm very interested to know: Do you agree with all of the awards?
Did you think that any other airline deserved to win?
Please let me know in the comments.
When we talk about the Skytrax thing, it actually opens up more things that I want to talk about.
80% of the time, I pay for my own ticket.
I go on board, I spend a couple of hours filming all of the things - little, little details, engagement.
You know, I do a lot of funny moves with the crew, I love filming the crew and the people, I love
to celebrate on the flight.
My style is very flamboyant, I guess.
My style is also very spontaneous.
I'm a very bubbly person and I get really turned on when I get on to the plane and the
end result of the film that I make is very marketable for the airline, no doubt about it.
Even I myself was sometimes thinking to myself: Oh my Gosh, this looks like a perfect piece
of sponsored content by an airline.
But at the end of the day, I paid for the air ticket.
But, maybe I'm just a geek, I'm just an aviation airline geek, I love the airline so much,
I made content that looks so perfectly marketable.
Now, going forward, I really want to improve the transparency in my video.
If I have been invited on the flight, I will say so at the beginning of the video or in
the description.
If the video is sponsored by a certain sponsor - of course, most Youtubers make a living
out of sponsorships - I will also mention it clearly.
I also hear people saying: Sam, you're famous now.
The crew treat you better than the other passengers.
In front of the camera they do things differently.
I don't disagree with you.
In fact, I can totally understand where you're coming from.
I'm totally conscious of this problem and I'm trying to use that influence positively.
I think that aviation is so broad - I constantly try to contact airlines, air traffic control
and airports and I want to make content behind the scenes.
I want to get more access and make unique content to benefit you, the viewers.
Of course, it benefits me as I gain that experience but of course, I want to share that content
so that everyone can see what is behind a Dubai air traffic control tower, what it's
like to go to the most dangerous airport in Bhutan in Paro, what it's like to go to the
highest airport in China and what it's like to fly on a main, Chinese aeroplane.
These are my new YouTube concepts and I hope that you really like this kind of variety.
It's a lot more than the basic flight reviews that I used to do.
And then, there's also instances of people saying: Sam, your video only talks about positive
things, you hardly make any critical comments.
I ultimately think that criticism is a form of art.
I actually think it through before making any criticism here.
I actually have to be balanced.
I actually think that it should be about both sides of the argument.
You know - is this only happening on my flight or is this only one occurrence?
Because there is lots of subjectivity, in terms of soft services - you know, you could
have a good service today, you could have a bad service tomorrow, this person could
have a bad day, I don't want to be involved in any soft elements because it's hard.
It's hard to quantify, it's hard to clarify these kind of soft services problems.
You know, I sometimes give a bit of constructive criticism on the hardware.
Sometimes I can tell you that the seat is a bit narrow or the seat hit my leg on the
foot-well - that kind of comment.
I'd rather focus on fact instead of the soft side of things.
This is how I am doing it.