Heaven's war has broken out: Josh Cahill Vs Sam Chui, accusations and innuendo between youtubers
In this world I am the last to arrive, and I do not even dare to put myself on the same level as certain faces of millions [...]

In this world I am the latest and I don't even dare to put myself on the same level as some of the faces with millions and millions of views, but as a non-paying viewer I have to say that I'm really interested in what's going on between two of the biggest youtubers dedicated to aviation: Sam Chui and Josh Cahill in strict order of followers on YT.
In this article:
From this diatribe may come a small shakeup in the world of YT reviewing companies, both from the point of view of carrier relations and from the point of view of content dissemination, now let's see whether other players will join the tussle or not.
A small premise
Numbers aside there are two huge differences between me, aka The Barbone, and all the protagonists in this gang war.
- I am not a youtuber, or rather The Flight Club project did not start as a youtube channel, but was added to the website. As I have said many times the website went live 2 years before the first video and after I had already published over 40 flight reviews.
- The Italian language. It is a limitation, but also a barrier for those who want to enter. It significantly limits the potential audience that videos can reach, but at the same time it allows the Italian viewer to have native content that talks about flights, rules, and concepts that are different from market to market.
For these two reasons I feel comfortable enough to express my opinions in this clash of titans. For the avoidance of doubt, I say that I do not like the work of either of them, on the contrary I prefer the editorial line of Noel Phillips, another YT with over 600k subscribers.
Also the main revenues of the TFC project, unlike the characters in the article, do not come from the passive income generated by YT, but from the site.
I don't want to spoil the two videos (this way I don't make the two main characters lose money), but I am sure it is not a marketing stunt, it is a real dissing not for a few more views.
Where Sam Chui is right and the half-truths he tells
In the newly released video the #1 to the world of AVgeeks on the web perjures himself not to ask for money in exchange for his reviews, I have no trouble believing that this is the case, however, there are aspects that listening carefully Sam never specifies: never mentions whether or not it pays for tickets, which in some ways could amount to a kind of quid pro quo.
Being able to travel when you want, to where you want for a passenger like Sam Chui means saving tens and tens of thousands every year and often does not fly alone, at least judging from some of the pictures (unless there is an experienced cameraman on board each time willing to help the YT).
In addition to this the company is informed of its presence on board and magically crews are not camera shy, they open secret compartments, cockpit doors etc etc, it is obvious that with this creative model SC cannot be critical of the company.
From the outside, therefore, it seems obvious to me that Sam has succeeded in maximizing his status: I don't pay for tickets, I get invited to super exclusive events, I create content that no other YT can produce And so my videos get millions of views. In addition to that he gets paid as a testimonial, presenter, pr, guest of honor and does special projects (for a fee) with n thousand companies.
I don't like Josh Cahill, but his objections make sense
Josh Cahill, in my opinion, has taken a very peculiar drift. In recent months he has grown by hundreds of thousands of followers pumping controversy out of proportion, starting with his ban aboard Qatar and looking in every video for the possible controversial vein, because on the Internet, as in journalism, they sell the three S's "Sex, Money, Blood."
One only has to see the covers of his videos to understand that with controversy comes a lot of views, especially When you talk about companies that, like Vistara/Air India, have more than 1 billion potential passengers behind them. This is an editorial line that I do not like, but which even if I wanted to I could not pursue by making videos only in Italian.
On one thing, however, I agree with Josh, Sam's figure is quite unique. It is clear that Sam Chui does a different job, but by not explaining it in his videos, he puts everyone else in a really complicated situation of having to "compete" the battle of views at unequal arms.
Sam's "negative" reviews can be counted on the fingers of one hand, because it is obvious that it could not be otherwise, on the contrary Cahill travels (I think) the way I do, that is, as a paying customer without notifying the company, that way he hopes anything can happen to have something to tell and looks for "the hair in the egg" in every flight he takes. Not to mention that given the "industrial" amount of YTs doing flight reviews finding something new, original and interesting is increasingly difficult and if you live on views alone it is increasingly complicated, more expensive tickets and less revenue.
When in Rome, do as the Romans do
The pandoro gate, but more generally the influencer marketing boom has led some nations to regulate how content is disseminated. The rules of "labeling" as on food even on videos/reels that are posted in Italy is very clear. This does not happen everywhere, so it is impossible to know whether Sam is a guest, testimonial or passenger, same goes for Josh and many other YTs and definitely affects how the message is perceived by the viewer.
I sleep peacefully because as I always say I pay for my tickets (cash or points) and I never inform anyone that I will be on board, so as an Edoardo Raspelli Of the heavens: I fly, eat and review. And in any case, the law requires me to declare whether I am making a markette (or not).
How different I am from the two duelists
My model is a hybrid, I got into the world of points first with forums, then with bloggers such as The Points Guy, One Mile at a Time, Heads for Points, and many others.
In fact I am first a site, then a YT channel and finally a social product. My main revenue,comes from the site and not from YT, sure the channel grows (we have exceeded 60 subscribers and 25k subscribers), but I am not in the tunnel of views.
Today all this supports the project and makes it profitable, but certainly being able to talk to the world and make 1M views with one video would be a whole different dimension, but As in my other publishing ventures: small is beautiful.