A popular aviation YouTuber with more than one million subscribers has found himself embroiled in a backlash after he claimed that he was stranded in Singapore due to the ongoing conflict in Iran and the closure of airspace throughout the Middle East.
It turns out, however, that while capacity in premium cabins like Business and First Class is almost non-existent, there are seats available to book in Economy Class.
Going by the name of Nonstop Dan on his YouTube channel, Swedish-American Daniel Goz posted a video from his hotel room on March 3 to explain how he and his partner had been left ‘stranded’ in Singapore.
It didn’t take long, however, for Daniel to start getting mercilessly roasted when fans noticed that there were plenty of options available for them to leave Singapore… it would just require them to fly in Economy Class.
Daniel and his partner Oscar arrived in Singapore on February 28, the same day that the US-Israeli air strikes started in Iran, and airspace across the region was shut down as Iranian forces fired missiles towards Israel, Bahrain, Kuwait, Qatar, and the United Arab Emirates.
The pair planned to stay in Singapore for one night before heading on to Dubai, but they quickly realized that the onward flight had been cancelled. At this point, they started to rethink their travel plans and considered traveling to Sweden to visit family.
At this point, however, Daniel explains how capacity on long-haul international flights has been so severely affected by the widespread disruption to ‘super-connectors’ like Emirates, Etihad Airways, and Qatar Airways.
Daniel claimed that capacity is so badly squeezed that on some searches he did to get to Europe, there were no seats available for around two weeks.
While Daniel urged people not to travel unless absolutely necessary because of the risk of flights being cancelled at a moment’s notice, viewers were quick to call out his claims that no seats were available.
“Subtitle: I would rather stay in a luxury hotel than fly economy,” one viewer wrote, while another roasted: “Swallow your pride and take economy this one time.”
Another commentator wrote: “Absolutely hilarious that Dan would rather wait two weeks in Singapore without seeing his family rather than dealing with the horror of travelling economy.”
And a fourth wrote: “I love your disgust at the thought of having to fly economy like us plebs!”
The backlash was not lost on Daniel, who quickly responded, writing: “Lots of you saying ‘just fly economy!’ and I totally get that… I mentioned premium cabins because that’s what this channel usually covers.”
“The bigger point of this video, that global aviation capacity has been massively disrupted and millions of travelers, families, students, people on work trips, will feel ripple effects, still stands.”
Daniel is not, however, wrong to say that global airline capacity will be severely constrained by ongoing tensions in the Middle East, and the resulting airspace closures.
Thankfully, Emirates and Etihad have now resumed limited schedules with the ability for passengers to book flights, rather than just operating special repatriation services.
That being said, schedules are still much reduced, and Qatar Airways remains all but grounded with its Doha hub still shuttered.
The security situation could also change again with little to no notice, and, while diminished, Iran continues to launch missile and drone attacks at Qatar and the UAE.
At first I thought he was stuck in Iran or something like that
I just don’t like the dude! He’s so full of himself and thinks he’s royalty ever time he posts one of his nauseatingly annoying videos. Like he’s better than the rest of us. He needs to take a slice of “Humble Pie” and get off his very high horse! Reminds me of Sam Chius antics! Anything for likes I guess