Qantas cracks down on filming or photography without consent during flights

Social media stars who love posting glamorous shots drinking champagne or candid videos of passengers and crew are going to have to get permission under new rules.

Being a social media influencer or an unwanted internet star will become much harder when flying with Qantas after the airline tightened rules around filming on flights.

The national carrier has updated its conditions to require passengers to now “seek consent before filming or photographing Qantas Group staff, contractors or other customers”.

The practice does not prevent passengers from taking pictures of the view, or a selfie with the family, but will instead require consent if other people will be in those images or video.

The moved is designed to reduce disturbance and to ensure privacy to cabin crew and other passengers, the airline said.

“We know that lots of our customers want to film and photograph their journey and our policy is designed to make sure they can do that safely and respectfully,” a Qantas spokesman said.

“It doesn’t prevent customers from taking photos or videos of themselves, their family and friends or out of the window.”

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The decision has been welcomed by Flight Attendants’ Association of Australia federal secretary Teri O’Toole, who told The Weekend Australian that cabin crew have been subjected to horrible behaviour from people filming, citing that one flight attendant recieved death threats after Will.i.am post her name and photograph on social media following an altercation.

“We think it’s about time and we welcome the fact that if you want to film out the window, that’s great, but just don’t film the crew themselves without their permission,” she said.

“We have some crew that are up skirted, there’s some horrible things that happen on an aircraft now and they need protection, it’s a workplace and they shouldn’t go to work concerned about someone, taking photos and making fun of them.”

“I get that some people want to blog, and you can do all of that without photographing the crew.”

Lifestyle influencers, which encompasses travel, were the most popular form of social media influencers on Instagram in 2022, and research by Grand View Research shows influencers globally had a marketing platform market size worth nearly $US20bn ($30.30bn) in 2023, which is expected to keep compounding by 30 per cent every year to 2030.

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Across YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, influencers frequently post not just glamorous shots of drinking champagne or interior shots which often include faces of other passengers, but also attempt to shame other passengers and crew by capturing people sleeping or putting their feet on the bulkhead.

Filming inside Qantas aircraft had always been at the discretion of its crew, but the changes to section 12 of its conditions of carriage tighten the rules further by also requiring approval of other passengers.

Additionally Qantas has added two other directions that passengers must follow, including: “comply with any reasonable directions issued by the crew”, and “use electronic devices (excluding hearing aids and heart pacemakers) when and as directed and in the case of any failure to comply with the direction we may retain the device”.

Qantas now has the tightest rules around filming on-board aircraft with Virgin Australia’s conditions of carriage stating the use cameras or photographic devices (including mobile phones) is for personal use only.

“You must comply with the directions of flight crew when using cameras or photographic devices while on board.”

Rex and Qantas’s budget offshoot Jetstar have no requirement stated in either condition of carriage.

The clause will also ensure Qantas staff and other passengers have privacy when flying and allows them to not be unwanted social media stars. In theory the rule could also be used to limit the filming of incidents that occur on board.

Qantas has made a number of changes in recent weeks designed to improve the on-board experience for customers, including shifting the start time of its domestic economy bar service forward from 4pm to noon. It has also sought to relieve a pain point by offering baggage tracking in its app for passengers flying between 10 Australian cities.

Originally published as Qantas cracks down on filming or photography without consent during flights