As passengers, we’re often quick to complain when airlines provide bad service or things go wrong.

Indeed, I often provide feedback when airlines provide a disappointing experience or things like the in-flight entertainment don’t work properly. I think it’s equally important to recognise airline staff who provide outstanding service. Often, the difference between a good flight and a great one is enthusiastic and dedicated cabin crew who go out of their way to look after their passengers.

What prompts me to write positive feedback

I don’t send feedback after every single flight. In fact, I probably only do it after around 5% of flights. But I do take the time to write to the airline if the cabin crew – or any other airline employees I’ve interacted with during my journey – have done a genuinely fantastic job.

For example, I might write a compliment for a flight attendant who provides exceptionally good service, well beyond what’s required. Or, occasionally, I might want to acknowledge cabin crew who have done a great job handling a disruption or dealing professionally with a difficult passenger.

Of course, I also make sure that I say “thank you” to the crew. That is always appreciated and goes a long way. Some people also give small gifts like chocolates to the cabin crew to recognise their hard work and good service. But there’s a reason I make sure to also give feedback to the airline.

What happens when you send a compliment to an airline

When you send a compliment through the feedback form on an airline’s website, it will generally be forwarded to the same department that deals with complaints and general enquiries. This department mostly gets complaints, so they really appreciate when people also take the time to write in with compliments.

What happens next depends on each airline’s processes, but those compliments don’t just go into a black hole! The airline will usually respond to thank you for the compliment, and they’ll also pass it on internally.

The airline will try to identify the exact employee or employees that you’re complimenting. For this reason, make sure that you provide the exact details of your flight (i.e. your flight number and date, and/or your booking reference) in your feedback. If there is a particular crew member you would like to acknowledge, try also to remember and use their name.

If I’m planning to send feedback, I often write the person’s name as a note on my phone while I’m on the flight so I won’t forget it.

Those compliments do get passed on to the employee’s manager. If an individual receives lots of compliments, that reflects very positively on their performance and it could even help them to get a promotion in the future.

Most airlines also pass on the feedback directly to the employee. In the case of Qantas, for example, the staff member receives a very nice message congratulating them for the great feedback. They also get to see the exact words that the customer sent through.

This doesn’t happen often, so when staff do receive these messages it often makes their day.

Some airlines make it difficult to send compliments

Airlines – and especially the employees who are receiving the compliments – love it when customers provide positive feedback. Yet, some airlines make it frustratingly difficult to do so.

For example, I flew with Jetstar last weekend. The cabin crew were extremely friendly, professional and worked really well as a team.

After that flight, I wanted to send feedback to Jetstar complimenting the entire cabin crew. I found the “complaints and compliments” page on Jetstar’s website, but this page doesn’t actually contain a form you can fill out. Your only option is to start a live chat. When you do, there are 28 categories to choose from in the drop-down menu… and not one of these is “give a compliment”.

I’m not the only person who’s come across this problem. Other AFF members have also tried and failed to send compliments to Jetstar. As one person wrote on our forum…

Had this same issue!! Wanted to put in a compliment but only found the complaints form which all got too hard and some of the options didn’t make sense for a compliment. So I just put it in the too hard basket and gave up.

It very much looks to me like Jetstar deliberately doesn’t offer a feedback form because it expects to mostly receive complaints. That’s a bit of a shame, particularly for the airline’s staff who’ll never receive many of the compliments they might otherwise have. Perhaps Jetstar might receive a few more compliments if customers didn’t have to jump through hoops to acknowledge good service! 😉

The workaround I used was to contact Jetstar on Facebook. After answering a few questions from a bot and a bit of a wait, I was finally connected to a real person who acknowledged my feedback and said they would pass it on.

Where to send compliments to airlines

Most airlines provide customer feedback forms on their websites where you can send through both complaints and compliments.

Here are some links directly to these pages for other Australian airlines:

• Qantas Customer Care feedback form
• Virgin Australia feedback & claim form (you can select “compliment” as the Feedback Type under “Feedback Details”)
• Rex feedback & request form
• Link Airways feedback form
• Airnorth online feedback form
• Alliance Airlines passenger satisfaction survey

And here are some links to pages where you can provide feedback to other key international airlines:

• Air New Zealand
• Singapore Airlines
• Malaysia Airlines
• Cathay Pacific
• Emirates
• Qatar Airways
• United Airlines

Matt Graham

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include aviation, economics & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.