Article: Why I Send Airlines Compliments for Great Service

[AFF Editor]

Why I Send Airlines Compliments for Great Service is an article written by the AFF editorial team:

Why I Send Airlines Compliments for Great Service

Most passengers don't take the time to compliment great service, so airlines love it when customers do. They often pass on the feedback to the employee and their manager.

www.australianfrequentflyer.com.au

You can leave a comment or discuss this topic below.

 

[McDonaG4]

A timely piece, especially with the holiday season coming up and staff going above and beyond to make our flights a success.

I recently had a positive experience with Qantas for an unaccompanied minor flight and made sure to let them know. Qantas did take the effort to reply nicely, and no automated message either !

 

[nancypants]

Please use your influence to open up a better pathway for JQ!!

 

[DejaBrew]

Great article and 100% agree. I don't often use the feedback form, but when I have a great experience, I do like to send a compliment through. If nothing else, I'm hopeful that the feedback reaches the employee(s) in question and puts a smile on their face. I also think it's incredibly important for the airline to understand what sort of things create positive (or negative) experiences and impressions for their customers. After all, each employee is a "brand ambassador" and can help to make (or break) a customer's perception of the brand.

 

[drron]

And some airlines go a step further. AA pre covid added your compliments to your profile and that was a positive for the customer. I was told I was given an upgrade over a fellow with higher status due to my giving of compliments.
Also I once had a chat with a purser on AA at FRA during a lengthy wait for an airbridge and he confirmed the Eagle status which I had known due to many posts by jon NYC on FT. 5 eagles was the highest and basically obtained by the nicest of their EXPs. He confirmed I had 4 eagle status which he thought was impressive for someone from Australia.

I didn't give compliments for this reason as it was some years down the track before I knew about the program. I just did it because it was obvious that people get more negative reviews than positive and i do my little bit to help businesses that often do the right thing.

 

[RooFlyer]

I must admit that it has to be quite exceptional for me to put in a compliment (but equally, has to be really really bad for me to venture a complaint).

Such as the time on American Airlines in J when having just sat down I realised that I had left my iPad charging in the Belize City terminal. The captain or second officer overheard me speaking to the FA asking if she could put a radio message down and after explaining to him where it will probably was, the flight deck officer de-boarded by the stairs, went across the terminal and came back with it in his hand.

I found a few emails of American Airlines executives and broadcast my appreciation as wide and loud as I could.

 

[jamesatfish]

Timely article for me too, as I was just on the Qantas complements form this morning leaving some feedback for the crew of one of my recent flights.

Of course it wouldn't be an AFF post without complaining about Qantas IT:

1. Of the things that Qantas allow you to provide complements about, the crew are not actually an option. I can complement them on Aircraft Condition, Announcements, Facilities, Food, IFE or Seating, but there's no option for Crew.

2. The system helpfully shows you your recent flights so you can easily pre-fill those details. It doesn't split QF1/QF2 into the separate sectors, and once you provide feedback on one flight in a booking it disappears so you can't easily provide separate feedback on a different flight in the same booking.

In either case, fingers crossed that the feedback actually gets back to the crew.

 

[p--and--t]

Nice article. Yes would be good if JQ let you sent compliments. I've had at least 3 flights in the last12 months where I would have liked to do that.

 

[Greg555]

From my experience Qantas simply ignore their feedback form. The form itself is a confusing mess...regardless, they won't action any complaints.

 

[AbsolutelyAnything]

I used to regularly send a tweet to Qantas with positive feedback and mention specific crew and did once check on a following flight that the crew member (Antonio) did get my feedback and he said he did and was hugely thankful.

However, recently I noticed I no longer get the acknowledgement from Qantas in response to the tweet that I used to, so actually have no idea if that method still works or not.

 

[Greg555]

Please use your influence to open up a better pathway for JQ!!

I'll second that! The Jetstar complaint process is ridiculous and insulting. You are vetted by an overseas consultant who absolutely refuses to supply any other contact points for Jetstar Exec's etc to escalate larger more general issues experienced. Writing to the CEO is of course ignored. This is a disgusting attitude and policy towards customers. I'm have no doubt that the Qantas Group CEO is aware of and approves this...

 

[VPS]

I like people that take the time to send compliments and I will too but probably not as often as I could

 

[1022]

I have used the QF feedback form a couple of times for compliments for exceptionally good crew. The response has always seemed a bit automated and formulaic, so it's good to hear that compliments do actually work their way through the system to the staff member and their boss. One of my more recent reasons to send a compliment was the CSM working xmas day last year SYD-NAN. She was absolutely stellar and even managed to make this xmas eschewing grinch smile on 25 December. (The attentiveness and generosity of her topup technique might have contributed also)

Does @AFF Editor or anyone else know if free text responses in the standard (but seemingly random) post-flight surveys also get seen by human eyes and passed on? I'm guessing not seeing as they are probably coming from the marketing department rather than anything to do with Customer Relations.

 

[Mischief1]

Excellent article.

 

[9171]

Good article, and topic.

I very much encourage anyone to put in positive feedback, even if it is a daunting, or at least uncertain, task. IMHO it is just so very much a better use of your own time than delivering negative feedback.

I feel that feedback such as “XYZ is cough” or “I sufferred XYZ problem/affront” only have one useful purpose – your own feeling that you have been able to vent, which is something, at least. But I suspect bounces off a company in a futile manner. Sure, if 50,000 customers say “Z” is bad, they may change Z. But your voice is tiny in all this.

But if you drop in a positive about a crew member, etc, not only do you get a feel-good thing for yourself to have done so, there is the distinct possibility that your kind words may actually get through to the crew member. And to them, this does matter, it is felt and very much appreciated. Five minutes of your time can be a huge nice thing to a hard-working crew member.

Of course this is true in any industry/environment. But I think it is especially important in aviation/air travel as really, it is generally an uncomfortable experience, and we can all be cranky

9.

 

[Townsend]

I have only sent one compliment to Qantas (manager of the ServiceCounter at Melbourne international who went way beyond anything I expected) but I did not receive any feedback from Qantas. I just hoped his great service was acknowledged.

 

[ansett7e7]

Much of the focus of the article and comments is cabin crew. What about other airline touchpoints such as those with ground and contact centre staff? They often have a more critical brand ambassador task and longer interaction with passengers.

 

[jamesatfish]

Pleasingly I actually got a reply from Qantas this morning about the positive feedback I submitted yesterday, it's a bit of a generic reply but at least an acknowledgment that the feedback was received and has been passed onto the relevant flight crew.

 

[harvyk]

Yeap, I've sent in complements a few times. It's all well and good to complain as a form of feedback, but I also think there is something pretty powerful in saying, "yeah, that, do more of it because it was great".

 

[AFF Editor]

Does @AFF Editor or anyone else know if free text responses in the standard (but seemingly random) post-flight surveys also get seen by human eyes and passed on? I'm guessing not seeing as they are probably coming from the marketing department rather than anything to do with Customer Relations.

That's a good question and one that I don't know the answer to. The feedback from the post-flight surveys does get collected, but I'm not sure if it's down to the level of passing on compliments for specific staff.

If you want to make sure the feedback gets noted, it's best to fill out a Customer Care feedback form. You can select when doing this whether you want a response or not - sometimes I select "no" but they send a reply anyway thanking me for the feedback.