Positive Airline Feedback: Why Sending a Compliment Matters

Although often overlooked by passengers, sending an official compliment and giving positive feedback to an airline company is a great way how you can show your support to fantastic crew members.

Qatar Airways flight

Last week, I enjoyed an excellent flight in Qatar Airways’ amazing Qsuites business class.

Thanks to a recent status match promotion I was able to secure Qatar Airways gold status, which came with complimentary Qcredits which I could use to upgrade my flights from economy to business class for free.

Although the innovative hard product of the Qsuite itself and Qatar Airways’ excellent food and beverage service were big contributing factors towards my great flight, the professional and highly attentive flight attendants played a role too.

Throughout the flight, both business class flight attendants serving my aisle (Marie and Wing) were simply lovely, creating a welcoming and friendly environment in the skies.

Sending feedback to the airline

Although passengers are quick to complain to the airline when they had a bad in-flight experience, I think it’s actually more important to send positive feedback when you had some extraordinarily good service.

Of course, you should always thank the crew after a flight as that is simply the polite thing to do.

If flight attendants or ground service employees went above and beyond you can definitely tell them in person how much you appreciated it.

However, there are some important reasons why sending such feedback through officials channels matters.

In the case of Qatar Airways the airline has a handy feedback page where you can send a compliment or a complaint.

If an airline doesn’t have a similar web form you can always contact them by email or phone to pass on some positive feedback about flight attendants.

I recently did this as well after receiving some great service on an intra-European flight from Paris to Madrid on an Air France Airbus A220.

Another good example was my KLM flight from Stavanger to Amsterdam on which the entire cabin crew handled a long delay on the tarmac in an absolutely amazing way by giving frequent updates to passengers and even entertaining the kids on board the plane by bringing them to the cockpit for a little tour.

Why positive feedback is important

There are a couple of reasons why providing positive feedback matters.

Of course, such information is useful for the airline as they know what passengers like about the service and which flight attendants excel.

However, it is perhaps most important for the flight attendants (or ground employees directly employed by the airline) themselves.

Many airlines have performance bonuses for their personnel and saying a good word can definitely help in this regard.

Moreover, employees with a consistently good record who received glowing feedback from multiple passengers could potentially be promoted in rank or go up a pay scale.

Perhaps more important is the recognition – something we all strive for in our work.

It’s unfortunately quite common for flight attendants to be bossed around by ungrateful passengers or squeezed by airline companies over pay and work hours.

And I’m not even talking yet about flight attendants having to deal with all kinds of unruly passengers.

By providing positive feedback and giving a compliment, flight attendants and other airline employees simply feel appreciated.

Comments are forwarded

If you write some official feedback to the airline, they will most likely forward it to the relevant crew members as well as it’s good for employee motivation and morale.

After sending feedback to Qatar Airways, this was (part of) the email I received back for example:

“Appreciation coming from our valued passengers always motivates us even more to provide the best service possible.

“Our staff will certainly be delighted to hear about your commendation once we pass this on to them. Your satisfaction is certainly worth all our best efforts. Please be assured that we have forwarded your kind comments to the relevant team for their attention and further perusal.

“It is our endeavor to ensure your comfort and convenience at any point during your journey with us. We take pride in knowing that we have achieved this on this occasion.”

Why you should be careful with negative feedback

At the other hand, you should be careful with providing negative feedback to an airline and think twice about this before you send that message or email.

Of course, in case you encountered a serious incident on board or connected to your trip you should certainly send a complaint.

However, just because your flight attendant may be grumpy or just going through the motions with the service is hardly a reason for a complaint!

Although it’s the part of the job of airline employees to be polite, friendly and helpful, there might be some hidden personal reasons why an employee might simply not be in the mood or in the position to provide good-quality service.

After all, let’s not forget that we all have our good and bad days at work.

Besides, it’s important to realise that while compliments and positive feedback can certainly aid airline employees in their career, a complaint can destroy it instantly.

Especially in the case with Asian or Middle Eastern airlines I would be very hesitant with sending a complaint about individual employees as it might not only be a reprimand they are getting but it could easily be ground for instant dismissal.

Do you want to be that jerk who wants to ruin another person’s life because of one unsatisfactory interaction or bit of service on a flight?

Conclusion

Giving the airline feedback about their crew members can be great way to thank flight attendants or ground personnel for their extraordinary service.

If an airline employee has gone above and beyond in providing service to you as a passenger, I think it’s only natural to thank them in person and to write to their employer how much you appreciated it.

As we seem to live in a time where ungrateful behaviour and impoliteness are all too common, you are showing the airline employee(s) in question some appreciation which can even help them in their career.

If you provide positive feedback to the airline, you can rest assured that the compliment will be passed on the crew members in question and that it will be taken into account by the company.

While giving a compliment is great, you should however be more careful with providing negative feedback or filing a complaint about a crew members as airline employees can get into serious problems (or even get fired) if you do – and you don’t want to be that jerk.