I had such a horrible experience with my last plane trip, I actually made a YouTube video about it. Rather than rehash all the irritating details of that experience, I decided to write a post about how to handle airline complaints if you ever need to make one. I found two articles online that dealt with this, but I've also summarized them below.
What Airlines Do When You Complain
How to Complain About Your Airline Service
1. When writing a complaint, try to keep your emotions out of the situation, and stick to the facts. You are more likely to be taken care of with respect when the person reading your complain does think you are a raving lunatic. (That actually applies to all areas of life...but I'm a travel blogger, not a life coach...moving on...)
2. Be specific...and realistic...about what you would like for compensation. Delays suck, but an hour delay (unless it completely ruins your connections/travel arrangements) aren't at the same level as lost luggage or a flight cancellation. Your request should be comparable to the annoyance you suffered.
3. Threatening the airline to never fly them again generally doesn't work. This isn't a bank or cable company- it sounds cold but losing one customer generally won't hurt their business the way you think it would. They have no incentive to spend money on righting a situation once you've sworn you will never step foot on their planes again.
4. Spamming the employees (especially CEOs) of an airline with your complaint letter will not get your problem solved faster. It will only get forwarded to the complaint department anyway. Let them decide if it must be escalated to a higher level staff member. If you aren't getting a response, keep track of how many times you've had to contact them, and let them know that you are requesting a response.
While I do not regret making my YouTube video, I now see the areas where I could haven handled the situation differently, as well as things I did that were ok. Hope this helps someone!
