Reply to Asking Airlines For Compensation When They Mess Up?

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]OP here. Some posters asked for examples and said I sounded rude, so I want to clarify. I am not rude at all. I worked in service roles myself and I know how hard those jobs are. I am nothing like the older man and his wife I saw recently screaming at a gate agent because they wanted seats they never paid for (they book basic econ without assigned seats) I would never behave like that.

Since people asked for specifics, here are examples from just the past month. I travel a lot on this airline, so issues come up and these occur usually in chat:

An agent told us our family of four would be moved to the same row. At check-in we were split across three rows even though the agent confirmed the change. When I explained it politely in chat, they offered some credits.

An agent told me the last row of first reclined normally. On that aircraft it did not recline at all and the seat map flagged it as limited recline. I reported the incorrect information and they issued some miles.

On a short international flight I upgraded to first and went to the lounge early to get work done. It was so overcrowded there was nowhere to sit for over an hour, and two of the bathroom stalls were out of service. When I let them know afterward, they refunded the upgrade.

I booked a flight because it had lie-flat seats. A week before departure the aircraft switched to one without lie-flat. I explained the issue in chat and they provided some travel credit.

In chat I am never rude or demanding, and when I send a follow up email I am not angry. I just explain what happened clearly and respectfully. My real hope is that this leads to better training and better service, which should benefit everyone, not just me.[/quote]

For those examples, complaints likely will have no impact on service quality.

Airline lounges are crowded everywhere these days. If it is not crowded, one got lucky. Airport space (sq ft) is inherently limited, so usually difficult or impossible for an airline to obtain more lounge  space. Complaints cannot alter this reality either.

Airlines never want to do aircraft swaps, but they will happen unavoidably when unscheduled maintenance is needed on aircraft. Again, complaints cannot alter this reality.

Last row of any cabin is unlikely to fully recline. Yes, sometimes one gets lucky and it does fully recline. An actual frequent flyer usually knows this and plans accordingly. No, this is not knowledge a reasonable person would expect every agent to know or have immediately available to them.

If one does not have in-hand boarding passes indicating the group actually is seated together, then they will not be seated together. This is common sense that most flyers know. Again, on a (nearly) full aircraft the airline will not yank other people's seating just to accommodate a higher status passenger. This complaint also is unreasonable and unlikely to change anything.

OP has unreasonable expectations and complains about things airlines often cannot control.

I would never do as OP describes doing -- and I have lifetime status (and about 2M BIS miles) on a major US flag airline. [/quote]

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