Originally Posted by
mherdeg
One of the "best" ways is to send a physical letter -- something that briefly explains how the good service made you feel and specifically calls out the employee -- either to the airline's headquarters or (if you can figure it out) the airline's office at the airport where the crew member is based.
There is occasional discussion about this (see e.g.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/3772423-post12.html from 2005). Real-paper mail is so rare these days that it takes special effort to notice and acknowledge; a really positive letter is probably 10% likely to get lost in the mail, 90% likely to get noticed and appreciated and maybe used to improve the crew member's career.
United HQ is - United Airlines, Inc. / PO Box 06649 / Chicago, IL 60606-0649 / USA.
Totally gonna do that for the bubba dude Johnny = write a real letter. He said he was based from LAX, what address would I use? (I can look up the address but is there a corporate address that would be better?) The dude made the delayed flight fun for the whole plane just on pure enthusiasm, a real top level performance, very impressed by the whole crew honestly. Deserve a shout out.