I hadn't been involved with AA when they had these. I don't know if I understand these completely. I am curious as to why they would make a difference over and above just making it easy for travelers to compliment the staff.
From a corporation's persepective, I can see it creating more problems than solving it if they are to be used to make any tangible difference (in rewards, promotions, assignments, etc.) other than as just documented compliments. So I can see reasons other than cost cutting to discontinue this program.
How can they normalize this type of feedback over so many people to make any meaningful decisions? It is very difficult to assume that all travelers use comparable or meaningful criteria. Clearly there is scope for abuse, but that isn't the only problem. It is also potential dilution of its meaning because what some people hand it out for. Will cute, smiling FAs get these more than efficient, friendly ones? Will female FAs get these more than male FAs? Will someone bending the rules much more than what the corporation would let them get these more than one who doesn't? Will it set up an environment where FAs expect to receive one for any service?
Either these become unused for any significant rewards or they become catalysts for SOS gathering behavior which may not necessarily be the right thing to do for the airline or for the customers as a whole.
The reason I ask is that some parallel systems for gathering customer compliments to affect performance evaluation have not succeeded too well unless under strict controlled formats for customer feedback.