Originally Posted by DaveObee

1. All customers (well, except for the one per cent) are cheap these days. Everyone wants something for nothing. Nobody sees value in anything. This applies to just about every good or service available today. With airlines, we expect perfection at a low, low price.

2. Yes, very high expectations, and that creates problems. We all seem eager to sweat the small stuff. That means AC and the others face complaints about just about everything, which means they all get ignored until there is a crisis; the valid complaints get lost in the shuffle.

3. Most customers don't have the smarts to solve issues on their own. (Hint: if you have a complaint, strip out all of the emotion, boil it down to the relevant points, make it easy for the recipient to sort out what went wrong and what will satisfy you.) Dealing the media can be a crap shoot at best, for two reasons. First, staff cuts mean you are less likely to get attention there. Second, media attention can sometimes backfire, and cause a company to take a firm stand against the complaint. It's best to resolve complaints on your own -- but that means learning how to do that. Social media is another issue entirely; sometimes it works, sometimes it fails, and it all depends on how clear the complaint is, and how valid it appears to be.