Had some great service on a flight the other day. Couldn't remember the name on the nametag of the attendant who helped me with something, so I asked the service director for her name so I could write up a positive note to send through the customer service page.

The service director said she wasn't sure, I thought that was odd and pried a little bit. Then she confessed that AC policy is to allow attendants to choose whatever name they like for their nametags, and it can be different for each flight if they like. So if customer service gets a commendation or complaint about someone, they have to reach out to the service director for that flight, who was supposed to keep notes on which attendant used which name that day so they can look up the person's real name. Of course, the notes of the service director that track this may very well get "lost" over the months it takes for AC customer service to process submissions.

I find this to be a rather bizarre practice. I get that you don't want your passengers stalking your flight attendants, but the airline is large enough that a first name, unless incredibly distinct, isn't going to be enough to dox someone. It does, though, seem like a great way to dodge accountability when customer service can't link the name in a customers' submission to the actual flight attendant the customer is referring to.

I wonder if they allow the pilots to do the same? When they say "This is your Captain, Frank Flyer, with your first officer, Randy Rescue", are they just making it up? Weird.