Dr Jabadski

Seems that in the past few years both airlines and hotels have become much more stingy with customer service compensation.

Incentive Points, Quality Assurance Bonus, Customer Appreciation Bonus, each program has their own name for it but the values all seem to be declining. Seems that airlines started the decline several years ago and hotels just in the past year or 2.

From my experience, United until a few years ago would award 10,000 or 20,000 miles for a valid complaint, now it seems to be a just a spin doctored email. Hilton a couple of years ago would credit 40,000 or 50,000 points, now they think 10,000 points and an apology email are sufficient. Hyatt Gold Passport would quickly credit 20,000 or 30,000 points, World of Hyatt credits 4,000 points and calls it a day.

All of them would at least reply to (repetitive) emails, now they reply once or twice on a good day. Seems that their new way of dealing with complaints is to simply ignore them. (Maybe the "ignore it and it will go away" theory? )

Curious as to what other folks think about this and if it's any different for other airlines and hotels.

Thank you.

Exiled in Express

I complained for the first time in a long time for a disruption during AA's Halloween meltdown. I got two timely emails in response that seemed tailored to my situation as well as compensation both in travel credit and a check that exceeded my expectations.

Dave1378

I’m not sure as to your exact situation but in scenarios where airlines may be legally liable to pay, they’re quick to give out compensation that’s less then what they legally have to give in the hopes you accept, because the T&C’s of accepting that offer usually include you withdrawing any claims of liability.