When an airline or hotel severely disappoints: The art of complaining (well)
Our flight to the Bahamas in February was delayed by 6 hours, due to mechanical breakdown. Although we rarely complain and request compensation, we lost almost a full day from a 4-day trip (instead of arriving at noon, we arrived after 6pm.)
If you travel enough, a horror story is coming for you
In the last 12 months, we have flown 74,074 miles, on 49 flights, in 9 countries, transiting through 28 airports (thank you Flighty App for making this so easy to track!) The more you fly, the more you will understand the reality that travel horror stories are going to come. Planes are going to have mechanical issues. Pilots are going to time out and you’ll have to wait on a new crew. Weather delays are going to occur.
Now, you can do your best to mitigate the likelihood of these horror stories, for example:
Don't wait for the airline to tell you there is an issue. You can keep an eye on airports that are experiencing the highest percentage of delays in the country on FlightAware. You can also manually check the status of your specific flight, and where your plane is coming from, on your airline's website or app in the 24 hours leading up to travel (or use the Flighty App!) You can also get flight status updates sent directly from FlightAware. Get ahead of your airline’s notification system, so you’re finding out before others are on your flight, and can get ahead of the curve!
Avoid flying in the South and Northeast in the afternoon in the summer, when thunderstorms are most frequent. Instead, book early-morning flights, when weather delays are less likely.
Book a few flight options for every itinerary, with programs that offer free award cancellations (like American, United, Delta or Southwest), so if one flight has a substantial delay, you have other options already booked.
Treat widespread airline delays (not a one-off plane mechanical breakdown, but one connected to a large weather event or airline meltdown) like it’s the zombie apocalypse. Do everything you can to not stay in one place, because you will likely be stuck. I love Gary Leff’s quote: “My general strategy for airline schedule shenanigans is the same you’d employ in a zombie apocalypse: keep moving or die.”
When the horror story is unavoidable
However, no matter how savvy you become, sometimes the horror story finds you, no matter your level of preparation. You’re sitting on the tarmac when the mechanical breakdown occurs. Both your original flights and your contingency flights experience a substantial delay. And the resulting aftermath severely affects your plans. What do you do then?
There’s a ton of great resources already out there on the steps you should take to get rebooked on a new flight and limit the damages of a delay or cancellation, like these articles on 10X Travel and Thrifty Traveler. What I want to key in on is the best way to request compensation from an airline when there is a substantial delay or cancellation that impacted your plans or a hotel chain when the room condition or customer service was so poor that it severely impacted your experience.
Steps to take to request compensation
Confirm the best communication method. For hotels, we have found reaching out to the front desk or the hotel’s customer service phone number BEFORE you check out is most optimal. For airlines, we have found the most success in either a conversation over their app or an email/message to their customer service team. We have also found success messaging an airline or hotel chain’s customer service team on Twitter, but that has decreased in effectiveness recently.
Start with your “why”. Communicate the purpose of your trip. Don’t make anything up, but if you’re on your honeymoon, share that! If you’re taking your dad on a retirement trip, mention it!
“Hello! My name is ________. We’ve been saving up cash and miles the past year to be able to take a trip to Paris for our 20th anniversary trip.”Lay out the facts. Try your best to stay calm. Stick to the facts. Avoid anything that resembles, “You suck. You stole my points.” :) Remember, it’s a human on the other side (at least for now, until AI takes this job over in the future!)
“Unfortunately, our flight was canceled earlier today for mechanical reasons, and, despite efforts by your customer service teams to rebook us today, no feasible options were found. With that in mind, we will have to stay in _______ tonight. Now, our trip will now be cut short by a day, meaning we will miss out on _________ (experience). We weren’t able to have that special moment today.”Ask for compensation. Don’t sound entitled. Don’t throw out an unreasonable request. Simply, put it out there.
“Is there anything you can do to ease the frustration of the cancellation?”
Reference Points
To clarify: we do not request compensation for every little delay. Sometimes we don’t even do it for a cancellation, if the airline moves in an expedient way to resolve the issue, or we had contingency bookings that we utilized. For every 100 hotel or stays or flights, we are maybe complaining 2-3 times. (Word of warning: if you complain too much, there is a chance your award account could get shut down. Unlikely, but possible!) However, sometimes the sting of the delay or cancellation was enough to justify us using the process above to request compensation.
Here’s a few examples from the past 12 months:
Our flight to the Bahamas in February was delayed by 6 hours, due to mechanical breakdown. We lost almost a full day from a 4-day trip (instead of arriving at noon, we arrived after 6pm.) While we were sitting on the tarmac in Charlotte, awaiting takeoff to Nassau, I wrote a complaint email on American’s website, following the 4 steps above, and within 6 hours, I had received notice that 15k miles were being deposited into my account. Note: I am an Executive Platinum with American. My wife, Courtney, and two girls, each only received 5k miles, as they have no status with American.
My return flight from a work trip last September from Doha to Montreal on Qatar Airways was delayed by 9 hours because of mechanical breakdown (we were on the plane for 90 minutes while they tried to fix it, but they were not able to). This was unique, as it was a flight to Canada, where Canadian law states that I would be eligible for $700 CAD in compensation (approx. $520 USD), since the flight was delayed by more than 6 hours, but less than 10 hours. After requesting this online from Qatar’s website, I received the payment about 7 weeks later. The delay also forced me to sleep overnight in Montreal. Since I had put the flight on my Capital One Venture X, the hotel was reimbursed as well, using the great trip delay/cancellation coverage on the card.
A Delta Airlines flight of mine was canceled a few months back. They offered a free flight change and an automatic 10,000 Skymiles. I immediately reached out to an agent via chat on the app, who awarded me an additional 10,000 miles on the spot. In addition, I also submitted a formal request on the Delta website and they awarded me a $200 e-credit! This was by far more than I expected, but the cancellation was a hot mess, so I took the money and ran. :)
Conclusion
I don’t think complaining every time you experience a minor inconvenience while traveling is either wise or beneficial. The more you travel, the more you need to be willing to let some things roll off your back. It will decrease your stress level and help keep you grounded to the fact that travel is a luxury that a lot of people in this world get to experience.
However, sometimes you have an experience with an airline or hotel chain that is so egregious that it’s worth asking for compensation. When you do, though, make sure you: start with how the issue affected your plans, stick to the facts, and gently and calmly ask them to consider some form of compensation (in either points/miles or dollars).
