American Airlines Reveals How They Track Customers That Complain Often

When you head up in the air, there are certain annoyances and inconveniences that come with the territory. Like seats that don’t recline or air vents that don’t blow air. Now American Airlines is letting flight attendants give bonus airline miles to help alleviate the minor suffering that comes with dealing with the issues, according to airlines-just-revealed-way-they-track-customers-who-complain-too-much.html”>Inc.com. But now that the program is in place, some flight attendants are concerned that passengers will take advantage of it and want to make sure that such passengers aren’t rewarded.

It turns out that the same technology that allows flight attendants to give rewards also allows them to track passengers that take advantage of the system. And flight attendants can withhold payouts.

Jill Surdek, American’s vice president for flight service, explained it all on a recent episode of Tell Me Why an American Airlines podcast meant for airline employees. During the podcast, she addresses flight attendants that are concerned about customers taking advantage of the program. It seems that the iSolve system that gives out rewards points also tracks customers by reservations and social media so that if a passenger is taking advantage and complaining too often, then American will know it right away and be able to revoke points.

Surdek reminds concerned flight attendants that the percentage of passengers that would overuse the system is very small. And it curious that flight attendants would care one way or the other about how many airline miles a passenger earns.

Although having flight attendants being able to address concerns from the air is reassuring for passengers, it would also be nice if things like seatback screens always worked to avoid issues in the first place.