How to Write an Effective Airline Complaint

When an airline doesn’t deliver what it promised, provides poor service or owes you money, the best way to get a resolution is often to submit a complaint.

Airlines receive tens of thousands of complaint letters every day. Not all of these complaints are effective or achieve their desired outcome. Sometimes that’s because an airline might deliberately choose to fob off complaints (especially compensation or refund requests) in the hope the customer will give up. But sometimes it’s simply because the customer failed to write an effective complaint.

What not to include in an airline complaint

If you’ve spent much time on social media – including airline forums like AFF – you’ve probably seen plenty of posts complaining about something an airline did or didn’t do.

It often bemuses me when I read complaints that are inarticulate and full of emotion. For example, one complaint I read recently started as follows:

You absolute BASTARDS!!!!! Seriously….you absolute bastards!

If you’re contacting an airline (or anyone, really) because you want them to do something, why on earth would you start with this? It doesn’t win you any favours, and devalues the actual substance of your complaint.

A lot of complaints are also quite long-winded, focusing on minor details that are irrelevant to the purpose of the complaint. If you’re writing to request compensation for a broken in-flight entertainment system on your flight, why mention that you had trouble finding a carpark space at the airport?

And sometimes, if you’re primarily at fault, you just need to accept that. I once read a complaint intended for Qantas from someone who booked Business Class because they “needed” a lie-flat bed. But they didn’t check the aircraft type before booking, and ended up on a Boeing 737. They were then trying to get Qantas to pay medical bills for back problems they claimed they developed from that flight. I doubt they were successful.

Finally, please don’t include confidential or personal information such as the PIN number or password of your frequent flyer account with your complaint! I really shouldn’t have to say this, but you’d be surprised how often AFF receives complaints intended for Qantas which include the member’s account details.

When should you submit a complaint to an airline?

When I receive great service, I try to make the effort to send a compliment to the airline. Equally, if I’ve received exceptionally bad service, I sometimes feel it’s worth bringing this to their attention. If nothing else, it gives the company an opportunity to address an issue that might also affect other customers.

A second type of complaint is to request compensation when you didn’t get something as advertised. For example, if your seat didn’t recline, your baggage was damaged or you need to claim expenses following a cancellation, you might need to submit a form with the airline.

I wouldn’t submit a formal complaint just because I want to have a rant. This doesn’t really achieve anything, other than perhaps making you feel better about yourself for a brief moment. If the airline couldn’t have done anything differently, and I’m not seeking compensation, I wouldn’t bother complaining. There’s no real point.

But if you experienced a genuine service failure, it can be worth writing in. Many airlines will offer something for the inconvenience. This could include:

• A travel credit or discount off a future flight
• Frequent flyer points
• A hotel or wine voucher

Tips to write a better complaint letter

That “point” – the purpose of your complaint – is exactly what I suggest keeping in mind when writing it. Before you start, think about the reason for your complaint and the outcome you want to achieve.

When writing your complaint letter, you’ll have a much better chance of getting the outcome you want by:

• Keeping it succinct and to the point
• Being specific about the relevant details
• Omitting irrelevant details
• Focusing on the raw facts and keeping the emotion out of it
• Giving the company reasons to take your complaint seriously
• Avoiding personal attacks or derogatory language
• Clearly stating the outcome you are seeking

Remember, the person reading your complaint probably has to read and respond to hundreds of letters every day. If you do all of the above, you’ll make their job easier – which in turn makes it easier for them to properly address your issue!

Stating the desired outcome

The best way to get the outcome you want from writing your complaint letter is to specifically state what that is!

For example, if the in-flight entertainment didn’t work on your flight, I think it’s reasonable to say that you feel 5,000 frequent flyer points would be appropriate as compensation. Or if your Premium Economy seat doesn’t fully recline on a long-haul flight, I think it’s reasonable to ask for 10,000 points. More often than not, if your request is reasonable, you’ll get what you request.

That said, you need to be realistic about what you’re asking for. If you ask for 100,000 points or a full refund simply because you didn’t get your first meal choice, that is likely to go nowhere. Think about what the person responding to your complaint would actually have the capacity and authority to do.

Appropriate compensation also depends on the length of the flight and your class of travel. Airlines tend to take complaints more seriously, and offer more compensation, if you are flying long-haul or in a premium cabin.

An example of an effective complaint

AFF member sudoer shared with me the following complaint that they sent to Singapore Airlines. For context, Singapore Airlines advertised free Wi-Fi as a specific benefit of Business Class at the time.

I think this is a great example of how to write an effective complaint to an airline that succinctly states the issue and the desired outcome:

​Hello,

I am writing to request compensation for sub-standard service delivered on SQ178 on [date].

My KrisFlyer Elite Gold number is [redacted].

On this flight, the in-flight wifi & digital content portal functions advertised by Singapore Airlines were completely unavailable. No devices were able to join the ‘KrisWorld’ wifi network for the entire flight.

I promptly reported the issue to a crew member after the aircraft had passed 10,000ft (when the wifi service is supposed to become operational) and the crew attempted to troubleshoot the problem before verifying there was a technology issue with the aircraft.

They returned later to advise the wifi system had been reset, but it had not resolved the problem, and it would require an engineering team to fix it on the ground.

I appreciate that these things sometimes happen, however I booked business class tickets for my wife and I specifically for the wifi service advertised so we could use the flight time productively. Unfortunately that was not possible.

I wish to request compensation of 5,000 KrisFlyer miles per passenger (10,000 total) as a goodwill gesture by Singapore Airlines for not delivering the full service as advertised.

Singapore Airlines sent the following reply to this complaint:

We are writing to follow up on your feedback dated [date], regarding your experience on board flight SQ178 from Singapore to Ho Chi Minh City, under the booking reference XXXXXX.

We are sorry to learn that you were unable to access the complimentary WIFI offered in Business class on the abovementioned flight. We understand how important it is to have a positive travel experience and are committed to ensuring that our passengers are satisfied with the service they receive.

We can appreciate that being able to access the inflight WIFI is important to you as a business traveller and recognise that this is a important part of the flight experience, we are sincerely regret to have fallen short of your expectations on this occasion.

Please be assured that we take such matters seriously and your comments have been brought to the attention of our Inflight Connectivity team who address the service issues raised with the passenger concerns. We will continue to work closely with our service partners to improve the reliability of the inflight connectivity facility and received their assurance that corrective actions will be taken to avoid a recurrence. We seek for your understanding as we strive to improve on this aspect of our service.

We value your patronage with us and in acknowledgement of your overall experience, we would like to credit 5,000 KrisFlyer miles each into your KrisFlyer accounts as a gesture of goodwill. We understand that this will not reverse your experience, but we sincerely hope that this gesture will go some way to improve your experience with us. Please advise us of your acceptance in response to this email and we will proceed to credit the miles into your account upon your acceptance.

These miles are valid for three years and may be utilised towards partial payment for flights and purchases made via our KrisShop website.

Thank you for taking the time to write. We look forward to further opportunities to be of service to you.

Another example of an effective complaint

In 2024, I had booked a Business Class ticket from Melbourne to Canberra shortly after the airline introduced the Airbus A220 onto the route. Unfortunately, I felt afterwards that I didn’t really get what was advertised.

In my submission to Qantas Customer Care, I included the following points (and nothing else):

• Although I’m a Platinum frequent flyer with Qantas, for the previous few years I’d mostly flown Virgin Australia between Melbourne and Canberra because I got sick of the regular delays when Qantas was exclusively using unreliable Boeing 717s on that specific route
• I decided to give Qantas another try since it had introduced the new Airbus A220 onto the route
• At the last minute, Qantas swapped the plane from an A220 to an old Boeing 717
• My flight then got significantly delayed as the aircraft had a mechanical issue
• Qantas closed its lounge at Melbourne Airport before the flight started boarding, despite advertising that its lounge would stay open until the last flight for the evening departs
• My seat had a broken tray table and the aircraft was dirty
• I had paid for a Business Class ticket on this flight using my own money, and ultimately just felt I didn’t get value for money
• Despite all of this, I also mentioned that the cabin crew were trying their best and did a good job

In this particular case, I didn’t actually state that I wanted compensation and the reply from Qantas Customer Care was relatively generic. But they took my complaint seriously enough to offer 20,000 points as compensation.

This was the reply from Qantas:

Thank you so much for contacting Customer Care regarding your recent travel experience.

We would like to assure you that your experience was not the normal service we strive to deliver at our airline. We understand how disappointing this was to learn, and we so wish you had received better service from our airline regarding the experience faced, the service provided and the frustration you endured on your journey. We would like to assure you that your complaint and experience will not go unnoticed and will improve the performance of our staff concerned in terms of service delivery, all-round management, and resolution of this issue. We have also sent your complaint to our In-Flight Management team and our Airport Management team to have this looked into from their end, so that such incidents can be avoided.

As a gesture of goodwill, we have credited 20,000 points that have been forwarded to your frequent-flier account for the inconvenience caused. You can use the points towards flights, the purchase of food and wine through Qantas Wine, or a range of products from our online Qantas Marketplace.

We hope that the above information will aid in your query, and we look forward to welcoming you on board a Qantas flight in the near future.