Post-Flight Airline Surveys: Why They’re Worth Filling Out

As consumers, we’re bombarded with emails and push notifications from companies requesting feedback. Whether it’s a pizza order, an Uber ride, a flight, a hotel stay, or a phone call with a customer service representative, the requests for feedback are endless.

For the most part, I don’t fill out these surveys, simply because that could be a full time job, in and of itself. However, I make a point of filling our surveys that I receive from airlines when I think there’s value to it, so I figured I’d talk about that a bit in this post. I’m also curious to hear how OMAAT readers approach this.

Airlines care a lot about survey results

Big picture, the airline industry isn’t exactly known for exceptional customer service, or for investing hugely in customer experience (there are of course exceptions, but I’m painting with a broad brush here).

That being said, you’d be shocked by how much airline executives care about survey results and net promoter scores, and how much it impacts the direction that things go. I really can’t stress enough how important this is to airlines, and how individual department heads are held responsible based on this.

I’ve had my fair share of conversations with executives in the airline industry over the years, including both on the product and loyalty program side. Sometimes they’ll ask for feedback, and after I share my thoughts, they’ll act surprised and say “our survey scores in that area are really great.”

At that point my jaw usually drops, and I’m not sure what to say. Out of respect for the conversations I’ve had, I don’t want to get into too much detail, but suffice to say that you’d be shocked to know some of the areas where airline executives don’t see any flaws in their offerings (yes, it’s probably at exactly the airlines you’d expect).

It reminds me a bit of Gordon Ramsay’s old “Kitchen Nightmares” show, which I find to be amusing. He comes into a struggling restaurant, and they don’t understand why they don’t have customers. Gordon says the food is absolute garbage, and almost without exception, the chef or owner responds “everyone loves our food.”

Of course the difference is that airlines can get away with offering less, since fundamentally they’re in the transportation business, and price and schedule is what matters most to airlines.

Surveys aren’t a great performance metric

Now, before I talk about my approach to filling out surveys from airlines, let me state that I actually don’t think surveys are a great metric of performance, and that companies often weigh them too much. There are lots of reasons they aren’t necessarily representative of the majority opinion on a topic:

• Generally you either have to be really satisfied or really dissatisfied to fill out a survey, since it takes time to do, and you’re not being paid for it
• Often questions are phrased in a way that favors the company, and that doesn’t get at the core of some of the issues
• Companies will frequently throw out the most “extreme” responses, both positive and negative, which really eliminates much of the feedback
• Frequent customers of a company are often just used to the status quo, so don’t bother providing feedback; I guess if they’re still patronizing a business then that’s fine, but over time, people do switch their business to competitors

I’m not saying surveys are a worthless metric, but personally I think companies often come to the wrong conclusion based on the survey data they receive.

My approach to filling out airline surveys

I’ll be honest, I don’t fill out a survey after every flight, because that could be time consuming. If I take a flight and it’s completely unmemorable and in line with my expectations, I usually don’t bother.

Instead, I like to provide feedback either when I have a fantastic experience, or when I have a negative experience. Generally if I have a great experience, I actually prefer to send an email to the airline to personally recognize the employee that went above and beyond, since I think that’s more likely to be beneficial to the employee.

However, when the experience is just negative overall, or when I think an airline has major room for improvement in an area, I’ll consistently fill our surveys, in hopes of that feedback eventually having some sort of an impact.

I realize my individual feedback won’t change anything in and of itself, but at scale, it can make a difference. Filling out a survey is a bit like voting in an election. You’re making your voice heard, and while it might not change the world, it’s the best you can do to get your point across.

Airlines love to make changes based on “customer feedback,” so if there are negative changes but you didn’t provide such feedback, then it’s harder to be annoyed.

Now, let me be clear, I try to be constructive with the topics on which I provide feedback. For example, intra-Europe business class is pretty sucky, but airlines aren’t going to change that, because that’s just totally the industry norm, so I don’t personally view that as something worth complaining about.

However, whether it’s bad inflight service, or inedible food, or a lack of power ports, or a subpar loyalty program, I think those are all things that are worth providing feedback on.

Bottom line

If you’re not filling out post-flight airline surveys, consider doing so, especially if you’re unhappy. All too often I hear airlines justify decisions based on customer feedback, and say that their “survey scores” in a particular area are good, even when it’s incomprehensible to me. Let the airlines know when you aren’t happy with the product they’re offering. The reality is that these survey results do matter, and can lead to change.

To balance that, I also recommend acknowledging great employees. Personally I prefer sending a dedicated email for that, but you can also fill out a survey.

Do you fill out post-flight airline surveys? Under what circumstances?