How Do You Get Airline Customer Service Results?

With higher airfares and fees, reduced capacity, and more competition for seats, [[Flight upgrades | upgrades]], and [[Maximizing Awards | award tickets]], the chances of having a less-than-ideal flight experience in this day and age are quite high. Plus, with the holidays and winter coming up, the chances for delays, cancelations, and other mishaps will only be greater. Add on top of that a downsized, overworked, and undercompensated airline workforce, and the likelihood for your getting quick, effective customer service help should a problem arise also seems diminished.

SmarterTravel.com wants to know what strategies you employ to effectively get assistance with flight cancelations, lost luggage, or other snafus while traveling. What about getting upgrades at the airport or [[Effective Airline Complaints | filing complaints]] after your flight? Are you the sort to whip out your elite status card and threaten never to fly the airline again or do you use smiles and compliments to get your way?

Let us know your top tips by filling out our quick four-question survey. You’ll be briefly redirected to another site. We’ll be collecting tips for the next few weeks and posting the best in a feature publishing on October 16.