American Airlines Surveying New Ways To Compensate Passengers For Service Failures - View from the Wing

Earlier this month American Airlines stopped letting employees offer compensation to customers for broken seats and missing inflight meals. Without warning to employees they suspended the iSolve tool that let employees address problems on the spot, awarding customers with AAdvantage miles.

Instead employees were told to 'use their Elevate behaviors' to 'deescalate' situations, to actively listen to customers and 'prevent problems before they occur'. But they could no longer offer substance behind their apologies.

Well, compensation may not be gone for good. The airline appears to be surveying what sort of compensation they should be offering. In addition to miles some of the potential choices included,

These are, more or less, small non-bankable gestures that aren't likely to incur liability on the airline's books - although they may add crowding to the start of the boarding process, and to the airline's lounges, at precisely the time when the airline's best customers will value distancing most.