AAplause Certificates. Do you know what they do?

American Airlines gives their elite flyers (Gold, Platinum and Executive Platinum) 8 certificates, also known as AAplause Certificates, which are used by flyers to recognize the outstanding service provided by American Airlines and US Airways employees.

 

If a customer appreciates the excellent service of a reservations agent, gate agent, flight attendant, co-pilot, pilot or any other employee of American Airlines, American Eagle, or US Airways they can give the employee one of these certificates. In previous years these certificates allowed the employee to enter a raffle to win cash, electronics or free trips (by awarding AAdvantage miles).

However, nowadays some employees are reporting that they can only use it to enter a raffle which gives them a chance to win 25,000 miles – which is enough for a free domestic round trip in coach. Although the value of the AAplause certificates has diminished, the employees still enjoy receiving them because it lets them know that they are doing a good job. Everyone loves to get recognized for a job well done and these certificates are meant to demonstrate just that. Usually the employee will thank you profusely and be very happy about the certificate, they are usually more happy that you recognize their good work than the chance to win 25,000 miles.

Update: American/US Airways employees now earn cash prices ranging between $250 USD to $10,000 USD. All certificate holders are entered into a pool/lottery and then once is chosen. The more AAplause certificates the employee gets the more entries they get into the lottery, which obviously means a bigger chance of winning the cash price. So therefore, employees now longer get AAdvantage miles. I’m sure they prefer the cash anyway, especially if it reaches to the level of $10,000!

(Thank you reader for pointing out the update)

Last year I used around 8 AAplause certificates, all of them were well deserved IMO. Each and every one of the employees who received the certificates greatly appreciated them and it definitely put a huge smile on their face.

If you don’t have any more certificates you can still leave a compliment by emailing American’s customer service team. If you would like more certificates (only for elite members) simply call your Elite Desk and ask for more.

You can either give the employee the certificate in person or send it by postal mail to:

Attention: Employee Recognition
American Airlines
Customer Relations
P.O. Box 619612, MD 2400
DFW Airport, TX 75261-9612

Once the employees receive the certificate they can register it by logging onto jetnet.aa.com and clicking Above & Beyond.

Have you ever used an AApplause Certificate? What was the reaction you got from the employee?