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Article published In: Language and Dialogue
Vol. 15:2 (2025) ► pp.232–261

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A pragmatic study of the X complaints and responses to complaints

Focus on British Airways and Saudi Airlines

 | Prince Sultan University
 | Arab Academy for Science, Technology and Maritime Transport
 | Prince Sultan University
Published online: 20 May 2025
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https://doi.org/10.1075/ld.00198.dak
Abstract
The current study compares the realization of the speech acts of complaints and responding to complaints by Arabs versus Westerners in the X accounts of British Airways versus Saudi Airlines. We compiled 400 posts from the X accounts of the two airlines and coded them for complaint and complaint-response strategies as well as external and internal modifiers. The results of the Chi-square tests show that the Western customers of the British Airways used significantly more disapproval and accusation strategies than the Arab customers of the Saudi Airlines while the latter customers showed a stronger preference to employ the blame strategy in addition to directive acts. As for the responses to complaints, the representatives of the British Airways showed a stronger tendency to accept complaints through offering repairs, admitting responsibility, and excusing oneself whereas the representatives of the Saudi Airlines preferred to employ partial-acceptance strategies. The results are interpreted in light of the existing literature and the Mixed Games Model.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Theoretical background
  • 3.Literature review
    • 3.1Monolingual complaint and complaint-response studies
    • 3.2Cross-cultural complaint and complaint-response studies
  • 4.Research questions
  • 5.Methodology
    • 5.1Data collection
    • 5.2Data coding
  • 6.Results
    • 6.1Are there significant differences between the complaint strategies of British Airways and Saudi Airlines?
    • 6.2Are there significant differences between the complaint-response strategies of British Airways and Saudi Airlines?
  • 7.Discussion
  • 8.Conclusion
  • References
References (32)
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