On passing I said someting along the lines of: "I though that would be a really rough landing but it was very smooth. Thank you". The pilot didn't seem to pleased by my comment so I'm wondering, would you find it strange/offensive for a passenger to make this sort of comment or would it normally be accepted as a compliment?
Do you expect passengers in your car to compliment you on a successful parking manoeuvre ? Do you compliment train drivers for successfully stopping at stations?
I've never really understood the obsession with commenting on a crew's ability to land an aircraft. Its their job, they've been trained for it, they've done it a million times in both CAVOK as well as cross-wind and other adverse weather conditions. Did you incur damage ? No. Did the airframe incur damage during landing ? No. Did they carry out a safe landing after in-flight airframe damage ? No. Then its just another landing.....