Think of all the service people who habitually get tips: hotel bellmen, taxi drivers, waiters and waitresses, the guys who handle curbside baggage at airports, sometimes even the baristas at Starbucks. But not flight attendants. Why not?
Maybe it’s because they’re thought to earn a pretty good living and don’t need the tips. Maybe it’s because they’re simply thought to be salaried employees of a sort that for whatever reason shouldn’t accept tips. Maybe for some reason they are actually prohibited from accepting tips. Maybe it harks back to the day when most flight attendants were women and most passengers were men — and, given the somewhat mystical (or perhaps mythical) reputation of the amorous businessman and the foxy stewardess, the exchange of money at flight’s end may have raised some questions about just what the stewardess had done to deserve the tip.
Still, it’s very odd to me that so many service people who perform similar functions get tipped and that flight attendants don’t. Especially when they often work so hard for so many people, running back and forth with drinks, pillows, headphones, etc. Yes, I know that most people are pretty unhappy with the airline experience these days, and I know that the occasional flight attendant is crabby beyond belief, but in my experience most of them do a really great job, often under trying circumstances.
It’s not that I’m advocating for yet another kind of worker to get tips. But having flown a lot lately, and seeing how hard flight attendants work, it struck me as odd that they don’t get tipped. At least I’ve never seen anyone tip a flight attendant. And when I asked flight attendants on my last 5 flights if they’d ever gotten a tip, each of them said no, never. Their reactions to my question ranged from quizzical to hopeful.
Most economists have argued that tipping is a horribly inefficient and archaic practice. (FWIW, Levitt makes fun of me whenever I tip anyone for anything; and if I recall correctly, Ian Ayres and Barry Nalebuff wrote about tipping in their engaging book Why Not?) But that has hardly stopped people from doing it — increasingly so, it seems to me. I think on my flight home today, I’ll simply slip the tip instead of asking the question, and see what happens.
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You don’t tip flight attendants because you usually don’t give them any cash. I have seen tipping when people buy booze on planes, since they break out their wallet.
On the economics, it may be inefficient, but you are a jerk if you do not tip in the US, where the IRS taxes implied tips — not tipping that sort of an employee actually costs him money on tax day. Tip, and vote for people who’ll improve wage and other laws until the economy rights itself.
You don’t tip flight attendants because you usually don’t give them any cash. I have seen tipping when people buy booze on planes, since they break out their wallet.
On the economics, it may be inefficient, but you are a jerk if you do not tip in the US, where the IRS taxes implied tips — not tipping that sort of an employee actually costs him money on tax day. Tip, and vote for people who’ll improve wage and other laws until the economy rights itself.
Not that tipping would be a necessarily bad thing, but airlines are run on awfully tight schedules, if any significant percentage of passengers tipped flight attendants, it would cascade through the system and reduce the number of flights. Since the airlines already overbook, I think this would be a bad thing.
Now, if those who chose to tip could pull off the handshake handoff when walking out the exit, that would be fine; however, most people have to fumble around for money and then take time proferring it. It just doesn’t seem plausible.
Not that tipping would be a necessarily bad thing, but airlines are run on awfully tight schedules, if any significant percentage of passengers tipped flight attendants, it would cascade through the system and reduce the number of flights. Since the airlines already overbook, I think this would be a bad thing.
Now, if those who chose to tip could pull off the handshake handoff when walking out the exit, that would be fine; however, most people have to fumble around for money and then take time proferring it. It just doesn’t seem plausible.
I imagine not tipping flight attendants comes from their origins. They were there, originally, as medical ‘first responders’ and most of them were trained nurses. They also fulfilled, while not doing the first function, the separate “Steward” function of dealing with luggage, etc. One doesn’t ordinarily tip a nurse, either. (In a sense, the nurses tend to fulfill the same functions in a hospital – patient monitoring/first response, coupled with steward-type food service, cleaning, and delivery.) At this point, I imagine a campaign to be tipped would be considered ‘beneath’ them. They are unionized labor, and make fairly good money as low-skill jobs go. (The medical training, today, is mostly the sort of first aid and CPR stuff that ‘safety officers’ tend to have in workplaces, with a lot more reps and refreshers.)
I imagine not tipping flight attendants comes from their origins. They were there, originally, as medical ‘first responders’ and most of them were trained nurses. They also fulfilled, while not doing the first function, the separate “Steward” function of dealing with luggage, etc. One doesn’t ordinarily tip a nurse, either. (In a sense, the nurses tend to fulfill the same functions in a hospital – patient monitoring/first response, coupled with steward-type food service, cleaning, and delivery.) At this point, I imagine a campaign to be tipped would be considered ‘beneath’ them. They are unionized labor, and make fairly good money as low-skill jobs go. (The medical training, today, is mostly the sort of first aid and CPR stuff that ‘safety officers’ tend to have in workplaces, with a lot more reps and refreshers.)
We sometimes think of flight attendants as being glorified waitresses, but their primary purpose is to ensure passenger safety. They give safety briefings at the start of flights, make sure that passengers are properly belted, assist passengers who are sick or otherwise in distress, and direct evacuations. Given their safety-related role, tipping seems somehow inappropriate.
We sometimes think of flight attendants as being glorified waitresses, but their primary purpose is to ensure passenger safety. They give safety briefings at the start of flights, make sure that passengers are properly belted, assist passengers who are sick or otherwise in distress, and direct evacuations. Given their safety-related role, tipping seems somehow inappropriate.