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Mark in CA
12th Jan 2019, 06:49
When passengers on budget carrier Frontier Airlines buy in-flight food or drinks, they'll now find a space on their payment tablet to leave a tip for the flight attendant that served them. This change was effective Jan. 1 (https://thepointsguy.com/news/airline-with-happy-hours-and-tips/). Previously, any tips were pooled.

Tipping flight attendants is uncommon, JT Genter of travel site The Points Guy tells CNBC Make It. (https://www.cnbc.com/make-it/) On a recent flight on Frontier, Genter was surprised when he was prompted to tip on the digital tablet after purchasing a can of ginger ale.


This airline is asking passengers to tip their flight attendants (https://www.cnbc.com/2019/01/11/budget-airline-frontier-asks-passengers-to-tip-their-flight-attendant.html)

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PDR1
12th Jan 2019, 08:42
I've been waiting for this to become official. Over the last few years I have experienced several airlines for whom the phrase "service not included" is just an accurate description of the passenger experience...

American Airlines, Delta, Ryan, BA (in cattle class - they're a bit better in Business class) are examples where I've left the flight feeling as if the cabin crew were uncompetent sociopaths. On the other hand my experience of (fregsample) Virgin on the transatlantic routes, Singapore and Qantas on the Australian routes is such that I would probably tip the cabin crew if the facility existed.

Having said that I am opposed to the practice of tipping anyway. Pay the staff properly and include all charges in the price - this business of mandatory gratuities (I'm thinking of the cases in the colonies where people have been arrested for declining to leave the expected 10-15% tip) is just criminal extortion, and should be discouraged with extreme prejudice until the crooks get the message (IMHO).

PDR

DaveReidUK
12th Jan 2019, 08:45
I was surprised to see that tipping Frontier F/As has been going on for nearly 3 years.

Hotel Tango
12th Jan 2019, 11:05
for declining to leave the expected 10-15% tip

You won't get far leaving a 10% tip over there these days! 15-20% now. Yes, include their salaries in the price and allow tipping (the % at the discretion of the customer) for above normal or exceptional service.

PDR1
12th Jan 2019, 12:09
You won't get far leaving a 10% tip over there these days! 15-20% now. Yes, include their salaries in the price and allow tipping (the % at the discretion of the customer) for above normal or exceptional service.

I remember the head waiter in Baltimore who sent our tip back saying that the expected tip had gone up to 20% "because of inflation". Half way through the ensuing tutorial in basic arithmetic and the properties of ratios he caved and accepted the cash (10% rounded up to the nearest $10 - IIRC it came to ~13%), possibly because we were threatening to draw diagrams on the tablecloth with a sharpie!

Tipping is Satan's Stipend - those who demand it should immediately be dispatched to the 8th circle along with with american cheesemakers, brexiters and Michael O'Leary.

PDR

Hotel Tango
12th Jan 2019, 21:31
Tipping is Satan's Stipend - those who demand it should immediately be dispatched to the 8th circle along with with american cheesemakers, brexiters and Michael O'Leary.

With you all the way! :)

PAXboy
13th Jan 2019, 03:35
I am ASTONISHED that an airline should do this. We all know the pressure of keeping headline prices down for the fickle public but not paying your staff and then begging your customers to top them up??

Looking up info on Frontier, I read an article in a popular financial magazine that confirmed many airlines know they can get away with poor service because the operate a route people want to take. Unless people stop buying tickets? Nothing changes. Other articles spoke of the carrier's route policy and it is clearly working. I looked at their TripAdvisor and it shows how bad they are.

I have just read articles where the carrier is boasting about doubling in size - so they have the financial stability to take on more leases and hire more staff - at bad rates of pay. There is a chart showing their operating revenue from 2004 - 2017 more than doubling to $1914.74 million. So they are not broke.

I have never had cause to fly a route operated by Frontier. Now they are on my No Fly list.

krismiler
13th Jan 2019, 05:02
There are usually a very limited number of airlines operating on any route so your options are few if you're not happy with the service you received, and they know it. A large city will typically have several hundred hotels and word soon gets around online from dissatisfied customers, bookings start drying up. In the case of franchised outlets, head office will making changes in management or withdrawing their brand.

Airline passengers demand the lowest possible fares yet expect five star service in return. As soon as on airline obtains a cost advantage through a reduction in any area, the others are obliged to follow and match any price cut, or lose business. Staff are employed at minimal pay rates with no expectation of them remaining beyond a year or two. Tipping might work in a country where this is a cultural norm and people are used to everyone having their hand out with an expectant look on their face. In the USA, you are expected to tip for everything from the waiter who brings your food to the courtesy bus driver who puts your bag into the luggage compartment. Hopefully it doesn't spread any further.

Mark in CA
17th Jan 2019, 14:54
Flight attendants were clearly split on the issue, some wanting more money and others offering two arguments against the practice. The analytical responses, as opposed to those merely voting yes/no, were strongly against tipping. There are two general reasons:

* They don’t want the expectation of service that would come along with a tipping regime, they’re there primarily for your safety.

* They realize that there’s no free money. More tipping means lower wages. That’s how it works in restaurants and indeed that’s how it works at Frontier and their flight attendant’s union opposes tipping as a result.


Flight Attendants Say They Don’t Want Tips – For Two Reasons (https://goo.gl/K4tndG)

Catwalk Dweller
5th Feb 2019, 14:03
I agree with the viewpoints posted by Mark in CA: The flight attendants are there for safety, not for their ability to serve a G & T.

I may be accused for veering off-topic, but this is the reason I never moan (like some people do) about flying on United - the last I heard, that carrier had the highest average age of flight attendants in the industry, and my feeling is that they've been through all the mandatory safety training so many times, that during an emergency situation their reactions and subsequent performance would be pretty much automatic and correct. They're primarily employed to look after my safety, and not to make sure that I have enough pillows to be comfortable.

Hmmm . . . perhaps tipping the cabin crew should be allowed, but only for the performance of those functions for which they are employed: for example, tip jars could be placed next to the emergency exits, and only be opened and used during situations that require that those exits be used, and if it was felt that the FAs helped expedite you out of (let's say) a burning aircraft, you could slip a tenner into the jar as you exited. But cash only, please; processing credit/debit cards would probably slow things down unacceptably.