Van Drivers, a buck or two. Bellhops, well, I have never been to a place that had one. Maids I dont use on long stays, I just dont want someone I dont know in my room. I have had stuff stolen from my room in the past on days that the maid cleaned the room. Ever since then I keep the do not disturb card up until I check out. I can tidy up the room myself during my stay and not worry about having anything go missing.

A dollar for the driver (at least, as an FO). Maids? Never stayed at a hotel long enough to require fresh towels and such. And even during training, you should tip the driver if they take you somewhere.

I was actually thinking about the total cost of tips over the course of a year and it adds up like this:

$6.00/trip (1+2+2+1)[Day 1+2+3+4]
$30.00/month (5 trips a month x $6.00)
$360.00/year (12 months in the year)

Kind of expensive if you're on first year FO pay at a Regional. But it keeps the van drivers happy and it's probably not going to break the bank. Plus, I would think you could deduct it from taxes at the end of the year.

This will be my first year itemizing, but can you deduct without receipts?

Not sure. I haven't done it yet either. Planning to use PilotTax, there should be some guidance there.

There is the per diem if you don't want to keep receipts.:)
As far as tipping is concerned to each his own .

$2 Bills. Makes them feel special, but you're still only leaving them $2.

Just ask the teller at the bank.

I prefer to tip in Schrute Bucks.

Here is the rule that I use.
If the driver at least makes the attempt to load my bag I tip $1 per bag.
If no attempt they get nothing.
If the driver uses the shuttle to take me somewhere other than the airport I usually tip $1+ each way.
If they try to guilt trip me into tipping, then nothing. Admittedly I haven't come across this in quite sometime.

Nope not out of touch.
Back in my commuter days I was scraping to make ends meet and that $2 per day could actually mean the difference between eating dinner or not. Of course this was in the early to mid 90s and I could get a McDs meal for $3.

I never said that I though they were pulling down $50k a year.
I had a conversation with one driver and he made about $16-$20k a year working part time, plus tips. Well, that part time job paid more than I made full time (not including tips).


I do believe this whole tipping culture thing has gotten out of hand.
A couple of years back I had a NYC cabbie get ****y that I didn't give him a tip. Might have been the fact that I had to give him direction to a well known intersection that he should have known, was on the phone for most of the trip, cab smelled and of course he did even get out of the cab to attempt to load my bag.

If you're taking a per diem deduction based on the difference between government per diem rates and your employer's per diem rates, then no, you cannot deduct tips individually(receipts or not). Tips are part if the M&I (meals and incidentals) figured into the per diem rates.