Brokers-Scum of the Earth or necessary evil?
 

I have been in the 135 world for a few years now and all I hear is how the tips have all but disappeared. Some have suggested that the brokers ask the client if they want to add a tip to the bill which of course we never get, just 100% profit for the broker. And whats with all the freakin catering the brokers order and expect us to put some where in the plane with 8 pax 3 dogs and all their crap and 9 boxes of catering. And whats with ordering dinner entrees that require heating? Have these brokers ever seen a corporate jet or do they just sit behind their computers in their garage office in their underwear all day. Some of these clients act like children on spring break, trash the plane on a 4 hour flight, spill wine every where and rub food into the carpet and then barely say Thanks. You meet so few nice people you actually remember them.
If the PAX only knew how poorly we are paid or how tired we are.
A few more rants, The same people who barely say thanks are throwing $20 tips to every line crew guy that shows up,they deserve the tip, and I have seen many times a $100 tip to a limo driver who drove them across town for a 30 minute ride while we load their 500 pounds of crap and fly them cross country all night and land in heavy weather. And then there's the clients who show up hours late jump in the plane and ask how we can make up time. All the while we have another trip to fly the same day and now our 10 hour day has turned into 14 hours and we have to face pizzed off clients on the second trip of the day. Now I feel better.
Thoughts?

Why yes, they are the scum of the earth, and yes, they steal your tips. That's their little bonus aside from their percentage. Same goes for your charter company - if it was a direct booking and the clients tip the crew in their payment to the charter company - pure profit to the charter operator as the crew will never see it.

Deep breath, let it out :D I feel for ya. Our Lear has a microwave with probably less wattage than many lightbulbs and it's just a barrel of fun to heat up an entire dinner in about 2 sq feet of space with the pax staring at you the entire time. And we too have had some 'crazy' things going on in the back. On one recent trip our pax trashed an FBO and were actually wrestling in the lobby. I was so close to leaving them, and had to tell them to chill out or we weren't going anywhere.

Your company needs to put their foot down with the bad brokers. We try not to quote for the bad ones (many who've since disappeared) and now we're working routinely with some great brokers who deal with all the pax BS so we just get there and fly the trip.

The answer, yes, is the correct one.
No Customers ever tip with a direct billing, never has happened, office would never even ask a Customer about tipping the crew. The only tips I or any other crew has gotten was at the end of the flight saying goodbuy to the passengers. If you have received a tip, did you share it with the office? If it weren't for the office, your tip would not have happened in the first place. I had a dumb*** start telling the office girls about the $1k tip we got, I about flew accross the room to choke him.

Before actually having a job flying I once was a dispatcher, then a broker and I never saw the tacking on a tip to the bill. That would infuriate the client even asking. The brokers have it made. Just a phone bill and 12 bucks an hour for the guy to answer the phone and about 15 percent tacked onto the final quote from the operator and its money in the bank. No overhead what so ever. I think most of the time we don’t get tipped as pilots because the passengers think we are considered professionals i.e.: dentists, accountants and you would never tip one of those guys. I still get tips sometimes but I used to get them a lot more when I flew a navajo and it was more like a taxi service than a professional occupation. Do any of you guys split the avtrip points with the flight attendant? I’ve been against that simply because I’m a salary slave on call 24/7 and never get to turn down trips if I have something going on. They can turn trips down and have that freedom and those avtrip points are our little bonus for missing birthdays and holidays with our families.

If the FA is full time, like you, then yes. If you are renting them from a service, or from a pool of part timers, then no.
Though, if you don't share, I would think hard every time they get you a coffee or food.

Wow. Get a new job, I guess. If you don't like what you're doing, find something else to do. It seems to me that a pilot's attitude of disgruntlement would permeate the entire operation. So the tips would be few and far between.

There is a lot to be said for freight.

Tips these days are few and far between for us. A few months ago someone actually gave us a $5 bill. So we split it... $2.50 for each of us...what a joke! :D

Speaking of fuel points, the beyotch that sets up the fuel actually gets the points from a particular chain of FBOs we use quite often.
I spend hours a day looking for a new job and yes freight is the way to go.

BayBum38ft