Juice Box, Open your eyes, not looking for tips here, but what if someone threw you a $20, are you going to say no thanks? If yes, then you must have a nice trust fund. Pride will kill you. I think your in Houston, different breed of people there anyways.

 

The biggest reason why we shouldn't be tipped is that management will hold it over us when it comes to negotiations. "why do you guys need a pay increase when you are being tipped by the pax?" is what they would say.

If someone offers me a twenty spot, hells yea I'll take it and buy a round for the crew on the overnight.

 

JuiceBox, thats a funny one. I wish I could put a play on your name with something that rhymes with "rok".

Anyways, your assumptions of everyone and their living situation is a bit of a stretch. Just because someone is not for tipping pilots does not mean they have a trust fund or their parents paid for their training.

Now, if someone "threw" me a $20 would I take it, sure. It would be an isolated event. My position is I do not feel it is a direction I would like to see the industry go. I think the issue is with pilot pay, and as said before, mgmt would use it as leverage.

 

This was my favorite comment to that article:

"

3 Steve 15 April 2008 @ 3:35 pm

Hopefully Bridget is a pilot for UPS or FedEx and risks only the lives of her co-pilots — and possibly a few ground casualties — on each flight."

Oooooohhhhh meeercy the public never ceases to amaze

 

I worked for American Eagle and Air Wisconsin. Low wages was just one reason I went back to driving tractor trailers. I now get home everynight and have weekends and holidays off. Not to mention that I will make over $50,000 this year compared to $22,000 as a F/O. Whats funny though is that drivers are not lined up to replace me for less money. Drivers won't drive a truck for free. Pilots need to adopt the same attitude as truck drivers. Without the collective pilot group you can't do business.

 

Glad someone cleared up the "we're not doctors" thing. There was however, a time when pilots were being paid more than doctors. But that, wasn't yesterday, it was quite a while ago. And air travel, was quite different then, than it is now. At a time, aviation was such a new technology, that people marveled at it. The only people who'd experienced it were soldiers (trained to fly) or who'd been flown over, and individuals at traveling air shows. Commercial aviation was setup for the super elite, and gradually evolved into transportation for the masses as it is today. And now, you can get across the country for less than a couple hundred bucks (might not get back with that fare, but at least you got there).

I'm sure there are plenty of factors to consider that have lowered the pay of airline pilots over the years. Whether it's technology's ability to make airline travel much safer than it was sixty years ago. Economic recessions, rising fuel costs, weak labor unions, etc. All i know, is that we don't get paid enough money for the job we do. If a person can sit there and say "retire so i can take your job" then that individual probably lacks the knowledge and background to even discuss the subject.

 

I'll take what ever I can get. I used take home about 40-50 extra a week when I flew in hawaii. My friend got a $100 tip for flying during christmas. Did a charter to a Oregon football game and they bought both me and the FO tickets to the game and then gave us each $100 at the end of the flight!

 

Tips generally are given as thanks for personal service.
You tip your barber because he did a good job doing something especially for you. You tip your waitress because they personally attended to your table (hopefully). 91/135 pilots occasionally get tips because of extra special personal service.

As a pilot, I graciously accept tips as rare as they might be, but asking for tips seems a bit over the top.

Unlike what Pontius said, i don't think tips cheapen the profession in any way. If a passenger/student/paying customer appreciates the job we do and wants to tip, more power to them.

We pilots incessantly whining about pay and how we "deserve" to be tipped, that cheapens the profession immeasurably.

 

Well said.