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Why Don't we get Tips???
If we Screw Up Everybody Dies!!! Read this Article
StraightForward Media Blog Blog Archive Don’t forget to tip your airline pilot! |
I understand the point of that blog post and you starting this thread is to emphasize regional airline pilots are underpaid (you're preaching to the APC choir in that regard), but you don't get tips as an airline pilot because safely flying the airplane IS YOUR JOB.
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Originally Posted by BoilerUP
(Post 525901)
I understand the point of that blog post and you starting this thread is to emphasize regional airline pilots are underpaid (you're preaching to the APC choir in that regard), but you don't get tips as an airline pilot because safely flying the airplane IS YOUR JOB.
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In the charter world I have gotten a tip or two.... :)
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Originally Posted by NightIP
(Post 525902)
Agreed, but we tip taxi drivers and restaurant servers to do their jobs too. :)
Plus those are not salaried positions, tips are a large percentage to certain hourly-compensated workers in most "service" jobs. Thirdly, even if it was customary to tips flight crews I wouldn't start lighting cigars with $100 bills since most people on average don't tip well. I've waited for a few years and I'd say in average tips were 10%-12%, but then again I wasn't a very good waiter. Apparently bad people skills and being a pilot go hand in hand. :) |
Originally Posted by DeadHead
(Post 525906)
As bad as salaries have gotten over the years, I think we make more than taxi drivers and waiters. Well, at least most taxi drivers and waiters.
Plus those are not salaried positions, tips are a large percentage to certain hourly-compensated workers in most "service" jobs. Thirdly, even if it was customary to tips flight crews I wouldn't start lighting cigars with $100 bills since most people on average don't tip well. I've waited for a few years and I'd say in average tips were 10%-12%, but then again I wasn't a very good waiter. Apparently bad people skills and being a pilot go hand in hand. :) Actually, what's sad is that with my new job I'm finally making more as a pilot than I did as a server. At one restaurant in the LA area I was making $30k/year or so to work 25 hours per week. Sad. |
Originally Posted by willflyforfood
(Post 525897)
If we Screw Up Everybody Dies!!! Read this Article
StraightForward Media Blog Blog Archive Don’t forget to tip your airline pilot! |
Did you read the link?
The article brings up that there's a regional pilot who makes $31K, and that's surprisingly low. Of course, we all aren't surprised. What is surprising is the comments made on the article:
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. As a pilot myself, I find it amusing how everyone thinks we make big bucks. People always figure we have hundreds of lives in our hands, both in air and on the ground, but that isn’t true. Airline planes have auto-pilot, so the people in the cockpit are really just there to make the passengers feel better. The big jets can fly without pilots, but who would get on a plane being operated by some guy in a dark control room at an undisclosed ground location? Of course, the salary of pilots isn’t so bad when you consider the benfits they get. All pilots are compensated fairly for their work, just like everyone else with a job. |
Originally Posted by willflyforfood
(Post 525897)
If we Screw Up Everybody Dies!!! Read this Article
StraightForward Media Blog Blog Archive Don’t forget to tip your airline pilot! |
Well if every one on a flight was to tip 10% of their ticket cost the math goes like this.
Based on a cheap ticket of $150 10%=15 bucks per passenger $15 x 100 people on the flight= $1500 $1500 x 3 legs= $4500 $4500 / 2 pilots= $2250 $2250 x 3 day trip=$6750 $6750 x 4 trips a month= $27,000 a month $27,000 x 12 months= $324,000 a year. Not bad. Start tipping. |
My FA's getted tipped on occasion and they deserve it. We get paid crap, they get paid less than crap. On a daily basis, their job is a lot more difficult. Plus, they'll have to pull my sorry ass out of the plane if I ever screw up that bad.
Checko |
We don't get tips because we're professionals and highly skilled - and professionals rarely work on a tip basis. When was the last time you tipped your doctor for lancing a cyst on your back? Would you tip the funeral director because he made grandma look extra good in her casket? Hand Yo-Yo Ma $15 for a good Cello solo. Give your Professor a tip because you did well in a class? How about we all hand $10 to Peyton Manning on the way out of the stadium for a really good connection? Its just not how its done.
I would not accept a tip as an airline pilot ever. It would cheapen the profession even more. Professionals should not accept tips. Taxi drivers, wait staff and (I now open the portal to 'flaming' hell with this one) even flight attendants are unskilled laborers. They require little specialized training to do what they do. Tips acceptable in that case. Not for highly skilled professionals. What needs to be done is address the poor pay. Not stick out your hand like a beggar. If you need to feel that you're getting tipped, then consider performance bonuses your 'tip' for operating safely and effectively. That should fill the void. Secondly, if you don't get the people there safely - you don't get there safely either and that would obviate the need for a tip. It would also be extortion, which is bad. |
If we were tipped it would just give Mgmt. another thing to hold against us come contract negotiations. "Well we feel its fine to lower your hourly rate because with your tips factored in, you will still make more money than you previously did".
Its never gonna happen for the 121 world. Tips in the 135/91 world occur because Crew's pay alot more attention to detail due to the small amount of pax they carry i.e.. addressing them by their names....loading/unloading their bags...serving their meals. Another reason is due to the majority of their passengers being upper class. I used to work corporate....most of our passengers would tip everyone they ran into on the way to the airplane. Hell, ill bet even the GM Exec's would throw a couple hundred to their Gulfstream pilots for a "Nice Dinner" :cool: |
Originally Posted by flyifrvfr
(Post 525995)
Tell the passengers to keep their money and write a letter to congress expressing their outrage at wage concessions and pension cuts.
A lot of people ask pilots why they don't leave and look for other types of careers if the pay is so bad. Do you know what the most common response is? "Beats working in a cubicle" or, "I just love to fly". As long as that attitude exists in the industry do not expect wages to come up any time soon. For every one person who leaves the industry due to low wages, I'm willing to bet there are at least 100 who will gladly take his/her place for the same or lower wages. |
Originally Posted by Pontius Pilot
(Post 526059)
We don't get tips because we're professionals and highly skilled - and professionals rarely work on a tip basis. When was the last time you tipped your doctor for lancing a cyst on your back? Would you tip the funeral director because he made grandma look extra good in her casket? Hand Yo-Yo Ma $15 for a good Cello solo. Give your Professor a tip because you did well in a class? How about we all hand $10 to Peyton Manning on the way out of the stadium for a really good connection? Its just not how its done.
I would not accept a tip as an airline pilot ever. It would cheapen the profession even more. Professionals should not accept tips. Taxi drivers, wait staff and (I now open the portal to 'flaming' hell with this one) even flight attendants are unskilled laborers. They require little specialized training to do what they do. Tips acceptable in that case. Not for highly skilled professionals. What needs to be done is address the poor pay. Not stick out your hand like a beggar. If you need to feel that you're getting tipped, then consider performance bonuses your 'tip' for operating safely and effectively. That should fill the void. Secondly, if you don't get the people there safely - you don't get there safely either and that would obviate the need for a tip. It would also be extortion, which is bad. |
Originally Posted by Pontius Pilot
(Post 526059)
We don't get tips because we're professionals and highly skilled - and professionals rarely work on a tip basis. When was the last time you tipped your doctor for lancing a cyst on your back? Would you tip the funeral director because he made grandma look extra good in her casket? Hand Yo-Yo Ma $15 for a good Cello solo. Give your Professor a tip because you did well in a class? How about we all hand $10 to Peyton Manning on the way out of the stadium for a really good connection? Its just not how its done.
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[quote=willflyforfood;525897]If we Screw Up Everybody Dies!!! Read this Article
Reservoir Dogs - "Tip Worthy Jobs." Great discussion about tipping - caution profanity. YouTube - Reservoir Dogs - Tipping Scene Scoop |
Because then you would complain we get treated like waitresses....
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Originally Posted by ToiletDuck
(Post 526094)
When's the last time those people qualified for food stamps?
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Doctors aren't making very good money for the first few years out of medical school. |
Originally Posted by ToiletDuck
(Post 526094)
When's the last time those people qualified for food stamps?
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Originally Posted by Lab Rat
(Post 526126)
Should we also tip doctors and nurses?
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Yep.
You want better pay, negotiate better pay scales. They can afford to buy the airplanes, they can afford to pay executives millions, they can afford to sell tickets for less than they cost to operate they can pay us better. |
The thread title is "Why don't we get tips?" Has any one of you ever come out of the cockpit, stand by the doorway and ask departing passengers for a tip? Or make an announcement that the FA will be collecting $$ after she finishes collecting the service items? If you don't ask, how will you get what you want? I'd be willing to chip in $5 everytime I fly. And I'd give more if you are as cute as Moose. ;)
As a side note, lawyers do not get tipped and we do not expect to be tipped. I'm sure some of my brethren have asked, but I don't have personal knowledge of it. I don't even accept flowers or chocolates or even homebaked cookies. Many clients have tried to give those things to me, but I have to decline. |
I hope that you all researched what you make as a pilot before you chose this career. It's the price we all pay for having fun.
If you are not having fun or can't handle the pay then leave this industry and let me have your job.:D |
Originally Posted by FlyingPirate
(Post 526219)
I hope that you all researched what you make as a pilot before you chose this career. It's the price we all pay for having fun.
If you are not having fun or can't handle the pay then leave this industry and let me have your job.:D |
I guess you miss interpreted my post.
I agree we should get paid better... but remember we chose this career. |
Wow.. Tera got herself alotta comments. 747 too... Sad that a mainline pilot would say such a thing.
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Originally Posted by BoilerUP
(Post 525901)
I understand the point of that blog post and you starting this thread is to emphasize regional airline pilots are underpaid (you're preaching to the APC choir in that regard), but you don't get tips as an airline pilot because safely flying the airplane IS YOUR JOB.
A waiter/waitress/bartender serves me..that's their job but we tip. F/A's get tips occasionally..why never the pilots? |
I flew on skybus once and thier FA's asked for tips on the PA.
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Ok this person isnt a pilot... no way.
""# 12 Tara 17 April 2008 @ 10:16 am As a pilot myself, I find it amusing how everyone thinks we make big bucks. People always figure we have hundreds of lives in our hands, both in air and on the ground, but that isn’t true. Airline planes have auto-pilot, so the people in the cockpit are really just there to make the passengers feel better. The big jets can fly without pilots, but who would get on a plane being operated by some guy in a dark control room at an undisclosed ground location? Of course, the salary of pilots isn’t so bad when you consider the benfits they get. All pilots are compensated fairly for their work, just like everyone else with a job."" |
Originally Posted by Kona
(Post 526248)
Ok this person isnt a pilot... no way.
""# 12 Tara 17 April 2008 @ 10:16 am As a pilot myself, I find it amusing how everyone thinks we make big bucks. People always figure we have hundreds of lives in our hands, both in air and on the ground, but that isn’t true. Airline planes have auto-pilot, so the people in the cockpit are really just there to make the passengers feel better. The big jets can fly without pilots, but who would get on a plane being operated by some guy in a dark control room at an undisclosed ground location? Of course, the salary of pilots isn’t so bad when you consider the benfits they get. All pilots are compensated fairly for their work, just like everyone else with a job."" LMAO, she is probably a "pilot" in the Army flying those little "airplanes" with their "autopilots" Man I love this country... |
Airline travel is a HORRIBLE experience to begin with...that is why nobody gets tipped. So I would not start asking for tips...especially as a pilot because it would be just another reason to lower the base pay.
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Originally Posted by andy171773
F/A's get tips occasionally..why never the pilots?
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Originally Posted by andy171773
(Post 526239)
A barber cutting my hair is his JOB..but most people tip them?
A waiter/waitress/bartender serves me..that's their job but we tip. F/A's get tips occasionally..why never the pilots? Pilots have to go through years of specialized training and licensing. We are professionals along the lines of doctors, lawyers, funeral directors, etc. We are not barbers, waiters or flight attendants. We are above tips. Professionals do not ask for or accept tips. |
Originally Posted by Pontius Pilot
(Post 526370)
None of these people you mention are skilled laborers at the level we are, that's why!!!! Your barber has gone through a few weeks of barber school. Waiters/waitresses don't generally go to school. Bartenders may have a whole 2 week course. Flight attendants get a few weeks of training.
Pilots have to go through years of specialized training and licensing. We are professionals along the lines of doctors, lawyers, funeral directors, etc. We are not barbers, waiters or flight attendants. We are above tips. Professionals do not ask for or accept tips. The problem is pay, not tipping. |
Originally Posted by FlyingPirate
(Post 526219)
I hope that you all researched what you make as a pilot before you chose this career. It's the price we all pay for having fun.
If you are not having fun or can't handle the pay then leave this industry and let me have your job.:D Now, I don't have ANYTHING against that airplane, OR the pilots that fly it. It's not secret, the guys flying that type of equipment work the most for the least pay. But if you were to go from "hopeful" to employed today, I'd like to see what your viewpoint is in a year. As well as your mentality on the "price we pay for having fun". Fun is a byproduct, but for many, this is a career. There's a lot of guys at GIA that seemed to have your viewpoint. |
Originally Posted by Pontius Pilot
(Post 526370)
None of these people you mention are skilled laborers at the level we are, that's why!!!! Your barber has gone through a few weeks of barber school. Waiters/waitresses don't generally go to school. Bartenders may have a whole 2 week course. Flight attendants get a few weeks of training.
Pilots have to go through years of specialized training and licensing. We are professionals along the lines of doctors, lawyers, funeral directors, etc. We are not barbers, waiters or flight attendants. We are above tips. Professionals do not ask for or accept tips. |
Originally Posted by The Juice
(Post 526372)
EXACTLY!!! This begging for tips only lowers our profession even more. What would you think of a doctor with a tip jar in the waiting room?
The problem is pay, not tipping. |
Originally Posted by shamrok
(Post 526555)
Again, were not doctors! Do you think your a doctor? Did you spend 8 years in school and then an internship? No. I didn't think so. You fly a Saab, wake up. And who's begging? Your Colgan pay sure is close to a doctor or lawyer's salary.
And yes you got me, I think I am a doctor and my Colgan pay is just under that of a lawyer or a doctor. :rolleyes: |
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