Actually, UPS perDiem is $2.25 an hour for domestic, and goes up from there. My mainline friends at Delta are worth $2.00 an hour.

Many regionals are around $1.35-$1.55 an hour.

The example of 4 x 4 day trips each month means that a UPS pilot can spend $280 more than me each month on van driver tips. Delta's pilots can spend $202 more than me each month.

So, obviously, regional pilots are neither entitled nor expected to eat as well or tip as well as UPS or Delta crews.

As far as "If it's part of your job, and you can't afford it, you're in the wrong job" - my company manuals do not say that I must tip. Therefore not a part of my job.

 

Didn't read all 14 pages, but make sure you write the tips off as an expense on your taxes. Same time, I tip for good service (not driving me to the hotel). If the guy loads my bags, unloads them, makes decent conversation, or lets me fall asleep, offers to give a lift somewhere for food, etc....They get a tip, if the guy shows up, lets me load my own stuff, shuts it off at the front door, then sticks his hand out, there's not going to be anything put into it.

Other side of the coin, if i've run out of $ bills, I'm not going to pull 20 bux from the ATM and deal w/ a hefty surcharge, the result. I load and unload my own bags before the driver can do it for me, this way i atleast don't feel bad about not giving the guy a buck.

 

so many different opinions about tipping and not tipping...

the guys that tip want to almost force the others to tip based on thier reasoning... and the guys that don't tip do so for thier own reasons...

I think everybody should do what they like and not be pressured by anybody... even if you are a highly paid captain and chose not to tip while your junior FA tips a buck or two... who cares what others think... this tipping culture has gone way out of hand...

everybody makes a proper hourly wage, except restaurant servers who make $2 or so an hour last I recall... they live by tips and are taxed on them as well... so I only tip the server depending on the service... everybody else... hell no... especially NY cabbies... cause they get nasty when you don't leave a good tip... and I don't give a ****... oh yeah... and the skycaps at some airports... my wife came back to the states on a trip once and the guy had the nerve to demand a $15 tip... unfortunately she paid but if I were there I would have told him [no] and given him squat for the attitude alone...

in the end... my choice is to tip only where I see it necessary and by choice... and NOT REQUIRED...

 

I tip $2 normally. Zero if the driver has a disgruntled attitude or made us wait forever without an apology.

 

Make sure you give the ramper a buck if you have a RON bag in the back. Why not? He is giving you a service and loading and unloading your bags.

If you do not tip the ramper you are a cheap a** pilot

 

lol
....oh, and make sure you tip the flight attendant for serving you some peanuts before you push back. It's not part of a FA's job description to serve the pilots something to drink/munch on before departing. Therefore, you should tip them $2. If not, you're a cheap bastard pilot.

 

And tip them double the going rate if you're deadheading or jumpseating. If not, you're a cheap a##ed pilot.

And if you're a first year regional FO jumpseating on UPS, give the Captain a tip for the ride. Who cares if he makes more on that one flight than you make in a month. After all, it's not about what you earn or what he earns.

 

this thread got old 10 pages ago...

 

Heyas,

Usually, after the driver unloads my bag, I say "here's your tip: Don't eat hot mexican food and stand near open flame".

If he/she scowls at me, I give them the customary $1. If they laugh, I make it $2.

Nu

 

I've always appreciated the irony while riding in the van, my crew is talking about eating out at Outback, or going to the bookstore to buy a $4 latte, or an upcoming trip to Italy, yet they can't afford $1 for the guy/gal that loads/unloads the bags, provides useful info about our overnight and was ontime. Or they don't have the change but can't walk a few feet to the front desk to get some singles.