My wife and her cousin flew to Las Vegas for the weekend. They parked in the economy lot at Mitchell Airport in Milwaukee and hopped on the shuttle. The driver did not handle any of the luggage. When they got to the terminal, everyone except my wife handed the driver a couple of dollar bills. Is this normal?
Yes, but I agree with your wife. If he helps with the luggage, I will tip, but if he is just driving, no tip from me.
It depends. If I happen to have some singles on me, I’ll leave a buck or two, perhaps more if he helps with my bags or waited for me while I walked from my car. If I don’t have any small bills on me on, though, he just has to do without.
He didn’t provide any individual service whatsoever? No tip.
Unless the driver assisted with luggage, I can’t see a reason for a tip either.
I travel a lot and I don’t think I’ve ever seen this guy get a tip (mostly at Dulles, FWIW). If someone helps with bags, I’d tip.
Depends. I usually tip when I’m with my kids, hauling a double stroller, bag, etc. I don’t think drivers especially expect it with a family that are struggling to get somewhere. That said, I’m concious of slowing down everyone and also feel like I’m “paying forward” a little bit to ensure that the driver does help families even if he doesn’t always tip. I’ll get drivers schlepping the stroller or a big ol honking suitcase out to the park and ride, and then I have to chase them down to give a tip as they obviously weren’t expecting one.
When I’m full businessman mode, I generally don’t tip and don’t expect anyone to even offer to help. Just slow the bus long enough to get on and off and I’m good to go.
I give two bucks, always. I’m no high-roller, but it is customary to tip these guys.
There are always scores of people online who object to tipping people because “they’re just doing their job.” I always wonder how many of those people have ever worked in a job where tipping is custumary.
Is it customary, though? When I lived in Toronto and used the shuttle, there was no tip jar, and no indication that tips were expected. The driver drove, and loaded and unloaded bags; and all drivers did it cheerfully and with a smile. Nobody ever offered a tip. I have no idea if the drivers would accept one or not, but nobody ever offered one, and the drivers didn’t act as if they expected one. It was definitely not customary to tip the shuttle driver when I travelled through Toronto. Perhaps “customary” is location-specific.
In the US? Absolutely, without question.
Tipping customs are certainly location dependant. In the US, tipping airport shuttle drivers and skycaps is customary. I don’t really care if anyone else participates or not, but the practice is customary, beyond a shodow of doubt.
In the US, these guys take the job with the expectation that they will earn tips as part of their compensation. If you don’t want to tip, don’t. But don’t pretend that these workers aren’t expecting one. They will get tips from a certain percentage of people, and they count on that income. It’s a factor in their decision to take the job. Right or wrong, that’s just the way it is.
Shuttle driver - $1 - $5 depending on the size of the party and the number of bags. It is Ok if you didn’t tip the shuttle driver though and saved some of the bucks to give a bigger tip to the pilot. They have a much harder job and take you a lot further in your trip. I hear Sully Sullenberger cleared a cool $451 in singles alone just from the passengers standing on the wings in the middle of the Hudson River just after their successful ditching.
Okay, so it sounds to me like you need to train the international travellers in US traditional practices as regards tipping shuttle drivers. If the drivers expect tips, but many of their passengers are from places where they don’t tip for similar services, then you had better make passengers aware that they have to shell out a few extra bucks at the end of the ride. Perhaps a “If you enjoyed the ride, our driver would appreciate a gratuity” sign or similar, would help.
In my location, as I said, tips are not expected for this service. I thank you for making me aware of American practices, and I will follow them the next time I take a US shuttle, but I honestly had no idea US shuttle drivers expected tips. I doubt any non-Americans would.
If there’s a tip jar, then I’ll tip. And by tip jar, I don’t mean the fake Starbucks coffee chain plastic tub on the counter. Usually there’s a built-in thing like the public bus fare collector thing from when I was younger.
Now days, I wonder if I’m supposed to tip the rental car bus driver. They’re always so nice and in a good mood, but they never handle my luggage, and there’s no tip jar.
Yeah, the reason I asked was because I’d never heard of this practice. I’ve heard of tipping skycaps, and cab drivers, and hotel shuttle drivers, but it never would have occurred to me to tip the airport employee economy lot shuttle bus driver. I guess it’s one of those things that I’ve never seen anyone do. I tend to tip 20 percent in restaurants unless the server stabs me in the eye with my own steak knife, and I’ve pissed my wife off on a number of occasions for overtipping in her eyes for what she felt was bad service, so I’m not just a shitty tipper in general. But I guess I know now that I’ve left a lot of pissed off service workers in my wake.
Sorry, I missed this earlier. Yes, the custom is the same here, and I’ll add that the same applies to redcaps at train stations. Even though there is techinically a dollar-a-bag charge, the redcaps will get $5 from me, even though I typically have one bag to look after. They get me settled on the train, and it is worth it.
I’ve never used a skycap though. I’d imagine they’re the same way, however; although I doubt that given today’s security considerations, that they could provide the same level of service that redcaps could. Do airlines and security allow a skycap to take a passenger’s bags right onto the plane, as railroads do?
I tip the security people after a thorough pat down but only if they give me a happy ending.
Just curious - how does one learn which tip is customary? I don’t travel a lot, nor have I traveled in a while, but it would never have occurred to me to tip any shuttle driver, whether from a car rental company, a hotel, or the airport parking areas. I’ve never used a skycap, so that was never an issue, nor have I ever stayed in a hotel that had bellhops, and it wasn’t till after I pretty much quit traveling that I found out I was expected to tip housekeeping at hotels, too.
What the heck are the “rules” and expectations? And what’s the line between a tip for great service, like in a restaurant where you never have to wait for anything, and a bribe for future consideration, like tipping the garbage man? Maybe because I’ve never had a job that was tipped, this is just off my radar…
It is a minefield for those of us not from the USA. Nowhere else on the planet that I’ve visited is the tipping etiquette so convoluted. Personally I hate it. I prefer for the service provider to state a price and I pay it.
When I travel on business I rarely have cash on me. Whenever I see threads like this on tipping I am always staggered by the things one is supposed to tip for. I really dislike that servant-master relationship so I solve it by only using services that I can pay by card and add the tip that way (which means expenses take care of it anyhow). Housekeeping? I simply hang my “do not disturb” sign on my door if I’m only staying for a night or two so then a tip can’t be necessary.
And now I see a new one has been added, tipping the rental car courtesy coach driver?..not in this lifetime.
I used to drive an airport shuttle for a hotel and tips were pretty customary. The position normally pays minimum wage most places because of the extra tip income.
A buck a bag is customart but the average tip I’d get was about $2-3 for a single rider with one or two bags, more for a family. Tips in the $5 to $10 range were common and occasionally as high as $20.
+1
I usually never let anyone go for my bags unless it’s the taxi driver who is getting a tip anyways. I’m perfectly capable of carrying my own luggage, thank you.