When I graduated from tech school in Biloxi, MS, it was a bad scene. I had to outprocess in a hurry, and my plane was due in an hour. The cabbie was a sweet old lady who calmed my nerves with pleasant conversation, helped me with my bags, and (most importantly) got me to the airport on time. I tipped her with a $20 on a fare that was less than that (IIRC). She was amazed.
That’s my biggest tip. What’s yours?
Lots of talk about tipping…anyway once I gave a 5 dollar tip on a 10 dollar meal…and once I was feeling generous and gave the car wash guy 6 dollars.
$10 on a $5 ride. I get really paranoid sometimes, so when this guy drove me home safely at 12 a.m. I felt like giving him a nice tip.
I gave 100% once, but I was drunk.
Between me and a friend, probably somewhere around $30 on a bill way under $100. I can’t remember where it was or why we tipped so much. She might have had a crush on the guy.
percentage wise - In a bar in windsor it was $.10 wings. I only had 15 of them and a coke which came to just under three dollars. The waitress was really attractive and I’m a sucker so I just left $10 on the table. I guess that’s a 233% tip.
dollar value - I took a girl out to dinner once which ran us $80. I left $100.
I used to frequent a couple bars in Chicago, yes it’s true. I got to know some of the bartenders there really well. One weeknight about closing time I heard the bartenders talking, one had just had her purse stolen with the little money she had to live on. I had just won a bunch of money somehow, I didn’t earn it, so I was feeling generous that night, to say the least. I left $100 tip, but she stopped me before I stumbled out the door and made me take $80 of it back.
About two thirds of the a meal for three’s value in Thailand. A small cafe style place in a rural part of the country. The food was amazing, so we left a big tip by our Dutch standards, not realising the tip was huge by Thai standards. They really deserved it, though.
I left a three dollar tip on a ten dollar haircut once, but that was because I had neglected to give a tip the last time I visited that barber.
I’ve done 100% tips a couple of times–once for utterly outstanding service, and once because the server seemed a little grouchy. Several times I’ve gone as high as 50-60%. The most recent time I tipped that much was when we overheard our server tell the people at another table that she was graduating from high school that weekend. So we left an extra $10 (on a $18 check) and wrote our congratulations on the receipt.
I left a $200 tip on a $150 bill once.
(with the approval of the other girls who lived in residence with me - it was the remains of the floor money we had all contributed that year. The option was to have it carry over to the next year, when no one would be there, or to give the waitress a very good night)
She kept trying to give it back - I wouldn’t let her. Apparently, most people (this being a university town) never tipped at all.
A friend and I used to be frequent visitors to a local bar. As such, we would often get a free round at some point during the evening. One night we arrived, placed our first order, and I put a $20 bill down on the bar to pay. The drinks arrived, but the money was not touched. OK, the first round is on the house tonight, I thought.
Several hours and several pitchers of beer later (yes, we had no lives), the money was still untouched. We went home, and left the $20 as a tip.
$100 to a girl who was racking up the balls on a pool table for me and my friends in Thailand.
She was a great kid and I was very drunk. She nearly had a heart attack when I gave it to her. Shock then happiness.
I had just come into a bit of money so it didn’t bother me. It made me feel good and it made her feel good. Win win.
Percentage-wise, well, I can’t even calculate it. I don’t drink alcohol, so when I go out with my friends I’m the only one with a Pepsi or whatever. I’m almost never charged for this drink. Usually, though, I’ll throw a few bucks into the pile when we’re done. So it’ll be like a $3 tip on a $0 bill.
Typically, my friends will tease me for being overgenerous with my tipping. Spending 5 years in food service will do that to you (with the exception of a friend of mine whose cheapness overrides her waitressing experience). 20% is the minimum typically, but I have left up to 50% or more for good service.
Sorry, but I’m not all that impressed by some of your stories. As a waitress, $100 for a $80 check, for example, would be a good tip but nothing to tell my friends about. I don’t remember any great tips I’ve given, but some memorable one I received: $100 on one round of drinks; $15 on one beer; and $20 just to encourage me to take their order first. Maybe I should go back to waitressing!
Last week, Mr2U and I played hooky one afternoon and went to the track. Drinks there for a round (one draft beer and one screwdriver) were $10.50. I paid with $12 for each round. Until the last round (which, incidentally, was only for a beer - Mr2U was still working on his last screwdriver), when I gave the bartender a $50 and told him to keep it. I figured what the hell - Mr2U and I had just won over $700. 
I happened to be schedule to fly out to Atlanta the day after 9/11. I got pushed back a couple of days and they just started that thing where the only people allowed at the gates were ticket holders. I had a couple of hours layover in Houston, and there was a guy near the gates with a shoe shine stand. He said his business was really screwed since he was getting a whole lot less traffic by his stand. I gave him a 100% tip for a shine. Eh, why not.
The bartender at my local pub will generally buy back every second or third round. I always leave him tips of well-over 50%.
I can’t remember how much it was, but when I was at the Quebec City protests in 2001, the cops shot tear gas down the mountain into a quiet commercial street well away from the protests. We were trapped in the café where we were having dinner for about two hours until the gas dissipated. That was some time after closing time. The staff also helped out a kid who was having asthma problems. I left a huge tip for the difficult situation.
For sheer dollar amount I think I’ve got this one won. I got stuck paying the bill at a corporate function of about 40 people at an upscale restaurant in Dallas. The bill (for the meal and 1.5 hours of bar time prior) came to $5000, the tip was $1000. Fortunately, my boss was there and assured me that my expense report would be approved and paid before the credit card bill arrived. I still sweated.