Shouldn’t the airline cover the tip? They’re the ones who lost your luggage, all costs of returning it to you should be on them.
You pay an airline to check a bag. They’re supposed to deliver it to you at baggage claim after your flight in exchange for the money. They don’t have to refund you when they fail to do so.
When they finally find your bag, and set it up for delivery, and it shows up at your house or hotel you find this: a code to Venmo a tip? So you’re actually paying more for the checked bag than someone who gets it delivered on time. This one is from American Airlines:
tipping culture is out of control. @AmericanAir got my bag to me 24 hours after my flight landed. Fine, no problem, things happen.
But I’m expected to tip the driver for the bag that was delivered late through no fault of my own? Pay people living wages. pic.twitter.com/qomrrYMDAR
— Pageybibi (@TheBravoDerm) January 5, 2024
Delta Air Lines experimented with gig economy workers delivering luggage. Just as you now are supposed to tip your Uber driver or DoorDash delivery, I guess the same holds true for the person delivering your lost luggage.
American Airlines outsourced nearly all curbside check-in to a company that now charges a per-bag fee, and cuts American in on the fee. That means lower tips for sky caps, since customers are basically willing to spend the same amount of money for curbside, it now just gets captured by the airline and third party rather than the worker.
As airlines cut costs, they’re shifting the burden of paying wages for the services they used to provide onto you the customer.
American Airlines loses and delays more checked bags than competitors – around half a percent and at times up to 1% of bags (they are unwilling to spend more on technology to improve). They take longer to get bags to baggage claim, too. They can’t compete with Delta and Alaska which guarantee delivery of checked bags to baggage claim within 20 minutes of flight arrival. American tracks this metric but does a poor job meeting it. A connecting flight significantly increases the chances that your bag will be lost. And now, after the connection, expect to pay a surcharge (tip) to get your bag back.
The word “No” is a complete sentence.
Not just the airines but contract and direct airport people handle your bags.
In Japan , tipping is not culturally couth ; I try anyway , but am usually told “no” in Japan . In USA I usually tip anyone who helps me , because I am disabled and genuinely appreciate the help . However , In USA they frequently decline to accept the tip because they wish to be charitable , or because of airline policy . If my luggage was ever delayed , I would definitely tip the courier who delivered it , out of sincere gratitude.
YES — tipping is retarded.
YES — tipping has nothing to do with whether or not you asked for the service. A bathroom attendant is tipped, even though if it was your choice, there probably would not be an attendant there at all. You tip a hotel for delivering shampoo, even if your reason for requesting it was housekeeping accidentally stocked your room with 2 bottles of conditioner instead of 1 shampoo and 1 conditioner. In NYC residential buildings (where talented, ambitious people live) the maintenance crew are customarily tipped.
THINK — you are an exec responsible for the P&L of a function like lost bag delivery. Your goal is to cut costs as much as possible. That translates into a hefty cash bonus for you plus upside in equity via increased stock price. You have the option of shifting some of your labor fees onto the customer by way of tipping. The only blowback will be whining on Twitter. Which option do you take as an executive at a company beholden to the fiduciary duty of increasing shareholder value?
DO — encourage lawmakers to ban tipping at the federal level. Elimination of the “tipped minimum wage” was a good effort but made absolutely no changes in tipping norms. Solicitation of tips should be outlawed. Implementation and enforcement can be debated once we agree to banish tipping.
I do not have Venmo on purpose so as to not leak money.
Like in Mexico where tips never go to the ones providing service and are just additional profit for the company.
My tip is: “get a better job with a living wage and 1st world benefits. At 3.7% unemployment I see no reason to work crappy jobs unless you like it.
It’s not my responsibility to pay your off the books wages.
In the 90s I was a contractor who delivered delayed baggage at PDX. Think during 6 months maybe 1-2 people tipped – but was on the receiving end of plenty annoyed/irritated people – as if I was an airline employee.
That said I never expected a tip or abuse.
But its definitely the responsibility of the airline – its not like UBER/Eats where you order ride/food.
Its messed up the airline fails and then adds insult to injury.
Tipping culture has gotten out of control – the GoPuff employee filling my pickup orders solicited a tip and a pain it was to do thier job fulling orders.
Obviously I’m in the minority but I have been tipping them for years.
There’s nothing in the conditions of carriage that says I should or must tip upon the return of lost luggage. I can stare down most people who do not deserve a tip but who importune me to give them one.
It’s an interesting conundrum. On the one hand, airline lost it and caused a pretty significant inconvenience, so why should we pay anything. On the other, you didn’t have to lug the luggage around to your destination, someone else did it for you (albeit, it wasn’t your choice). I’ll probably wind up tipping, just as a show of personal gratitude to the individual delivering, who had nothing to do with it getting lost.
@ Gary — I’m with @ Retired Lawyer on this. It would never even occur to me to possibly tip under those curcumstances. Unbelievable and insulting.
When the driver or service shows up I make a snap judgment. If they look like the working poor trying to make ends meet, I give them some cash. But that’s because I want to. I can’t be guilted into it.
Hell no. If the airline isn’t compensating me for the inconvenience then why exactly am I expected to shell out even more money for a tip because they had to deliver my lost luggage to me. That is their responsibility not mine, and my career was in hospitality and I do believe in tipping where warranted. Sure whoever delivers the bag is providing a service but it’s not a service I requested as a luxury. The airline is 100% responsible for compensation to the driver.
Well of course they are the working poor and deserve a tip. That said the last time this happened our bag was dropped off at our front door (on the street) in the middle of the night when we were asleep !
You actually can get the $30 charge to check a bag refunded if your bag is delayed
“encourage lawmakers to ban tipping at the federal level….”
This is a perfect example of why Thomas Sowell encourages people to look beyond “Stage One”. Looking at only the immediate results of an action and ignoring any unintended consequences, is what separates a bad economist from a good one.
They provided the airline a service. They can tip.
If a rideshare driver can’t get off their butts and at least act like they want to help by opening the back or whatever, no tip. Tip is for service, your company pays you to drive the car. Stop whining because a lot of the rideshare drivers are lazy and dont know what customer service is.
Do the delivery drivers ring your doorbell in the middle of the night to hand deliver the bag and solicit a tip? I would hope not. However, since the airline was responsible for delivering the bag to me upon arrival, and they failed to do so, the cost of delivery and the tip is a part of their responsibility. Poor planning and action on their part does not shift that responsibility to me. So my answer would be to see the person or Company who hired them. It was not me.
No one is forced to tip. I refuse to tip someone for handing me something over the counter.