Update: the airport authority says that the QR code stickers have been removed from the water filling stations. They say that the tip solicitation effort advertised on the machines was not authorized .
You’re not allowed to bring bottles filled with water through airport security. Bottled water is often much more expensive at the airport. If you want to avoid the single use plastics, or just save money, airports frequently have filling stations.
At the Detroit airport these water filling machines solicit tips. As reader Devin shared,
[T}here are QR codes above some water bottle filling stations that encourage travelers to “help the airport better understand usage”. When you scan the QR code, it takes you to a link where you can “tip” the water bottle filling station.
This is literally insane.
The ‘suggest tip’ is 50 cents:
What you’re really doing when you tip the airport’s water filling station is giving extra money to the Wayne County Airport authority and that means, ultimately, redistributing income from you to Delta Air Lines. Money generated by the airport authority offsets dollars they’d have to charge airlines, and Delta operates the lion’s share of flights there. Delta’s CEO Ed Bastian made $34 million last year.
- You’re tipping a machine
- The money goes to a government agency
- And reduces costs passed onto Delta Air Lines
- Whose CEO is paid for its financial performance
This isn’t an outlier. Customers are asked to tip at self-checkout in airport stores all the time. At the Austin airport I’ve even had a tip requested at self-checkout that did not permit opting out. The machine wouldn’t accept $0. The minimum tip amount you could enter, after going through the hassle of rejecting default amounts, was $0.01.
I’m at Newark Airport being asked to tip on a self checkout transaction- how much should I tip? pic.twitter.com/hoIXIIOVRv
— Anna Tong (@annatonger) May 23, 2023
Unbelievably, 14% of people believe they should tip at self-checkout (17% of you also think landlords should receive tips). Those people would probably be ok tipping the website where you book your hotel. One online travel agency website actually solicits tips even though it’s a computer and even though the company is earning commission.
I’d say a basic rule is that you shouldn’t tip machines, but research has shown that when you offer a (hypothetical) tip to ChatGPT you get better – or at least longer – answers to your questions. Until our AI overlords demand it, though, there’s no tipping at self-checkout, or even takeout when you pick up the food yourself – let alone tipping at government-provided water filling stations.
People who would pay $3.50 for a plastic bottle filled with the same water complaining about being asked to volunteer 50 cents. Sounds about right.
Here’s a tip… Don’t wear plaids and stripes.
“Tip” is probably the wrong word in this case. They should’ve used “donation.” Users “donating” to maintain and improve the station, if their claim is true, is perfectly reasonable. But I also do wonder how the money actually flows.
We are doomed! You can”t fix stupid, and there are way too many out there.
The FY2024 operating budget at Detroit Metropolitan Airport is $460 million. That includes net taxpayer money (grants), and it excludes capital improvement spending. They don’t need 50 cent tips to support water filling stations.
You can take bottled water thru TSA.
Simply declare it a medical necessity.
Of the last 100 times I’ve done this, it’s taken more than an extra 45 seconds exactly twice.
Water is a medical necessity. The human body needs it to survive.
No problem as I have not flown through DTW in more than a decade. I used to fly through it on Northwest Airlines flights but when Delta took over NWA, it was no longer as price competitive to fly through it and the schedule wasn’t as good, either.
If you would like to show your appreciation for me reading this post, you can send the suggested tip of $25 by PayPal or Venmo.
Next will be a QR code for tips above every fixture and dispenser in the restrooms
As PT Barnum said: There is a sucker born every minute
perhaps this is why gen z can’t live on poverty wages of less than 100k a year- rookie mistake
Passengers are also encouraged/shamed at nearly every retail vendor in the DTW North Terminal to buy snacks for the troops. I offered to buy some at their cost, not the mark up tag price and they looked at me like I was nuts. So I declined.
How about a tip link when posting a comment here?!
I saw this when I was last at DTW! I was curious and went to the QR code and had a good laugh
Welcome to the programmed brainwashed liberal DemocRat morons who mindlessly comply. Anyone who is upset with this truthful post is another one of those who are too ignorant to actually think.
I’m curious people’s thoughts on tipping Amazon fresh deliveries.
It’s the only part of Amazon’s delivery system that defaults to tipping for delivery but it does allow you to remove it.
I get that other grocery delivery apps usually use tipping as part of the pay scheme for drivers but I always wonder whether others do for Amazon fresh when every other amazon delivery network doesn’t do any tipping.
Plane Jane, I tip 10% for Amazon Fresh. The drivers are couriers, not parcel delivery drivers (whom I wouldn’t tip under any circumstances). Couriers for services like DoorDash receive similar tips from me. I tip $5 at a minimum for small orders.
@Joe R – Seriously? You use THAT as way to get water through TSA? Wow… Just Wow.
@Plane Jane, I have used Amazon Fresh exactly once and I tipped the suggested amount. I don’t know the pay scale, but I got clearance food items (not out of date or even close) at a very good discount so I felt it was appropriate even with a high delivery charge. The delivery was the same day and in the time window set. Even with the charge and tip my price per item was a small fraction of the normal retail cost when spread over a lot of items. Everything came in four bags.
Normally I order flowers for my mom thru a shopping portal for miles but last year Mother’s Day, I pushed the date too close and had to order direct from her local florist. Online order form, staff is mostly owner and family- three different times on the online form it asked me if I would like to tip the floral artist. This is after a $25 higher price for similar, a $15 rush charge for a holiday four days later, a $20 delivery fee to an address 1/2 mile away- now you want me to also tip the floral artist? And when I said no the first time, it popped up twice more before checkout.
Isn’t this like being an @Tim?
Because, apparently @Tim donates 100% of his income to Delta every year, plus putting Ed Bastian’s kids through private school. And, performing his farce comedy act every year at the Executive Holiday Dinner.
So, yeah, tip heavily and frequently at the water fountain. It all goes to DL anyway.
@David R. Miller
You said this site is dead to you.
Keep your word. Leave.
Funny how you make fun of people, but your own words seem to be lies.
Zeb — You are the EXACT type of liberal I was referring to – programmed, brainwashed and without a lick of common sense. Telling the truth about people is not “making fun” of them.
@David R Miller – “Telling the truth about people”.
Mr. Miller – in the time that I have met you, you have done nothing but spew hate about your fellow Americans.
I truly believe that this is YOUR perceived truth, but not the truth.
You are an angry man. And this is not an open therapy session, but a TRAVEL website (… which you said was dead to you, leave, btw.)
Add your personal input/value about TRAVEL. Your experiences. Not your fevered political commentary.
As to my political views, I have discussed that before, and I won’t belabor the point (as you apparently don’t seem to recal) BECAUSE THIS IS A FREQUENT TRAVEL BLOG.
Finally: you very clearly stated this site is dead to you. LEAVE.
I ordered something online and the company asked me for a tip at checkout! When will it stop? ??
Travel.girl, it won’t stop till people think tipping is compulsory and are shamed for not tipping. Madness is nigh
We need to create stickers of the QR of this website and place it over any of these stupid tipping QR’s…
Right click on the page and choose “create QR code” paste in paint and print it out…
@ LAX Tom
Is it the same water or is it Detroit tap water?
@Gary Leff: You wrote: “What you’re really doing when you tip the airport’s water filling station is giving extra money to the Wayne County Airport authority and that means, ultimately, redistributing income from you to Delta Air Lines.”
Gary, I agree. Delta Air Lines could eliminate the Wayne County Airport middleman by placing a QR code in every aircraft toilet. Then, when passengers flush, they would be invited to “donate” 50 cents to the Delta Air Lines C-suite Christmas bonus fund for sitting on a premium toilet seat, which comprises consuming blue juice and disposing of fecal excreta.