There’s too much tipping everywhere now, and especially in travel. Fifteen percent on the pre-tax restaurant total became 20% on the after-tax amount, and restaurants started expecting it even for takeout. Then self service checkout kiosks started saking for tips. One at the Austin airport even refused to make a sale without one.
Tipping expectations in airline club lounges is especially galling. These are membership lounges. Gratuities should be entirely option for above and beyond service.
Remember that tipping allows employers to reduce wages. They’re able to attract workers at lower wages because it’s the total, tip inclusive pay that matters. Here’s a hotel industry CEO saying the quiet part out loud and another admitting to not tipping housekeepers.
But one rumor about tipping just isn’t true, that when you pay for premium drinks with SkyMiles at a Delta Sky Club that the airline pockets the tip and doesn’t pass it onto the server.
FYI if you pay with sky miles for a drink at a delta lounge, the tip does NOT go to your server.
i joked as i “tipped” on my skymiles “how does she get the skymiles?? lol” to my husband and the bartender quickly replied “you don’t it goes straight to deltas pockets”.
i was so MAD! no where does it say the tip doesn’t go to the server. i honestly though it was converted somehow to cash for the server. had to venmo her a tip because she was working hard! just a warning for everyone.
Delta Sky Club LAX
Delta’s Sky Club point of sale system treats the “tip” line exactly like a credit card gratuity: each SkyMile you add is converted to cash and pushed through the normal tip pool that Compass (or other concessionaire that staffing the club) distributes to bartenders and servers. U.S. labor law (29 CFR § 531.52) makes it illegal for the employer (or Delta) to keep any portion of those tips.
- The bartender rings up your premium drink and selects “Pay with SkyMiles.” The terminal shows a tip line in miles.
- SkyMiles are debited from your account at the same rate Delta uses for the drink itself.
- At batch close the POS transmits two numbers to the back‑office system: (a) revenue, (b) gratuities. Their internal accounting matches what bartenders see on pay stubs.
- Gratuities are paid out (often pooled) via the payroll run, minus required withholding. Bartender never sees the SkyMiles themselves, only the cash.
Delta Sky Club Austin
Because the money shows up on the paycheck later, and not in the tip jar, some staff might think “mileage tips disappear.” That misunderstanding fuels rumors like this customer’s misimpression. But it cannot possibly be true.
- The Fair Labor Standards Act flatly prohibits employers from retaining employee tips under any circumstances. A company of Delta’s size (or Compass’s) does not risk that exposure.
- The same back‑end that pays out credit card gratuities handles the SkyMiles conversion. The miles are just another currency like cash.
- There hasn’t been litigation in the decade this has been going on.
Delta Sky Club Austin
If pay stubs lump tips into one line (“Service Bar Tips”), staff can’t tell whether a given guest used cash, card or miles. Tip pooling can make it feel like they didn’t get the tip. At the same time, a bartender might discourage cashless tipping to push you toward Venmo or cash (bypassing tip pooling-and taxes).
If you do want to tip, don’t want to do it with miles, and don’t have cash though you can always ask the bartender to run a one cent credit card transaction and add the tip there.
Delta Sky Club LAX Outdoor Deck
In American Airlines Flagship First Dining, while servers might accept tips, they aren’t supposed to. As a Senior Vice President at the airline explained it to me, tipping is not permitted. And as her then-managing director (now himself a senior vice president) elaborated, First Dining is considered “an extension of the cabin.” That should be the rule everywhere. Customers shouldn’t be expected to make up the employee’s wages (and there shouldn’t be surcharges on bills for this, either).
Be kind to Delta Air Lines SkyClub bartenders. Members should only tip cows and not Delta SkyMiles.
I tipped the ORD United Club bartender $2 on a gin and tonic. She slipped $1 into her pocket and left the other $1 on the counter, clearly to psychologically manipulate others into tipping.
Remember, a club lounge bar isn’t like a normal bar. Far fewer people tip.
What a tacky practice although much less tacky than simply saying falsely the airline keeps your tips.
Doubtless there are slimy proprietors who do illegally keep tips, or maybe less illegally, force the pooling of tips between staff. Communism, yay!
Thanks for publishing this, very informative!
Make USA great again and end this out of control tipping. Either no tipping or the old pre-tax 10% tip.
If the USA were smart, it would adopt East Asian cultural practices. No tipping.
Top? Bribe? I used to care. I give up.
Given the surly “service” by club cocktail waitresses and incompetent “service” by club barmen, Aky Club is one place where I’ve made an executive decision to NOT tip. I’ll let the credit card corporate partner and the Delta corporate partner, two partners in crime, Duke it out. I dont care, anymore.
In airport lounges, tipping occasionally gets me drinks faster than other people, and usually gets me more generous pours (= fewer trips). In the long term, it also gets me generally more interesting people than would be supported by the wages the lounge contractor is paying. (I don’t think if we stopped tipping wages would go up; just the quality of person willing to work as a bartender would decrease.)
(Want to be extra clear here that ‘quality’ means outgoing, efficient, relaxing, enjoyable, friendly, etc.)
@Erect: Which United Club were you at? I believe it is currently against policy for the bartenders to pocket the tips (I’ve never seen it, although maybe I haven’t been paying attention), so what she was really may have been doing was stealing from the other bartenders. Tips are supposed to go into the tip jar to be split later.
Only time I see bartenders go into their pockets is to make change – again because I think they are not supposed to mess with the tip jars.
If you HANDED the bartender your tip, don’t do that next time, just put it in the jar or on the counter. (Handing it to her let her pocket half the tip while making it look like she was leaving the tip on the counter.)
Side note, if you want to counter tip culture, the LAST thing you should do is make them tax deductible.
Wonder why airline don’t step in when this happens in there lounges.
I was in London and a “tip” was added to my check and noted as “gratuity” which I told the waiter to remove from my check as it was not disclosed prior to purchase. He refused. Get the manager. The manager refused. I took a picture of the check and the menu and disputed the charge. Good old AMEX removed the charge! While this is kinda “socialist”, just work the tip into the price and be done with it. “Tip included”…good or bad service…the tip is included. Better yet…just pay the staff a living wage and everyone’s happy.
Until the US3 have signs about no tipping at their lounges, particularly in areas where people would usually tip, then whatever management at corporate says means nothing.
Sure, the lounge is an extension of the cabin, so tipping shouldn’t be required. However, do the staff at the lounges know that and is it enforced by their managers? No.
The only US airline that actually does a good job with this is Alaska, as their lounges have signs at the bar that mention “no tipping please”. At first I didn’t realize this, until I had bartenders point at the sign, smile, and say they appreciate the gesture but no tips are needed.
With all the club restrictions, raise in price, and decline in quality, I NEVER tip in ANY lounge. They can figure out how to pay their employees using the outrageous fees they rake in. Certainly not my job to pay their employees. It’s actually hilarious to watch these “high rollers” throw cash at a bartender for “free” basic house drinks. Yes bro, we’re all impressed.
It’s not hard fellas; just keep about $10 worth of $1s on you, every day, all day, and never run into the bartender at an airport lounge problem ever again. Some of y’all are so ‘black and white.’ Like, either tip or don’t, but a $1 ain’t much these days, and it’s more the thought that counts. (I suppose it does add up if everyone does their part.) Ultimately, the operators of these lounges need to be paying their staff well, so that no one is living off tips. C’mon.
@Erect — Since you brought up communism above, aren’t you pro-CCP? I presume you’re the same guy as @E. Jack Youlater, @Un, and @Unintimidated, and they were diminishing the Tiananmen massacre on a separate post in June. One more time, Taiwan is the Republic of China, a free and separate country. Also, Tibet should be free, too. The nine dash line is a farce. And stop murdering Uyghurs. Can’t repeat all that enough.
Keep an even larger stack of ones so you have them to visit a club and commiserate your canceled flight.
Most of these flyers complaining about tipping are traveling on business and are expense- accounting their trips. You demand excellent service in a free lounge and dont want to give a few bucks in return for the service, shame on you. You are the same people that bitch about high prices everywhere in the service industry when a company is paying good wages. Stop tipping everywhere. Don’t expect to be served well. I bet you don’t tell the person that they should not expect a tip for services rendered prior to the service being rendered. Be fair about it and tell your service person that you won’t tip prior to the service. Please!
It’s not clear at what rate the miles are converted into cash for tips. Is it the 2+ cents that Delta will sell you the miles, or the 1 cent for which you can redeem the miles?
You say that is not true because some writing tells you. Delta is a near slave labor employer who will screw you out of a penny if they could. Count on them doing this.
Tipping in the USA makes no sense, prices are sky high to start with so employers can afford decent wages for the employees ..many years ago the USA used to be cheap.. no longer. Tax being added then tips and not to mention credit card charges in some places. USA would benefit from a UK/EU laws which (i) prevents credit card charges being passed onto consumers and (ii) the price displayed HAS to include tax – the price you see is the price you pay. Any tips are purely discretionary and not expected.
@CRS
I did a better job making my own drinks when DL had self service bars. But since COVID, that’s not allowed anymore…
You’re right though, I should give them a tip: I’ll tell them to go get a real job.
@BA — Them’s fightin’ words to our pal @Tim Dunn. He’d likely argue that DL pays the most in the industry, and he wouldn’t necessarily be wrong with their latest round of profit-sharing; however, I’m always in favor of paying people more and treating your people better. Tell that to management and their capital-class masters… usually doesn’t go over too well. Fight the good fight, folks!
What everyone needs to understand about the FLSA is that there is really no such thing as a tipped employees wage.
Technically, there is, but if a tipped employee wage is say, $6/hour compared to a standard wage of $10, the employer is responsible for making up the difference if the employee doesn’t receive tips in the amount that brings their earnings to $10/hour.
Effectively, this means no tipped employee is going home in a pay period with any less then any non-tipped employee counterpart (minimum wage) and in almost all cases they are going home with considerably more.
The whole myth of “they live off those tips because their minimum wage is lower” is a complete lie at this point. Couple that with the trend towards a lower level of customer service overall by these employees who think they are owed it, and it makes it even worse.
I’m all for a livable wage and tax cuts for ALL low earners, but there is nothing special about tipped employees, they already come out ahead.
Airlines aren’t the only ones. A particularly nasty example is Cruise Lines requiring Prepaid Gratuities charged to your shipboard statement. I’ve heard from several sources not all of it goes to the servers. Some finds it’s way to the Executive Suite of Lines, in the form of Bonuses.
Legally they can’t pay less than minimum wage.. That’s why I tip in cash only. That forces the company to make up the amount that would average atleast min wage for the worker.
Bengal is correct. I noticed this when I delivered for a restaurant. Legally they can’t pay less than minimum wage.. That’s why I tip in cash only.
Tips are for suckers and end up in the pockets of the large corporations, who simply pay workers less “because of the tips”.
Just say no, as they do in the parts of the world where 96% of the population lives.
I carry Jefferson’s for the express purpose of tipping when appropriate. The Susan B Anthony coins, while unique, didn’t work for tips…too similar to a quarter.
@One Trippe — You are quite generous, sir. $10 tip deserves exceptional service at an Amex lounge. I’d say, a Washington for a simple drink is fair. Though, if an attendant is with you for several hours, bringing you drinks and food and ‘getting to know you,’ then sure, $10 is reasonable.
On the west coast, service people are paid the same minimum wage as anyone else. In CA, it’s $16.50/hr, In many counties/cities, it’s higher: $18.20/hr in Santa Clara County, $19.18/hr in SF & Berkeley, and $19.90/hr in Emeryville. And all CA fast food workers (who don’t normally get tips) make a min of $20/hr. Plus I believe airport workers have an even higher min wage as they are on a different contract: $22.50/hr for SFO & $22.50/hr+HB for LAX. LA has some schedule where LAX airport & hotel workers will make $30/hr+HB by 2028. Something like that. HB=health benefits, which can be paid out in cash/hr, somewhere around $6.xx/hr for airport & $8.xx/hr for hotel employees)
Increasingly, all CA tips are pre-calculated for you POST tax. And often, there are other add-on fees like employee health fee, living fee, expensive-to-do-biz-in-CA fee, credit card fee, etc — worse in big cities like SF. And restaurants lobbied for exemptions from the CA bill that was supposed to prohibit add-on mandatory fees. Even if restaurants are supposed to post mandatory fees somewhere, I rarely see that as the case, especially the credit card fee which some places charge 3%-5%! And restaurants are increasingly having mandatory/automatic 18%(min)+ tips/service charge for any number of diners in a party (not just 6 or more). I got caught by this once or twice & double tipped — I now scrutinize my final bill more carefully, and I don’t eat out as much because eating out at even a modest restaurant has become really pricey and less enjoyable (more tablets/QR codes where the diner has to do everything other than bring the food, and indifferent service people who just want to be tipped more and more for doing little to no ‘service’) in CA.
And now the first $25,000 of *reported* tips from service people will be tax free.
So before you cry me a river about poor service workers (in CA at least), calculate the equivalent hourly rate of service people.
Oh, and a new pet peeve: at ‘higher end’ restaurants, waitstaff will ask ‘still or sparkling’ and then charge you for the expensive bottled water and will keep topping off your water (good service, right?) — our company got dinged for a 3-digit WATER charge at an expensive restaurant that did this! For those in the know, you ask for tap/normal water that is free – they conveniently do not offer ‘still, sparkling, or tap’. Maybe I’m not high class enough to not be irritated by this.