News and notes from around the interweb:
- Hotels want guests to give tips to workers, so they can pay lower wages. The CEO of one hotel ownership group actually said the quiet part out loud.
- A worker might accept employment with an expectation of making $20 per hour. It doesn’t matter if that’s $20 from the employer, or $15 from the employer and $5 (on average) from guests. The lack of certainty in tipping might mean they’d need $6 or $7 from guests to consider it break-even.
- If hotels can convince guests to tip more, they’re able to attract workers at lower wages.
Tipping contributes to lower base wages. In most cases what housekeepers are paid is a function on the wage at which hotels can recruit them as staff. The higher the expected tip, the lower the wage needed to recruit workers. So…
- The soft bigotry of low expectations. It’s amazing what we’ve come to accept in domestic first class. The very idea of a burger was shocking up front 25 years ago. Now it’s treated as a marvel, compared to the rest of the slop they serve…
- What should I choose as American’s 15,000 loyalty point reward? As an Executive Platinum, better boarding on a single trip is useless to me. Preferred (non-extra legroom) seat coupons aren’t transferable so again useless. That leaves me with 1,000 Loyalty Points (considering what they charge partners and what many would pay for qualifying points, call it $25) and a plastic luggage tag with name on it.
If these were cool luggage tags, I would do that. But asking me to ‘pay’ $25 for a cheap one, when Delta gives silvers free metal tags even? Absurd. I don’t need the loyalty points – I basically paused earning them last year when I went over 410,000 – but will take the 1,000 anywat.
- Other than that the May 7 deadline was set by the Biden administration, Sarah Palin isn’t wrong.
Or what??
Evidently existing ID requirements for American citizens just aren’t adequate now, so big brother is forcing us through more hoops for the “right” to travel within our own country. Other administrations delayed this newfangled, burdensome Real ID requirement. Are you… https://t.co/UwDr8968bf— Sarah Palin (@SarahPalinUSA) April 11, 2025
REAL ID is meant to be a national ID database that can’t be faked, in order to match you against security watchlists that are… highly flawed. People get on them by mistake, or as retaliation for angering law enforcement. The terror screening database has over a million people on it, rendering it useless. And remember that 9/11 hijackers would have had no problems flying under REAL ID because they held Egyptian, Saudi, UAE, and Lebanese passports.
Thank goodness for this though…
If you think REAL ID is bad, be glad Congress passed on our suggestion for buttholeprints.
— Agent Smith (@TSAgov) April 13, 2025
- The story is usually ‘the pilot ordered us pizzas during the delay’ what do we all think of McDonald’s?
Philippine Airlines is serving free McDonalds because our flight to Hong Kong is delayed thanks! pic.twitter.com/vlNpwxmtDw
— Josh Cahill (@gotravelyourway) April 13, 2025
- “Resort fee not included” heh.
— Las Vegas Locally (@LasVegasLocally) April 11, 2025
Didn’t the mandatory real id get pushed back 2 years in 2023… Why is this such a huge issue?
The bigotry of low expectations is pervasive in NYC. I was at a bar last night that had great reviews for warm service. The bartenders never smiled or said a word to me. How tf is that warm service?
If you’d like to share a warm experience with other elite guests, consider a Delta flight.
Independent of the arguments for or against Real ID, I gotta laugh at the triggered right wingers who think that requiring it to fly is akin to authoritarianism….but forcing a 100 year old US citizen to dig up their birth certificate to vote is just fine.
@kidstart – love it!
I tip well in restaurants and for other usually expected services (haircut, Uber/Lyft/Taxi, bartenders, cocktail servers, etc) but it has really gotten out of hand and you have to draw the line somewhere. I was at a wedding reception Saturday night and at the bar (complimentary full bar was provided) was not only a tip jar but each of the 2 bartenders have a Venmo sign so people could contribute directly to them. Don’t get me wrong, I would tip in a bar but at a reception, where I know the family was adding a generous tip to the reception cost, it just seemed petty and inappropriate. Maybe I’m just “old school” but complimentary services at a party (bar, valet, etc) should NEVER have an expectation that guest tip since the host will be handling that.
Dear Ms. Palin, I found the extra work to get a Real ID minimal. I’m sure if I had a staff to help, it would’ve been even easier.
I tip cash. Then the venue can’t steal their tip, there’s no chance of a ‘processing fee’ or something taking away from it, they can’t decide “well we’re taking the tip from their hourly pay so they get $x an hour”, and so on. (In some cases I do ask how they’d prefer it, since some do prefer to just have the tip on their regular system… either because they love doing everything on their phone or whatever, or for a rideshare or something it could be their system is like “Why did they get $0 tip?” and consider it a black mark.)
@KidStarA
Oh look a braindead lefty with a bad take.
Maybe you’ve been taking too many poppers during your nights out but state IDs are fine as they are. Making someone prove who they are tp vote is not the same thing. Something lefties like yourself really hate.
@Walter Barry,
I don’t use poppers, they give me a headache…one similar to that which I get listening to people whine about IDs to fly (not a fundamental right) while also advocating making people who have voted for decades now jump through a bunch of hoops just to continue being able to vote (much more a fundamental right than flying).
But I’m glad that your familiarity with poppers enables you not to OD on them when you go out.