Flight attendant Brittney Bluitt was doing drink service on a holiday trip and when a passenger handed her a closed airsickness bag and told her, “This is for you.” Gross, right? She assumed it was trash, took it to the galley, and kept working.
While cleaning up later, she opened the bag and found it contained cash that passengers had contributed as a collective tip on the trip — $208 total. She said tips are uncommon and, when they happen, they’re usually small like $5 or $20. She’d never experienced the whole cabin doing it.
@brittneybluittofficial Blessed! That’s all
Her LinkedIn profile lists her as a flight attendant with JSX. Their Embraer 145s have a maximum of 30 seats.
People generally take the thoughtfulness and community here was pretty special and it was a great gesture because it was unexpected. But airlines don’t generally allow employees to accept tips. It creates bad incentives. Even if nobody asked for perks, cash looks like you’re trying to purchase discretion, freebies, or attention. If you want a trading card, just ask for a trading card—don’t stack incentives.
In fact, at American Airlines, airport customer service employees are allowed to accept “promotional items, complimentary tickets or perishable gifts (candy, fruit, etc)” that’s worth no more than $100. American tells employees to “share[..] with colleagues when practical.” However gifts worth over $100 must be returned. Employees are not allowed to accept “cash, gift cards, and gift certificates” regardless of amount. So no Starbucks gift cards.
They’re in a service role and the correct way to engage and appreciate is to be nice. You can submit a compliment through airline contact procedures, which is a stronger signal than a box of chocolates without ethics problems or putting the crew at risk.
However, flight attendants at Frontier Airlines went viral before the pandemic because the airline had a policy of supplementing cabin crew wages with customer tips. On many airlines flight attendants earn a commission on credit cards passengers sign up for. If you want to ‘tip’ cabin crew, maybe the best way to do it is apply for a credit card using their referral code (JSX, for its part, does not have a cobrand credit card).
@Gary – For the past ten years I have never had a ticket agent, gate agent or flight attendant refuse a Starbucks gift card when I have provided it. I typically hand out about 10-15 each year.
Who opens a barf bag? Good thing she did, but I could easily see it going right into the trash.
Addition to previous comment: I exclusively fly American Airlines so the ticket agents, gate agents and flight attendants were AA.
I’m not sure why gift cards, per American, are not allowed to be accepted by their flight attendants. I did so on a trip to LHR from LAX in 2024 to express my gratitude for what I consider beyond expectations and my flight attendant (in biz class) appreciated it more than you know. This won’t stop me from doing so whether I fly American or not!
For JSX, as a quasi-private ‘charter’ service, I suppose, okay, good for her, but, it’s different; this is not ‘a thing’ for most airlines. Where’s our resident JSX expert, @Mike Hunt, for his hot-take?
“If you want a trading card, just ask for a trading card—don’t stack incentives.”
I don’t understand. Isn’t a “trading card” something like a baseball card or a Pokemon card? What does this have to do with tipping a flight attendant?
@Joshua K. — ‘Gotta catch ’em all?’
Someone trying to spread more of this unnecessary tipping
@Donald — At least they supposedly did it the right way… cash… directly to the recipient… no silly third-party processors, or line on a check at a restaurant…if you really wanna thank workers, a smile, a thank you, and cash is king.
Nothing spreads more joy among flight crews than handing a loaded barf bag to a flight attendant.
I try to bring chocolates. I’m typically in F/J, so it’s not like I’m trying for that upgrade people think can happen and never does. Two years in a row, I flew a trans-Tasman NZ flight that is Y only (not even Y+, really). Gave the FA the chocolates, each time they quickly retrieved a pair of OTE headphones to replace the disposable ones at each seat.
About the barf bag, barf weighs a lot more than money does. The flight attendant would know it wasn’t a bag full of barf. However, reassurance that there was no barf in it would have gone a long way.
A new high for the never-ending tipping madness.
Tipping culture is out of control. What’s next, we tip the pilot for landing the plane?
This is a made-in-America blight on travel.
@This comes to mind — “I’m typically in F/J”… yet, you slummed it on Y-only for AU-NZ… meanwhile, over at OMAAT, you recently commented that you took EK’s SYD-CHC fifth-freedom route (388/773). I mean, I get it, smaller airports like ZQN can’t do widebodies, but, QF/VA operate 737 with recliners. Sure, NZ/JQ do all-Y, so, maybe you just booked it that way, not that it’s the only option.