The Tip Scam: How Restaurants Trick You Into Tipping More Than You Realize [Roundup]

by Gary Leff

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News and notes from around the interweb:

  • Always do the math.

  • The Ink Business Cash® Credit Card, which I’ve used for years, has a new ‘relationship bonus.’

    This no annual fee card has an offer to earn $350 when you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first three months and an additional $400 when you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first six months after account opening. And they’re now offering that you can earn a 10% Business Relationship Bonus If you have this card plus a Chase Business Checking account on your first card anniversary.

    Think of the initial bonus points offer as up to 75,000 points, which – if you have an Ultimate Rewards card whose points transfer to airline miles and hotel points – can be combined into one of Chase’s annual fee Ultimate Rewards products, and then transferred to a variety of loyalty program partners.

    I use the card for 5x on the first $25,000 spent in combined purchases at office supply stores and on internet, cable and phone services each account anniversary year.

  • Two and a half years ago I wrote that JetSmart would adopt AAdvantage as its loyalty program. We now know that will happen later this year.

  • At an airport near you maybe someday on a low cost carrier?

    Flying out of MEM to DFW today and decided to do some work at one of the desk areas. To activate the power, I had to scan a QR code and had the option of 15 minutes of “free power” if I watched an ad, or purchase 1 hour of power for $1.99.

  • While the number of people originally booked on American Airlines flights in and out of Tel Aviv is probably pretty limited at this point, starting May 10 they’ll no longer rebook onto El Al (they already stopped rebooking business class passengers onto El Al non-stops to New York).

  • John Travolta’s pilots charged with embezzling ~ $800,000

  • If you haven’t yet linked your Uber and Marriott accounts through April 15 they’re offering up to 2,500 bonus points: 500 points for linking; 1,000 points for a qualifying Uber ride; 1,000 points for a qualifying food or grocery order through Uber Eats.

    The Uber ride has to be Comfort, XL or Black – not UberX (so you pay more). The food purchase has to be at least $40++.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Editorial note: any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Comments made in response to this post are not provided or commissioned nor have they been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any bank. It is not the responsibility of advertisers Citibank, Chase, American Express, Barclays, Capital One or any other advertiser to ensure that questions are answered, either. Terms and limitations apply to all offers.

Comments

  3. @Gary – The tip link no longer works. I can speculate a few different reasons, lol.

  4. Restaurants can “suggest” the percentage all they want – I ONLY tip what I feel for the SERVICE that I receive. The worker agreed to what the restaurant offered to pay them. Just because I CHOOSE to eat at a restaurant DOES NOT OBLIGATE me to supplement the workers income with a tip. Don’t agree? Tough shit — it is MY MONEY and I will spend it how I choose and no one is going to coerce me to tip.

  6. Actually wouldn’t it be fraud to entice people to tip a certain percentage, then charge them more than that?

  7. @Ann If you just ask “How many Americans can do the math in their heads?”, you’ll get a number. If you ask, “How many Americans, especially the dumb ones who tip large can do the math in their heads?” you’ll get the exact same number, because the “dumb ones who tip large” are already counted, because they’re Americans…

    – Are we supposed to count the dumb ones twice or something?
    – Are the dumb ones dumb only because they tip large?

    But I’d have to say there are at least five types of American tippers:
    1. Those who can do the math in their heads.
    2. Those who can’t be bothered or just don’t care, and just tip whatever number comes to mind.
    3. Those who can’t do the math in their heads.
    4. Those who THINK they can do it in their heads but can’t.
    5. Those who know they can’t, and use a phone/calculator/suggested amounts.

    As to what those percentages of each would be… I have no idea. Some do it in their heads. Some guess. Some just pick a number from the “suggested amounts” that are frequently auto-printed on the bills. Others just ask their smartphone what is XXX % of $(the total bill amount)

    If I had to guess… I’d say there are less of the #1s than any of the others.

  9. To assure the waiter or waitress actually gets the tip, I usually leave cash.

Comments are closed.