An American Airlines passenger used their flight delay for a shower in the business clsas Flagship Lounge at DFW airport. After the shower, they spotted a staff member described as a cleaning lady and said “thank you” and started walking away. The employee stopped them and asked “where is the tip?”
The customer says they hadn’t even thought about tipping and didn’t have cash. They walked away, and the employee mumbled something under her breath.
There are two basic principles that matter here, I think:
- The passenger is traveling on American, and this benefit was included in the cost of their ticket.
- The employer should cover the cost of their employees, not the customer.
First Class American Airlines/British Airways Chelsea Lounge Where Shower Attendants Left Cleaning Supplies Behind
The tip ask was not appropriate. I’ve taken many showers in airport lounges and I’ve never been asked for a tip. However it appears some people leave $2 – $5 after a shower, though even they agree asking for the tip crosses a line. Also, there are a whole bunch of ‘just the tip’ jokes, coming out of the shower.
Let’s be clear, though: it’s not the norm that a tip is expected for an airport lounge shower. Ben Schlappig who frequently writes that he tips generously, acknowledges that “tipping in airport lounges is never expected.” In the U.S., people do tip more often than elsewhere, but argues that “appropriate” tipping is for drinks, sit-down meals, spa treatments, and exceptional service.
Capital One Lounge DFW Airport Shower Suite
Lucky recognizes that it’s mostly foreigners tipping in U.S. airport lounges, because foreigners just misunderstand the custom and assume you have to tip everywhere in this country. That alone suggests it is not the norm, and that you aren’t expected to tip. I’d add that outside the U.S., the shower-tip concept often reads as culturally alien.
There was a past scam at the LAX Qantas lounge where shower attendants allegedly staged “tips” in the room. However, because showers are often used after long-haul and are included in the ticket, there’s no reasonable expectation you even have local currency. There can’t be an expectation to tip.
- According to the Sodexo lead for United’s Polaris lounges there’s no formal policy on this. Employees are told not to expect tips, and they’re not to solicit them. However, guests are permitted to tip for good service.
- The official position for American Flagship First Dining, according to an American Airlines Senior Vice President I once asked, is that there’s no tipping because it’s considered ‘an extension of the cabin’ where tipping is expressly forbidden. First Dining isn’t the shower, but it’s part of the same facility.
- American Express says that tipping at Centurion lounge bars and spas is permitted, but not expected.
Cathay Pacific The Wing Cabana
This was an American Airlines lounge, not a United or American Express lounge. American Airlines employees are not permitted to accept cash tips however these aren’t American employees providing service in the lounge.
A shower attendant isn’t well paid, but also isn’t making minumum wage either. At the DFW Flagship lounge they likely make around $19 per hour based on Compass listings for this lounge for floor attendant and on reports of dishwasher pay there.
For those of you that have taken showers in airport lounges, have you left a tip?
Yes; always. Allows staff to supplement their meager earnings.
What’s next?. ..one may wonder….a tip for their ‘Good Morning greeting?’
The tipping culture has put in a concerted effort to walk society off the plank.
Those who tip for absolutely everything (even rudeness) and employers are mostly to blame. No sign of sanity returning in the near future. It just keeps getting kicked farther down the road.
the fact that you even have a post on this tells one how far this tipping malaise has gone
tipping madness. waiting for Lounge receptionists to ask for a tip!
‘Just the tip….’
A similar post-shower shakedown operation was in place at the Aeromexico MEX T2 lounge, before they shut for renovations. Just say no, people. I did.
Any sexual services offered? Or barf bags offered?
@ 1990 — ROFL.
@ Gary — This worker better be glad that wasn’t my spouse they asked for a tip.
Tipping has become a way for employers to pocket money and pay their employees less. It depends on how guilty you feel as the customer which you should not feel guilty for all the money you’re paying. I went to an ice cream shop a few weeks ago and they had a a tip jar. I can’t scoop the ice cream only they can scoop the ice cream. After they scoop the ice cream, they handed it to me. Why do I have to reward them for the service that I’m already paying for which is receiving the ice cream cone it’s just Ludacris..
I imagine one reason that tipping is so prevalent and requested today is that the federal minimum wage has not changed in 16 years. And I also suspect that people who are so annoyed by today’s tipping culture are the same ones who don’t believe in a minimum wage.
Tipping issues aside, the showers in the Flagship First lounge at DFW are the best anywhere. Literally a fire hydrant with zero water restrictions.
@ nycityny — I am against most tipping other than what was common 20 years ago. Furthermore, I am 100% in favor of a $20+ federal minimum wage. $7.25/hour ($2.13 per hour for tipped jobs) is slave wages, but our ridiculous tipping culture is not the solution to that problem.
@ Captain Freedom — While the DFW metro and entire state of Texas faces a water crisis…
Drop a duce and don’t flush. There’s your tip.
@Gary, you wrote:
“A shower attendant isn’t well paid, but also isn’t making minimum wage either. At the DFW Flagship lounge they likely make around $19 per hour.”
Min wage in Texas is $7.25. If my math is correct, $19.00 is greater than $7.25. Did you mean livable wage? Oh, wait it’s Texas, one of the most livable places in the US unless you’re in Austin.
Tipping culture is definitely one of the more annoying aspects of American culture and I wish the wage practices didn’t develop this way. The rest of the world doesn’t work like this. For example, if I stop by a breakfast buffet in a decent hotel anywhere in the world (except America), I never even consider the idea of leaving a tip. In America, I guess I’m supposed to leave a few bucks, even if the only thing a server does is maybe take away a couple used plates?
I make it a practice to tip. Anyone that handles my bags – anywhere. Uber drivers. People who push my wheelchair in airports. And staff in bathroom/lounges as well. Come on people, how would you like to clean up after people in hotel rooms or bathrooms everyday of your working life? Low paid jobs as well. Have some class. This person should have said, yes, I forgot and then gone to the staff at the lounge and gotten change if that was needed. I even tip workmen and tradesmen who work on my house or come for repairs, if they do a good job for me.
Even though Europeans are famous for not tipping, or, at most, rounding up to the nearest Euro, Europeans do tip in public restrooms. In France and Italy there always was a tray for coins and a surly restroom attendant monitoring the coin shakedown. Paris men’s restrooms generally were monitored by female ex-prison-guards.at the tipping coin tray.
Yes, tipping/bribery/extortion/shakedown is in all sectors of society and at all levels.
THAT IS NOT A PERSONAL SERVICE. THE PUTZFRAU IS PAID A FAIR SALARY FOR HER WORK. IN PARIS, THE “LOO LADIES” KEEP THE WC CLEAN AND PROPER AND THE GRATUITY IS THEIR *ONLY* PAYMENT. YOU TIP ONLY FOR PERSONAL SERVICES, UNLESS THE SERVICE IS PERFORMED BY THE OWNER OF THE COMPANY (SALON, RESTAURANT &C), THEN THERE IS NO TIP EXPECTED.
IT’S DISGUSTING HOW EVERYONE IN AMERICA HAS THEIR HAND OUT, AND THEN WHEN YOU REFUSE TO PUT A DOLLAR IN THE CUP WHEN YOU FETCH YOUR COFFEE YOU GET A DIRTY LOOK. STOP WORSHIPPING AT THE ALTAR OF THE DOLLAR BILL!
@ Samir Akhavan Their meager earnings is a matter for them and their employer. I’m not subsidising the profits of huge companies, by encouraging them to pay their staff less. American late stage capitalism.
@Captain Freedom — God. Bless. America. For real, I love me a firehose. Few newer hotels and apartments in NYC have them anymore; only the older ones. If anyone’s ever stayed at the Greenwich Hotel in Tribeca, they’ve got what you describe; it’s like walking into a full-blast massive-waterfall.
@Gene — Giggity.
@ David — You wrote, “Drop a duce and don’t flush. There’s your tip.”
When asked for a tip after using a shower in the American Airlines business class Flagship Lounge at DFW airport, consider advising the lounge staff that you only tip cows but not people.
You can help save water when using a toilet and flying through DFW when you remember, “If it’s yellow, let it mellow. If it’s brown, flush it down.”
To celebrate the 2026 new year at VFTW, for your video enjoyment, I am sharing a video link titled “100 Days of Will it Flush?”
https://youtu.be/UAJ_Q_1Cb34?si=GzI1Jhg0plAZWajF
Its idiots that tip everywhere that are the problem not the cleaner.
If dumb people didn’t tip, the cleaner would never expect it.
Instead of 0% tax on tips, we should change to 100% tax on tips. This would completely end the practice, and we could move to a rational system where employers pay their own employees instead of guilt-tripping their customers into doing it for them.
In America, tipping is socialism for businesses. I do it out of cultural norm, but I respect those that don’t tip (ahem, michael jordan).
I think American (and others) could solve this with a bit of transparency.
I little placard could say, “It’s our pleasure to serve you today, and our shower services are complimentary. We do not require or expect a gratuity, but you may use this QR code to leave a gratuity for exceptional service. All funds will go directly to the staff serving you today.” And the QR code has to lead to something incredibly easy. No downloading an app, no typing in your address, no waiting for 2FA.
If I see that, and the service was decent, I’m far more likely to leave a tip. Eliminate the guessing, eliminate the hassle. No pressure. Everyone wins.
I don’t think it’s reasonable for any passenger to arrive at an international lounge with exactly the right amount of cash for a tip in the proper currency. There are times when I would have liked to have left a tip, but it would mean finding American currency, getting it broken down to the right amount, etc.
On the flip side, I find it really amusing that people are willing to pay a 20% tip on top of the tab, but if prices are 20% higher and no tips are expected, they won’t dine at the establishment and complain the food is too expensive.
@ nycityny
Quite the biopic (even illogical) viewpoint you possess.
Just the opposite, I can assure you. With a fair minimum wage employees wouldn’t be dependent on tips from customers. With a fair minimum wage, companies wouldn’t be pushing their responsibilities over to their customers.
If someone provides good service, such as a waiter in a restaurant, then I will certainly tip them well (are you willing to accept 20%?)
If their job is not service oriented whatsoever…or they’re surly or rude, that’s a different thing.
Tips are supposed to be an incentive to provide cordial, competent service. Not an obligation because their employer cannot/will not pay a fair wage.
@nycityny – “And I also suspect that people who are so annoyed by today’s tipping culture are the same ones who don’t believe in a minimum wage.”
Could not be more wrong! Besides that me and @Gene have basically the same position, virtually every Bernie Bro would prefer proper pay to the vagaries of tipping and argue it’s a way for corporate America to screw over blue-collar employees that do actual work.
On top of that, my personal resistance to tipping actually stems from racial equity. Even if you and I were not racist, statistically the populace is, and darker skinned waiters and waitresses will, on average, receive lower tips than their lighter skinned counterparts. That ain’t fair and is not a reflection of service provided. Life is unfair enough as it is without building reinforcing mechanisms for it into our cultural and legal systems.
Within the US (and Mexico), I draw an admittedly arbitrary distinction. In credit card/Priority Pass lounges, including AA/DL/UA, I tip. Where access is cabin based, I consider myself a guest of the carrier and do not feel the need to tip. Overseas, it does not seem necessary or appropriate.
@ nycityny
Sorry about the typo. Darned predictive text. *Myopic* viewpoint…not biopic.
Support for a minimum wage usually comes from people with little understanding of economics and a distaste for individual rights.
@Samir Akhavan:
“Yes; always. Allows staff to supplement their meager earnings.”
That is just plain nonsense. You are not their employer. I am not their employer. Yes, it is most likely that their employer is stiffing them, BUT I am the customer. I do not supplement their salary. If I choose to tip for excellent service, I do so. But do not try to tell anyone that it is their job to be their employer as well. Just B.S.
The USA tiiping culture is sickening!, and it is fueled by the “charge it to the business expense”. ; else, it wouldm not be so prevalent.
After having polluted the planet with loud tipping, I’m happy to see that people from the USA are at a turning point.
@ jeffk
You tip Uber drivers that handle your bags? Wow! I wonder where you are taking Ubers.
In my life of certainly more than 100 Uber rides (with bags at the end of a flight) I’ve only had one who moved out of the driver’s seat to put my bag in the trunk. I tipped him 20%.
Every other Uber ride the driver simply popped the trunk from his/her cozy, warm driver’s seat.
So, basically you are tipping them for driving. That calls for the absolute minimum…if anything at all. Let Uber pay their employees a fair wage. Not the customer’s responsibility to make up for employers who pay low wages.