Skycaps are 6th most overpaid

[lowecur]

Just read an article where skycaps make an average of $100G per year. Their salaries are $30 to $40G's, coupled with average tips of $2. per customer. If they have 18 customers per hour, that's over $300 per day in tips.

Of course, the same article rates pilots at #9.

 

[StarrBuck]

Sooo... they have plenty of disposable income to invest in embraer?

 

[lowecur]

starrbuck

Excellent point!

Anyone who invested in ERJ the last 6 months has doubled their money. LUV has been flat, but that will all change soon

 

[SWAInflt]

Just read an article where skycaps make an average of $100G per year. Their salaries are $30 to $40G's, coupled with average tips of $2. per customer. If they have 18 customers per hour, that's over $300 per day in tips.

Of course, the same article rates pilots at #9.

SWA is in the midst of dealing with this dilemma with their Skycaps. About 10 of our stations have Skycaps that are actually SWA employees as opposed to a contract company. They wear the SWA uniform, get a decent base salary plus benefits on top of an insane amount of tips. It is easily one of the best jobs in the company. You have a better chance of getting Herb's job than a Skycap job.

The company wants to intergrate them into the Customer Service Agent group...they don't like the idea of SWA employees taking tips. For obvious reasons the Skycaps are happy right where they are and are not likely to go quietly.

 

[lowecur]

SWAInflt

The next time I fly, I'm going to ask the skycap to roll my carry on down to the plane and stow it in the overhead for me. For unskilled people to be making that kind of money is absurd. I was a teacher for 5 years and I left because I couldn't even pay back my student loans on what I made.

I've heard these jobs are handed down through nepotism by the subcontractors. Also, another great job is the van driver for the hotel. I've heard that he gets $10-20 for dropping a crew off.

 

[SWAInflt]

At WN we always tip our van drivers $1 each way. Even if we have to scrape up dimes and quarters from the bottom of our briefing bags.

Van drivers wear many hats for airline crews...chauffeur, tour guide, restaurant critic, father confessor....you name it. In many of our cities, the same drivers have been carting us around for years and they take excellent care of us.

There is also the PR factor. If we are pereceived by the hotel employees and guest as gracious...it is good for business. when we are in uniform people watch every move we make.

Skycaps have moved away from they days when they were true porters. Most cities have baggage belts right there at the Skycap stand on the curb so it is no longer necessary to carry carts of baggage to T-Point. In the old days the tip was appropriate because they were haulings hundreds of pounds of bags everyday and saving pax the trouble. Now, I think people tip Skycaps for the convenience of skipping the ticket counter. Finally, there is a belief that if you use a Skycap and don't tip your bags will end up in Abu Dhabi.

I don't mind tipping as long as I don't feel like I'm being blackmailed. If a van driver hustles to get me off the curb in BUF in subzero weather...I am glad to give me a buck. But, if some kid in Starbucks is giving me the hairy eyeball because I bypassed the "TIP" jar, I take my grande, non-fat, caramel macchiato and go home.

 

[DH106]

The baggage handlers on the ramp are the ones who deserve the tips --- not the skycaps.

Unless you've ever loaded a full DC-9 in the middle of winter or summer, you have no idea how hard that job is. I have --- in the early '90's for Continental.

Baggage handlers don't see a dime of that tip money, and their job is 100 times harder. Of course, it's also their battle to fight... they've never banded together to get some of that tip money from the skycaps.

On the hotel van issue... I don't need a chauffeur, tour guide, restaurant critic, or father confessor. The guy is getting paid by the hotel, using the hotel's van to do that job. I tip for two reasons only: I'll look like a horse's ass to the others that do tip, and our union contract specifically says that our perdiem is to be used for service tips. I still don't like it, though. I've never received a tip in my life, and I've worked some of the worst service jobs imaginable.

 

[lowecur]

income tax?

Makes you wonder how much of those tips are actually reported.

 

[SWAInflt]

On the hotel van issue... I don't need a chauffeur, tour guide, restaurant critic, or father confessor. The guy is getting paid by the hotel, using the hotel's van to do that job.

Do I Need a tour guide or restaurant critic? No. But when I am in a strange town for the first time it's awfully nice.

I guess the way I choose to look at it, these men and women are only paid to provide us with transportation but often, they go above and beyond that. It's easy to just 'phone it in' at a crummy job. But, it's nice to see someone with a "menial" task give it 110% .

As long as I feel like I have received good service...I don't mind parting with a buck.

 

[LiveFreeorDie]

I love to TIP

I love to tip. I love buying a round of drinks. I love to buy college coeds breakfast. It is great to be able to afford to reward great service.

But I will also be the first to send a steak back if it sux. And if the service sux, they get a tiny tip and perhaps I'll politely tell 'em why.

So teach your sons to be gentlemen, good tippers, and for heaven's sake be nice to ALL the girls in JR High, cause half the homely ones will be cheerleaders by the 11th grade!!!



-LFD

 

[KigAir]

$2 average tip? Hmm, I must be a cheap ba@@ard. I only give them a $1.

 

[TonyC]

Re: I love to TIP

I love to buy college coeds breakfast. It is great to be able to afford to reward great service.
-LFD

::: scratching head ::: Did I miss a connection there somewhere?

 

[chignutsak]

On the hotel van issue... I don't need a chauffeur, tour guide, restaurant critic, or father confessor. The guy is getting paid by the hotel, using the hotel's van to do that job. I tip for two reasons only: I'll look like a horse's ass to the others that do tip, and our union contract specifically says that our perdiem is to be used for service tips. I still don't like it, though. I've never received a tip in my life, and I've worked some of the worst service jobs imaginable.

Geesh, whatta cheapskate...

 

[chazman]

http://cbs.marketwatch.com/news/sto...-BBC8-63D351A3BF2A}&siteid=google&dist=google

 

[acaTerry]

The baggage handlers on the ramp are the ones who deserve the tips --- not the skycaps. Unless you've ever loaded a full DC-9 in the middle of winter or summer, you have no idea how hard that job is.

Oh, and you get to get run over by tugs.....dodge the bag cars....slip on the ice.....
Heck, all for what? $6.50 an hour or so? I'd be pi$$ed.

I was a teacher for 5 years and I left because I couldn't even pay back my student loans on what I made.

And the kids are rotten these days and your hands are tied on disciplining them. I'd be pi$$ed.

 

[DH106]

I understand tipping restaurant servers. Hopefully, their tips supplement their extrodinarily low pay, and hopefully their tips are shared among the low-paid kitchen staff as well.

I also understand tipping your barber: typically, they lease space from the owner, and actually get very little of what you pay for your "do."

But tipping the van driver? Is he making lease payments on the van? Did he pay for the gas that day? Is he paying the insurance? Of course not. He's being paid to do an extremely easy job, with no out-of-pocket expenses. How the hell hard is it for him to take my bag out of the back of the van and put it on the ground?

I have a family to support. I've made $19,000 per year, on average, since I started flying professionally. My wife was laid off. I've been laid off, with no pay or health insurance for my kids and wife, for a grand total of 26 months. I, like the flight attendants, am not making big bucks. Even though my income will increase in years to come, why should we be pretending to be rich, and tipping the van driver, of all people?

We should be tipping the people who work in circumstances that require it, based on the quality of their service.