MSPeconomist

I understand the rationale, sort of, but then IMO they should only add 15%, at least for small parties. Outside of top restaurants or downtown in a few expensive cities, 18% seems a bit above the norm for average service. Guaranteeing waitstaff a minimal tip of 15% might be OK, but 18% is greedy for an airport restaurant without table cloths where, in fact, some customers eat at the bar, sitting on bar stoools rather than being seated at tables. It's one thing to be forced to give a tip but something different to be forced to give a particularly generous tip for the circumstances.

MS02113

Typically, diners are free to cross out any automatically applied gratuity and adjust it upward or downward as deemed appropriate.

MSPeconomist

Really? I don't think most restaurants would let you do this without a big ugly fight. Even if restaurant policy allows it and calls it a suggested tip for convenience, your waiter or wiatress is likely to be very unpleasant and resist any attempt to give less that the automatic amount. Plus, often they have automatically run your credit card with the automatic amount and then try to avoid giving you a credit, sometimes by taking a very very long time to do so.

monitor

The service at OFS has been consistently excellent so the 18% is not a problem for us. I have had dinner in the US with experienced and honest-to-a-fault European travelers who, when they needed to leave early and put the money on the table, did not leave anything to cover the tax and tip.

In at least a dozen stops there, I have enjoyed the food, the wine, the service, and the ambiance both at tables and at the bar, where the service is, if anything, more personal than almost anywhere you will sit down. It is, to my taste, the best airport restaurant in the US and if one is upset about a few percent extra gratuity, one can simply pick another restaurant on a layover.

mersk862

Agreed. Service has never been an issue for me at OFS in about 25 visits, with groups ranging from just myself to a group of 40 (where we held a FlyerTalk dinner during an ATL DL DO at OFS the night before it started). If an auto 18% gratuity annoys you at a place like that, then you probably shouldn't even be dining there in the first place - I might recommend the McDonald's across the hall in the food court instead.

GRALISTAIR

Errr - no thanks.

MS02113

But the McRib is back.

mersk862

Agreed, but some people's attitudes on this thread make it seem that McDonald's is a much more appropriate establishment for them to dine at than OFS.

Now that I'm seeing this thread though, I'm having a conundrum - do I dine at OFS or Ecco this evening...decisions, decisions.

FlyDeltaJets87

I wonder if the gratuity is automatically added to protect the servers from losing out on a tips since it's in the international concourse and with passengers transiting from countries where tipping may not be the custom and where the passengers eating there may not understand the American tipping system. Not saying whether such a view point from the restaurant would be right or wrong (and I don't know if any other sit-down restaurants in the international concourses do this either) just attempting to offer a possible explanation.

LibFlyer

I agree completely. I really like the ambiance at the bar, especially when Toki is tending. She makes outstanding, original cocktails.

baccarat_king

This is misdirected. I like to tip, actually, I love to tip. (you can imagine, what a pain that is, living in Amsterdam)

With that being said, tipping is NOT A PROBLEM. It's the automatic nature of it, that is my problem.

Because I don't like auto-gratuities, is no reason to imply that I (or anyone else) should dine at McDonalds instead.

I could understand that reaction, if I said that I was against tipping; which is custom in the United States.

I tip (consistently) 20 to 25%, I just don't like being told what I should tip since this defeats the purpose of a tip. That is all.

knit-in

I wonder, if adding 18% to the tab, regardless to the size of the table, is the way to go for them, then why not just add the extra 18% to the prices?

Something to do with taxes, I presume.

knit-in

I feel it is best not to engage with people who only see the things their way or the wrong way, either in real life or the internet. Relegating people to McDonalds is presumably healthy for some people's self esteem.

pertristis

I'd want to know where the tips go. If the tips are split equitably amongst servers, greeters, and kitchen staff, I'm totally fine with the 18%, as unless I receive awful service, I always tip at least 20%. If they aren't (and I'm not at all claiming that they aren't), that's an issue.

Back to the main topic: OFS is probably my favorite U.S. airport restaurant (with Ike's burgers taking second). I've never had a bad meal there.

BOSavi8tr

So many of these posts are outrageous. Why, if you're accustomed to tipping 20-25% (as some have posted) would you have any objection to an 18% tip already being included and then you tip a couple extra bucks to make up for the normal 20-25%?

Just as conversely if you're tipping that well and you don't receive perfect service, now you don't have to tip the 20-25%, it's only 18%.

My gut feeling is that those "claiming" they tip so well in reality don't and they're upset about not having the control over it.

And to the poster that earlier suggested you could cross out the auto-grat and write whatever lesser amount you can't do that and the fact you do is disgusting. Restaurants don't just surprise you at the end of the meal with an auto-grat. It's written on any menu you receive prior to ordering. If you don't like it, PLEASE go to Varsity or McDonalds where we don't have to be near you.

I don't think many understand the tip-out policy that most servers go through at the end of their shift. Servers are required to tip-out Bartenders, Bussers and Host/Hostess staff, that 18% (which is ONLY calculated on the food/beverage portion, not taxes) quickly drops to 12-14% that they take home. With the majority of travelers being single, you can only imagine how low the tips can be for a server that gets 2-3 tables sat with 1 person who has nothing but time to kill waiting for a connection and takes up a table where they only make $5-$8 of a tip. Give these people a break. The fact that you would deny them 18% is abhorrent.