flyingfran

I am a little confused. Why do you expect $20 for a connecting flight? These seem to involve the least amount of work. You just push me from one gate to another gate. I know that sometimes there is a distance between the two gates, but you do not help me with luggage and ground transportation, nor do you help me though TSA screening. There is much less time involved in just taking me to my connecting flight. Even in large airports you are almost never with me for more than 20 minutes.

Frankly I am unlikely to give anyone a $20 tip unless I require something extraordinary or the person pushing my wheelchair does something additional and not required. If I did this a simple flight with one connection would cost me $20 at the originating airport, $20 at the connecting airport and $20 at the arrival airport, or a total of $60.

If you get two $20 tips per hour, you are earning $40 per hour plus the salary you receive from the airport. That is a very generous amount of money for a person performing what is basically a job that requires very little education or training.

I am sorry that you are not paid more by your employer, but you accepted the job understanding what the salary would be. As previous posters have pointed out, disabled people are legally entitled to the service of a wheelchair at no cost.

When you receive a tip, it is offered voluntarily. As a general rule, disabled people do not have as much disposable income as able-bodied people. Many of us live on disability payments. Older people depend upon Social Security. That $3 tip could represent a significant portion of a disabled persons income.

I seldom tip less than $10, and if TSA has been exceptionally difficult I tip $15.

Last February, however, my husband and I tipped each of our wheelchair pushers $30/each. We arrived from an international flight. They collected our luggage and took us through customs. Our plane was delayed and we had only 20 minutes to catch our connecting flight which was on the opposite end of the airport. These young men knew when they picked us up that we had very little time. They did everything running, and we actually reached our gate with 5 minutes to spar.

It was a Herculean effort, and in addition to the extraordinary effort they were absolutely charming.

Absolutely outstanding service motivates me to dig deeper into my wallet. I am willing to make personal sacrifices to reward exceptional service.

I do think, however, that your expectation for routine service are a bit high, particularly given the population group that you serve. Maybe if you need more tips you should leave the airport and go to work in a five star restaurant.

DeafFlyer

If I tip, it will be for extraordinary service only, and it will not be $15-$20. There's just no way I can afford that.

John behnke

. International passengers are a different case. Wheelchair pushers have to go Far distances to the gate and most of them don't know a lick of English. The amount of time it takes for a connection is about 50 mins. We go thought security , we take care of their bags, it's not easy. domestic wheelchair pushers is what your talking about, and your right about that, but please aware that he's right. I was well worked at ORD ohare, and most country's do not understand tipping. Saddly I average about 30 to 40$ in tips because of that reason. My sister is a bar tender and could make 300$ on good days.

edvasquez

Last year in DC my wife was taken from gate to gate for a connecting flight. About a ten min push. I handed the guy five bucks which I thought was generous. He stood there and said, is that all? I gave him a couple of more bucks to make him go away. He was not happy. I ran into another pusher and she said I should report him, which I did, for they are not to ask for money and certainly in her opinion, a fiver was a fair tip. Let me ask, how much would you tip at Heathrow for a connecting flight and again, in the USA (Newark), how much for a connecting flight. I carry all bags. All the pushers do is push. I get a sense that there is a "give me" mentality among some folks. I did not get that sense in other countries (Heathrow included) when we have tipped.

adventuroustraveller

I read this thread with interest.
In australia I have seen disabled people fight to have to pay for stuff - people refuse to take payment for services sometimes!
If there is a thread on "what services in the USA do NOT require tipping", please direct me there.

Canary54

I tip the person who pushes my wheelchair $10....and they rarely have to do more than help get me through Security and to/from the gate. I'm not a large person (difficult to push) and I have only 1 small carry on bag which I balance on my feet. Depending on the airport, a maximum of 10-15 minutes of their time. However, I have reached the point in my disability that I would not be able to travel without their assistance.

I only fly twice a year, so that amounts to only $40 in tips each year. As I near retirement age, or if I traveled more frequently, I might have to reconsider how much I can afford to tip. But for now, it is well worth the
$10 tip for the assistance I receive.

ysolde

I tip $10, on average. More if they take me through customs/immigration.

scotlass

At London Heathrow last month our pusher told us she is not allowed to accept tips. We saw another passenger try to give a tip and the supervisor told her no. In Boston, I asked the special assistance supervisor what an accepted tip was and I was told we did not have to tip unless we wanted to for exceptional service. Having said that, the person pushing my husband when we got home from London was looking for money and at that point, I had no idea where my American money was. She was not happy.

Stez

I've just read this thread for the first time. I'm amazed that some pushers expect a tip, or even demand them for what I see is a very basic provision to let all people to use the airport equally. If someone did an exceptional service or I'm in a place where it is customary to tip, then the tips are given.

If the job which provided the basic service is so low paid that they need tips to supplement their income or to offset the "rigors" of the job, then I'm sorry, but that is an issue between the employer and employee and it is none of my business. Likewise, it is none of anyone's business to infer that because I fly, I must have spare cash. I fly because my employer require me somewhere and paid for my flight(s). Incidentally, my contract has a clause saying I must be prepared to walk up to 15 miles per day and carry up to 50 lbs in weight but no further compensation will be provided for that - it is part of the job.

As for at Heathrow (or indeed in the UK), we do not have a tipping culture as endemic as that in the USA so anyone who demanded money at Heathrow or other airports should be reported.

morelegroom

TIPPING FOR SERVICE
Tipping for service is customary but is
NOT required at LAX. Wheelchair service
is provided FREE by your airline. Lift-
equipped van and shuttle bus services
between LAX parking lots and terminals
are provided FREE by the airport.
You are encouraged to notify the LAX ADA
Coordinator's Office if you are solicited
for a tip. Please visit the LAX website at
www.lawa.aero/lax
, click on the ADA icon,
then click on "GOT COMMENTS" for a form
to fill out and submit.

from the lax disability brochure
https://www.lawa.org/uploadedFiles/L...sabilities.pdf

JDiver

In the USA, wheelchair escorts are paid very low wages (not unusual for an hourly rate to be slightly above minimum wage / ~$10 or slightly more an hour. Though a tip is not mandatory, nor should it be solicited - people with disabilities are like anyone else: we could be well off, or we could be living on the edge of pauperdom.

But if one has the ability, a tip is nice and always accepted in the USA. IMO it should be proportional to the degree of service - big difference wheeling fifty feet to the gate or from the gate down the ramp and meeting at thevticket counter, wheeling through security, down lengthy corridors and waiting for forty five minutes. A five dollar tip is probably decent - but not always within reach, and it's important to recognize this can be a lot when a person with a disability is expected to distribute largesse several times during one travel episode. (The wheelchair escort may not be thinking of this issue.)

U.S. Cash is the preferred method, as foreign cash will require finding a bank that exchanges currency - not as common in the USA - and often, paying a foreign exchange transaction fee, and filling out a form. Foreign change is never useful - it can not be exchanged.

morelegroom

I am a generous tipper but the situation in the USA is an international disgrace. The law is clear Airlines may not charge for providing accommodations required by the rule,

Charges for Accommodations Prohibited
Carriers cannot impose charges for providing facilities, equipment, or services to an individual with a disability that are required by DOT's Air Carrier Access regulations.

Instead of "charging" they try to shame or harass handicapped people into paying for a service they re entitled to BY LAW

This is wrong

DeafFlyer

Definitely agree, as I have long argued that on this forum. However, there's nothing wrong with someone giving a tip if they feel like doing so. As long as it is not required, or expected, then it is okay.

PilgrimsProgress

The first time I got a wheelchair for my elderly mother in the US I was taken aback by the awkward fiddling of the wheelchair pushers at the end before I realized they were angling for a tip.

My opinion is that an employee should not expect a tip simply because they are providing a valuable service. The issue in the first place is the employer paying a below-par wage to the employee. Who else will start expecting a tip -- the check-in agent, TSA, immigration officer, gate agent, the guy who cleans the airplane window? After all at some level they are underpaid and providing a valuable service.

The tip culture ruins my travel experience in the US whereas I have a more pleasant experience in Europe.

JDiver

I certainly agree with the sentiments expressed here.

It's that the airlines have chosen, and been allowed to, outsource this obligation to third parties - who most likely submitted the lowest bid, made possible by paying the lowest wages. ADA / ACA merely require the services be provided; they establish no service standards, so we're left with the hotch-potch we've got at our airports.

IMO, without going all OMNI, it's a part of a culture that still doesn't give full value and respect to people with disabilities - personal attendants, home health aides, etc. all get little respect and very low reimbursement rates (when they are covered) by insurers and programs. Very unfair, IMO.

Parenthetically, tipping is virtually unheard of in Australia (a tip can even be perceived as offensive). Then again, as I was sitting in a pretty much middle of the road restaurant in Cairns reading the newspaper, I saw an ad for servers for the same restaurant - iirc, the starting wage was ~$28 hourly. No tip needed; employees get a living wage, and there are plenty of restaurants (we keep being told in the US that without tipping, they'd all go under ).

So wheelchair users are caught between airlines avoiding their responsibilities, regulators allowing it, and the attendants who want to make a decent living, don't and are forced to angle for tips.

IMO the answers involve ordinances with required pay minima, regulatory requirements for the attendants at airports be paid as professional airport employees (in the latter the required money is then distributed among all airport users) and, perhaps the most difficult of all, continuing pressure and education on the society at large about people with disabilities. No easy change, not happening soon, and many points of view as to what approach is acceptable.

Has anyone here used assertiveness? "I'd really like to reward you with a tip, but I'm pretty poor myself and am expected to pay tips to the many who are providing a legally required service and because you're not paid enough. I'm sorry I can't afford to tip, but I'm grateful for your service."