By the way, the reason I asked what I did above is because in many UA threads, you have (rightly) railed against employees who are unhappy with UA and put the customer in the line of fire of their unhappiness. In fact, I quote:But by your philosophy, if customers suffer, it is due to their own decisions to fly with an airline where (some number of) employees provide poor service; it's not the employees' problem. If it is unprofessional to allow customers to suffer due to an employee's grievance with the employer, why then is it perfectly acceptable to allow employees to suffer due to a customer's grievance with the employer?

In cases where the host also serves you directly, e.g. by taking your name for the waitlist, making sure you are seated on time and in order, walking you to your table, pulling out your chair, giving you menus, making sure you're familiar with the restaurant, etc... would you also tip them? In cases where the busser serves you directly, e.g. by clearing your dishes and/or de-crumbing your table between multiple courses, would you also tip them? In those cases, you receive direct service from more than one person - why should they not all get tips? It seems disingenuous to suggest that some servicepeople should get tips and others should not; either they all should, or they all should not.

(By the way, for the record: it may seem as if I am in support of tipping. I am not. I would love it if the "social requirement" of tipping were abolished, and things worked much the same as in Europe - with essentially only small change left to express gratitude. However, while tipping remains a custom, I disagree with making people who rely on tips suffer if I use their services, just because I disagree with the custom.)