Originally Posted by
amamba
I believe that tipping sleeping car attendants is something that has been in practice since the days of the pullman sleeper car and the "porters" that took care of you in them. Thus I think tipping the SCA is a historic practice that probably goes back from before airplanes were widely available to most americans.
Thus that is why SCAs are tipped. It has always been that way.
One could argue that instead it is strange that flight attendants aren't tipped!
Wage has little to do with it. IMHO, tips show two things:
1) a tangible gesture of gratitude (and yes, incentive) for good service
2) affirmation that the person tipping is in a superior social strata than the person receiving the tip
Now admittedly, I'm a bit on the young side to claim personal knowledge of this, but if the new ABC show PanAm is even remotely representative of reality, then at least on some level, being a flight attendant was actually a respectable position. There are several places throughout the show where the women mixing with members of high society proudly exclaim, "I'm a PanAm stewardess!" in a way that a Pullman porter never could or would have done.
Thus, it seems to me that people historically viewed Pullman porters as socially inferior, while flight attendants never received that stigma and were seen more by society as professionals. Tipping culture follows that perception.