A couple of years ago I was waiting at luggage claim late at night, and happened to be standing next to two skycaps who were sitting and chatting while they, too were waiting for the conveyor to start moving. One was telling the other about this great restaurant that had almost mythical status to him as an excellent but shockingly expensive, extremely rare treat. It boggled his mind how expensive the place was, and they were both chuckling about the concept of spending that much money for an extravagant dinner out. What restaurant was it? The friggin' Olive Garden. I don't know many people making $100k that have that impression of the Olive Garden.

I've only had one crappy skycap in my life, and only because he reminded me when he first greeted me that he worked for tips, which I consider to be extremely obnoxious. Every other skycap has done back breaking work, has usually streamlined the check-in process in a major way, has often gotten excess and overweight bags through with less hassle and expense, and has done all this pleasantly.

Oh, I just remembered another bad skycap I had once, but it was in Miami, so I'm not sure that counts. And he wasn't rude, just somewhat incompetent.

David