Tipping Attendents - Sleeper Accomodations?
 

I need some help in knowing the appropriate time to provide gratuity/tip the train attendent.

In hotels, I always leave something the morning after the evening. In many hotels, you don't see the housekeeping staff in the evenings, so mornings are the appropriate time to provide the gratuity.

On the train, should I leave the tip in our room before heading off to dinner? If so, is $5/person about the appropriate amount? And, if you tip that very first evening, does it help to assure better service throughout the journey? I know that's not a guarantee, but it might help. OR, do I leave the tip in the morning?

And last, do I personally hand the tip to the attendent OR leave it in envelope? If it's in person, is it difficult to track down the attendent OR are they fairly easy to find?

Thanks so much!

I've tipped at dinner on the first night, but usually I tip the final morning (I haven't noticed a difference in service. Rightly or wrongly I tip $10 for each night spent on the train.

For good service I tip $5 per person per night. Granted, I've never spent more than one night in a sleeper... For poor service you may consider tipping less.

A good attendant will make the beds in the evening and put them away in the morning while you are in the dining car. An excellent attendant will do it almost transparently without you having to think about it. The excellent ones will also make sure the beverage station stays well stocked with cups, ice, coffee, juice and check in periodically to see if you need anything special.

There are some less than stellar employees out there. They are few and far between from what I read, having never experienced one myself. These "attendants" tend to disappear during the trip only to be seen when boarding and detraining and/or asking passengers to leave their room to make the bed.

Your attendant will come and get you just before the station stop and see you safely onto the platform. This is when I thank him/her for the service and give them the appropriate tip. If you will be leaving the train at night attendants usually take turns sleeping and assisting each others' passengers at station stops. Check with the attendant and if they will be resting plan on tipping before you leave the train.

These people are highly paid and do not need the tip income. A few dollars for great service should be fine.

How many people tip flight attendants?

I would think the average Amtrak on board employee earns substantially more than a flight attendant.

Well I guess that depends on what your definition of "highly paid" is. If highly paid to you is $35,000 to $50,000, then yes I guess they are highly paid. But those who actually do their jobs, certainly earn every penny of it. I know of one cook, the highest paid person in the dining car, who has been with Amtrak for about 18 years and he's making about $22 an hour.

Returning to the attendant position, I don't know of any flight attendants that have to make and strip down beds, or put them up and down for their passengers. I don't believe that I've ever seen a flight attendant clean a bathroom. Most flight attendants do not assist with luggage. Flight attendant don't sleep on the airplane normally, much less in a room where anytime someone hits the call button, a bell rings in their room. Flight attendants aren't on duty 24/7 for two days straight.

I know this is a little off topic but is there 1 attendent per sleeping car? If so it would seem like working on a superliner is a lot more work than a viewliner.

Yes, just one attedant per car. And yes there is definately more work in a Superliner with 44 or 46 beds per car, while the Viewliner only has 30 per car.

Lets not minimize the responsibilities of a flight attendant.

On the service side, they are indeed responsible for the cleanliness of the toilets, which on a 14 hour long-haul is no minimal task. They prepare meals. They serve drinks and food to 50 or more people, sometimes multiple times. They answer call button requests for issues ranging from critical to silly. They run the IFE. For sleeper seats, they do set those seats for day and night modes. They collect trash. They are the target for whatever grief passenger wish to aim at their employer. They are often away from home for days at a time, and sleeping on the plane is not uncommon for those assigned to international routes or red eyes.

Most importantly, they have the primary responsibility for the safety of the passengers. They ensure passenger compliance with safety requirements. They are trained in first aid, CPR, and have access to an AED (does Amtrak have AED's on any trains?). In the event of any incident from decompression to evacuation and everything in between, they are the people in charge. And, flight attendants are prohibited from accepting tips.

In short, flight attendants have a pretty tough job and, with the pay cuts of the last few years, get paid shockingly little for what they do.

I wasn't trying to minimize the responsibilites of a flight attendant, but I do still believe that an Amtrak sleeping car attendant is the harder job.

If you think flight attendants should be tipped, you first need to complain to the airlines that disallow them from accepting tips.

its never more than 50, as there must be one FA for every seat (not pax) on board. If they serve biz or first class they usually only have the responsibility of taking care for 6 to 8 pax.

That said FAs still have a hard job, however they do not work for nor expect tips. the same cannot be said for amtrak workers.

Reading over your list of FA responsibilities it sounds pretty close to what a sleeper attendant does, except for the decompression part. Most Amtrak employees have been working without a contract since 1999. No new contract means no raises during that time period.

However, in my travels I find Amtrak attendants to be much more helpful and happier than their flight attendant counterparts.

So the cleaning crew at the building where I work probably work harder and get paid less than any of them. In the end there is no point in trying to justify any of this. It all boils down to tradition.

Just for the fun of it:

If I could wave a magic wand I would eliminate tipping as a form of compensation. As part of this wand waving the inequalities that make people say “These people don’t get paid enough and they deserve tips” would also be rectified. I personally believe that, on average, tipping is not a productive for of compensation and generally does not promote better service.

Flight attendant work is much easier now than before 9/11, when they served meals to all the coach pax on domestic trips. Now, of the US majors, only CO still serves hot meals in coach. FAs elsewhere spend long periods reading US Weekly or other such mind-broadening fare, or griping about their lower salaries and bad working conditions.

Amtrak sleeping car and dining car work is unquestionably harder if they do their job - certainly more physical. Dining car work more tricky than in a restaurant due to train movement, but they earn far more than restaurant waiters. Not sure how hard Amtrak coach attendants work. And always, there is considerable variability in individual performance and visibility.

If they do a good job, I would tip my sleeping car attendant $25 for a two-night trip, at the end of the trip. In the dining car, 15% added to each pre-tax bill or equivalent (sleeper pax get free meals).

They do not work for minimum wage. And, I don't believe I've ever seen an Amtrak attendant clean a bathroom. The point being that they are not dependent on tip income, and their service typically shows that. Where, as in other occupations, a person performs beyond expectations, then a gratuity would seem appropriate.