localady

In Tampa you can get pretty much of the straight forward mixed drinks (Bloody Mary, Screwdriver, etc). You can even get the Margarita.. You can't get the mile high mojito though..

DeltaDiamond

Not an argument. Just a preference. My preference; wash hands, order drink, relax. Your way; wash hands, mix drink, wash hands, relax. I never said the BTs are underpaid either -- I said IDK how much they make, but if it's the previously stated $20 - $40 an hour, that is a salary. Tip or don't tip; that was the question; personally -- I tip. If you have "big bucks", why not?

remedy

Call me cheap, but I prefer self serve. Quicker, get what you want, no tipping.

iahphx

I don't really understand the half-hearted bar efforts. You should either have REAL bartenders -- who should be tipped appropriately -- or go to a more self-service system (which it seems many members would prefer). I don't really understand the purpose of having ill-qualified people tend bar, or not giving them the skills/ingredients to make mixed drinks. We're all capable of pouring ourselves a beer or a glass of wine. What's the purpose of hiring "a flunkie" to do it?

I'm also not sure why it would be difficult to hire a "real bartender" for an airport lounge. I mean, you've got high traffic and an above-income clientele. That should generate good tip income, and be a decent place to work. And it's a public-contact service job, just like a flight attendant. You would think a good bartender in the airports you visit would make you more likely to buy a membership for the lounge -- and maybe more likely to fly that airline. It often seems like little or no effort goes into selecting the bartenders. As I noted before, there was one guy at one of the JFK Sky Clubs who had zero interpersonal skills and zero bartending skills. How did he get the job?

BobH

Would you tip a FA if you're in coach and paid for a drink -- I doubt it.

If you're a guest at a wedding, would you tip a bartender?

Bob H

ADLFO

In TPA, they have many of the little Stirrings mixers bottles and they are happy to fix you whatever you want, including lining the top of the rim with sugar/salt (depending on what you order) if they have the mixer. As far as ranking the smaller SCs, TPA is my fave.

nfg05

The language is, more or less, "Serving you is our pleasure. Receiving gratuities is our privilege."

This was at gate 10 SC at JFK.

pbarnette

If it were the accepted thing to do, then yes. The reality is that the club, even if you "paid for entry" is pretty much a bar and I think one should tip. Think about it this way, if you belong to a private club, would you tip the bartender? I normally would.

Unless there is a sign specifically stating otherwise (there almost always is) then, yes, I do tip the bartender at a wedding or other event. And, to be clear, if I am hosting the event, I would be tipping the bartender myself. The reason you don't tip at a wedding isn't because you shouldn't tip, but because your host is covering the tip for you.

hfly

Evan!, because people have the right to tip what they want, when they want, and for good service received. People can double the tax, or give nothing. I know quite a lot of people in restaurants who now will only tip $5 or $10 a bottle of wine, seperately rom the rest of the bill. Why? because it takes the EXACT same amount of "work" to open and pour a $1 or 100k bottle of wine. Blindly doubling tax is silly, when in the US I generally work in my head from a base of 10%, service stinks, you get nothing, just do your job, get 10%, Do it very well, get 15%. I actually believe that people should work for their tips, not be tipped simply to work.

Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM

Tipping should be an exeception to reward exceptional service.

Giving tips as a fixed percentage on automatic pilot only tends to keep a bad system in place, rife with corruption, where employees are forced to work as employees but are not rewarded by their employer as employees.

Instead of a tip, write a letter to Delta praising your favorite bartender by name and instructing them to fulfill their responsibility as an employer to properly compensate their employees while making it against the rules to tip in the clubs. Why pay for a club membership if it is going to require the same kind of slimy tip grovelling one has to put up with every day on the street in America?

Better yet, ask them for a self service model like NW knew. The whole industry has gone self service with websites, etc. Why should the clubs be such an antebellum throwback?

pbarnette

Personally, I think that there are accepted standards for tipping. I think that it is 15-20% on a dinner bill (including wine) and $1 per drink at a bar. There are some regional differences, I think that impact this. My experience is that 15% is acceptable in a lot of places, but that 20% is more common in New York, Boston, and California.

Of course people are free to do whatever they want (and may have good or even noble reasons for their behavior), but one should be aware that they are, to some extent, breaching ettiquette. More simply, I tip 20% in New York for the same reason I don't tip in Tokyo - it is about respecting the social norms of the place I am visiting. Clearly, the SkyClub question is a tricky one, and I'm not sure there is a norm, but I'm inclined to err on the side of caution.

Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM

I don't automatically tip 15-20% in the states for the same reason I don't give money to children who have been crippled by their parents begging in the streets in Mexico: it tends to sustain a bad system that in the end is demeaning to people. In the case of American bars and restaurants it tends to create a very annoying and intrusive kind of hypocritical "service" that can ruin the whole experience. Not automatically tipping these amounts is also the same reason I don't obnoxiously talk at the top of my lungs in American bars and restaurants: it may be the local social norm, but it is a damn poor one.

hfly

Actually in NY, most people would still say 15% and in fact tip 17% and change, as most people do in fact double the taxes.

pbarnette

If you were correct in your assumption that it is a "bad" system or "demeaning", then I might applaud your choice, but it is actually a pretty good system for the waitstaff. You can make a fair bit of money waiting tables, and it can be a lot of fun. From a customer perspective, I like that it encourages a more personal, one-to-one relationship.

You can justify it all you want, but it is just as rude to not tip in the US as it is to tip in Japan. One can pretend otherwise, but it really comes across as trying to justify being cheap and clueless about the place you are traveling, with some puffed up sense of self-rightousness. But we are getting way off topic.

Klm is Dead - Long Live KLM

I didn't say not to tip. I said not to tip fixed percentages as an automaton. If tips are supposed to encourage good service, how then does giving everyone the same fixed percentage encourage or reward good service. It simply rewards businesses for not disclosing their full prices on the menu, for not paying employees reasonable wages, for attempting to shield income from taxation, etc.

I am happy to be considered cheap and clueless when giving a token tip to an annoying, cloying, self-interested, disruptive and non-responsive waiter (who might be considered just marvelous by his local customers). I don't want a personal relationship with my waiter: I want proper service which does not mean having my conversation constantly interrupted, being told personal stories, jokes and generally transparently fishing for money like some insincere court jester.

I also don't want to have to keep a fistful of dollar bills on me like I am in some third world country just to get a drink in the private airline club of the richest country on earth that I am directed to after arriving from Timbuktu. If Delta wants to be a global airline serving global customers , then they should act like it instead of trying to impose Atlanta standards of everybody on the take with their hand out.