Kevin, dude, chill...

It's a way to beat long lines inside for a couple of bucks. Value proposition.

I remember a TV news story 20+ years or so ago that a good skycap at a major airport was making well in excess of $100,000 per year. (And that was in 1990's dollars).

None of the skycaps in the story would give an exact amount, but they all smiled and nodded when they were asked if they were reporting all that cash as income.....

Not sure how you can be a "good" or "bad" skycap, other than your demeanor, in which case you're really a "good" or "bad" person and your profession is irrelevant.

I have heard that these are hard jobs to get and that people stay in them for years.

They are a special niche in the airport and in some ways are a holdover from a different era....and come from the whole tradition of porters at train stations.

But yes, I would not only say it is customary to tip, but that not tipping a Skycap would be just as unacceptable as not tipping a waiter.

Mr. Pink is that you?

https://media4.giphy.com/media/LdkmB2UnMXfTG/200_s.gif

In the 1990s, homeless people in Philadelphia were reportedly making over $100,000 per year by begging for money in prime downtown locations.

We used to go to Aruba over winter vacation and would go to MIA to check in. The tip we gave the skycap was the best money we spent. We would still be in line if we hadn't tipped the guy. Also as previously said, it's the best way to get an overweight bag through.

This.

There are certain airports I always use the skycap. There's also a handful of airports I'll use them in the customs area so I don't have to deal with the lines.

One time at ATL I was about to use curbside check-in, hadn't used it in awhile so I also didn't think about the tips. I had my bag set on the scale and he was pulling me up on the computer as he mentioned that this service is done for tips... So I angrily picked up my bag and walked 10 feet inside to do it at the nearest DL counter.

While this service may make sense at some airports due to layout, I don't see why anyone would do it at ATL when the indoor check-in counters are literally within sight of the curb and usually have a pretty short wait.

Flying to Vegas with one of my friends who was not on my reservation, golf clubs, luggage etc. Tipped the skycap $10 to throw the SP tags on everything and off we went.

It is a value proposition, and for me, one that I will take every time.

I don't personally ever use curb-side check but I'm sure we've all spend $2-10 on something with less utility than not having to lug your bag into the airport and wait in line at bag check to then wait in line at security...especially if you're traveling with children.

Wirelessly posted (beckoa's BB: Mozilla/5.0 (BlackBerry; U; BlackBerry 9810; en-US) AppleWebKit/534.11+ (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/7.1.0.694 Mobile Safari/534.11+)

Nobody's mentioned the Seinfeld episode yet!? :p

I would have thought the same thing (and still do in the vast majority of cases) until I saw a post on this forum today about someone who needed to check 3 bags including 2 70-lb boxes of equipment and also needed to park his car at the airport. For the rare case like this, being able to do curbside check-in to avoid getting towed or having to lug boxes from the parking lot is a huge asset and well worth a tip.

Here ya go..

Some years ago, when I was moving from Mpls to NYC, on each flight I had 3 65-lb suitcases plus a carry-on (and computer backpack). Paying a redcap to roll all that to a taxi was well worth the cost.

The amount the moving company charged for an additional 200 lbs was more than the round-trip ticket cost.