lowlife

I happen to be at one the airports that I usually fly to for business, 2 weeks ago, and returned to find out one of my usual skycaps was fired for asking for a tip. This really pissed me off, as I was there when the situation originally unfolded. The skycap spent 10min checking in a family with a large amount of stuff and they were walking off from him when I arrived, and he explained that they don't work for the airline, but work off tips. The guy proceded to give him a dollar and went to complain at the counter. The passenger returned with a ticket agent and said he was embarassed by the skycap cause he only had one dollar on him and didn't like being told to tip, and said that tipping was optional. I remember telling the passenger that curbside check-in is optional and he lost that option once you made the skycap pick up your bags, you are supposed to go into the tiket counter if you want to exercise your right not to tip!
The other skycap that informed me about hs co-worker's firing, said that I could google "skycap ask for tip" and i would see how people feel that they don't need to tip, I did and 2.5 years later I landed here

trouble747

I rarely if ever use the curbside service but I believe in some places they do have signage regarding tips...

rsteinmetz70112

I rarely travel with luggage but when I do I find it usually quicker to go to the counter and use the Fly -By lane

Putnik

I am not sure if I have ever used curbside check int, but I always thought that it was just an extension of the counter from inside the terminal. I never tip agents at the counter and therefore I would never tip at curbside check in.
As others have said, going inside is usually faster anyways.

lowlife

This is the type of rhetoric that is commonly used to justify poor ethics and bad manner. Now that you know that a tipping policy is in place, would you still feel good about yourself for not tipping?

I remember a joke that a pilot told me at Dulles, he said,"How can you tell that your near an airport? "How "
I asked, he said" the increased number of ---holes in the area"

mendezka

How is it poor ethics or bad manners if someone didn't know tipping was necessary? It's a logical thought to think the curbside check in is just an extension of the inside counter. However, if they come to the understanding that it is indeed not a simple extension & still choose not to tip, that is another story.

Personal example, I checked into the Palazzo in Vegas a couple weeks ago. Room wasn't ready, the front desk clerk said I could take my bags to the valet & they will put it in storage for me. I walked over, stood in line with other people doing the same thing, saw around 5 people pass over their bags & get their ticket. No questions asked. I didn't see a single tip passed throughout this time. When I needed my bag, I went down & grabbed it. Once again friendly experience, I didn't see a single person pass tips & genuinely felt it wasn't expected either.

Couple days after, I switched over the Bellagio. Same thing, Got their early, was told to pass bags to Valet. I went up, passed over my bag & had a friendly conversation with the guy tagging it for me. He said someone else would bring it up to my room once my room number was assigned & then said something along the lines of, We are all independent workers here, thanks for letting me help you... I said thank you very politely and walked away. When I turned my back he muttered something I couldn't quite comprehend but it didn't sound friendly.... A couple seconds after that it clicked... His "we are independent workers" is code for, tip me. I genuinely had no clue as past experiences for me are, tip the guy that brings my bag all the way up to my room. But don't worry about tipping the guy that tags it and throws it in a storage room. Obviously after he said something in my eyes as rude I wasn't going to walk back and tip him then. As I was naive to what was expected, I don't find myself having poor ethics or justifying anything. The front desk clerks told me to pass my bags over, I did so. For the guy that came and delivered my bags all the way up to my room. I tipped accordingly.

Peoriaman1

The Southwest polo shirts and khakis that the skycaps wear doesn't exactly do much to get the point across that they are merely just contractors, working for a few bucks per bag...

NoStressHere

This thread was three years old... but since it is back and alive.

I fly LOTS and never use curbside checkin. Especially there days with the easy to use kiosks. I just never understood the long lines out front vs just taking it inside.

Oh well.. I do not understand lots of other things either.

formeraa

Agreed. There must be more to this story...simply doesn't make sense.

That said, it should be known that these employees are usually paid minimum wage by a third-party contractor and tips are in fact expected to make up the rest of their salary. If you can't give at least $1 per bag, you should go inside and check your bags at the ticket counter where tips are not expected.

lowlife

Wasn't referring to the uninformed passengers, only the ones who would dare to stiff the skycap after knowing that there is a tipping policy.
If you are unaware of said policy, and are made aware by the employee, is that employee wrong for saying so?

I've seen people checking curbside, see several others tip and say dumb stuff like, "I don't carry cash" or "I don't have any change" when they are made aware of the difference between inside/outside checking.

Peoriaman1

The self-check lines indoors at MDW can be horrible at certain times, though, such as before 6AM when there are a lot of flights. Fortunately I usually don't have to check a bag!

Flythefuture

If they're wearing Southwest uniforms they are Southwest employees. Very few stations that have them. They are Southwest CSA's. Southwest isn't going to let anyone wear their branding that isn't employed by them.

Fiordland

Yes, I am use to airlines in Canada (and other parts of the world) where the general principle is airline employees (or their contractors in airline uniforms) are not permitted to accept tips. For many airlines the employee would get into serious trouble for accepting a tip. May be you give a flight attendant a chocolate bar or something modest like that the airline looks the other way. But giving cash would be a major problem.

Then you go the US where some airline employees (or people in airline uniforms) are not employees and work off tips but only if they accept bags outside at the airline counter but not if the accept bags inside at the airline counter. The entire system is messed up.

That said, I can't think of another country in the world that even has curbside baggage. This is quite unique to US airlines. Is there any other country that even does this?

DCP2016

LOL I've never used curbside check in besides the one time the AA counters at BDL happened to be closed for a couple of hours so it was worth the tip. Every time I go inside no matter the airport and no matter the line I am always able to check my bags in just fine, but maybe that's because I show up pretty early as well.

twitch76