Airline's tip option for flight attendants leaves customers fuming: ‘Get bent, greedy corporations!'

New York Post

5 days ago

Passengers aren't fond of this mile-high guilt tip.
Frontier Airlines passengers are ripping into the airline over its controversial policy of soliciting gratuities for flight attendants — claiming that the practice is fly-way robbery. The complaints came to light in a thread going viral on Reddit.
The original poster claimed they'd ordered beer and snacks — which the carrier charges for– on a flight from Denver, Colorado to Seattle, Washington.
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When the time came to pay, they were 'presented with tipping options on screen with min tip option 18%.'
3 'Frontier is the only airline that solicits tips and considering they are in charge of your safety in case of an emergency, it's extremely inappropriate,' cavetched one Redditor.
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'Seriously?? These FA for prominent airlines are now asking for tip for WHAT????' the Redditor raged. 'They were zero helpful and the audacity????! Last time I am getting on a Frontier!!! Get bent, greedy corporations!!'
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Frontier Airlines is one of the few airlines that solicits gratuities for onboard purchases of food and drink — a measure that it enacted six years ago as a way to supplement crew wages.
The airline recently shifted from 'shifted from pooling all the tips from a flight and splitting them evenly across the crew to allowing each individual flight attendant to keep the tips they generate,' wrote a View From the Wing contributor Gary Leff.
3 Frontier imposed the tipping policy six years ago as a way to supplement crew pay.
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However, many passengers accused them of simply taking guilt-tipping — obligating passengers to leave steep gratuities for minimal service — to new heights.
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'Lmao to tipping the airlines. That's crazy talk,' declared one poster in the Reddit thread.
Another griped, 'Frontier is the only airline that solicits tips and considering they are in charge of your safety in case of an emergency, it's extremely inappropriate.'
'I've flown Frontier enough to say that instituted tipping shouldn't exist onboard,' said a third. 'It just creates animosity and resentment for the cheap people who don't tip. From my experience with some of the 'bad' FA from Frontier, I'm not wholly confident they wouldn't let that resentment get in the way of safety and their job.'
However, one flyer claimed that they will slip crew members some extra cash if they have a good attitude.
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'When I do, I tip if the flight attendant is friendly. I don't if they're not,' they wrote. 'They make almost nothing, unreliable schedules (much more often than the passengers) and have to deal with an extremely frustrated public.'
3 Some discourage flight attendant tipping as they claim it creates an environment where good service is predicated on receiving extra cash.
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Even industry insiders discourage the practice. Many claim that tipping flight attendants creates a conflict of interest as crew members' primary duty is to ensure passenger safety and not to act as servers in the sky.
'Tipping is not part of a flight attendant's compensation for serving as aviation's first responders,' Sara Nelson, Association of Flight Attendants-CWA (AFA) international president, said in a statement to Travel and Leisure.
In addition, leaving a gratuity could give the impression that good service is predicated on receiving extra dough — a dangerous precedent given crew members' first responder responsibilities.
Meanwhile, big tippers could expect special favors, which could interfere with crewmember duties and therefore jeopardize the safety of those on board.
'Our jobs have historically been objectified and sexualized,' Nelson told Travel and Leisure in August. 'Is it okay for someone to harass us if they hand us a tip? Obviously not. But it's not a dynamic we can even entertain.'
Meanwhile, AVFTW contributor Gary Leff argued that 'more tipping means less pay' because customers are essentially supplementing the crew member wage, thereby allowing their employer to pay them less.
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Fortunately, there are other ways passengers can show their appreciation for crew members outside of a financial transaction.
Acceptable gestures include giving air hosts and hostesses gift cards, food (provided it's sealed), and even employee recognition certificates that can potentially make them eligible to participate in raffles for big prizes.
Meanwhile, Ryanair crew members have to meet an in-flight sales quota, so it behooves flyers to buy goodies from the crew.
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Although flight attendants say that the best way to show sky staffers some love is through a simple verbal 'thank you' or positive review.