leemell
Conductor
Yes, Red Caps are Amtrak employees.
Sleeper tipping
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According to SalaryExpert.com the average redcap salary in Illinois is $23,590. Link here http://salarybox.com/salary.php?state=IL&id=4050&year=2011. I have nothing to substantiate the veracity of this or whether or not it includes tips. I always tip them. Not train related but still travel related, if you've ever known somebody who ever worked housekeeping in a hotel, you'll always leave a tip for the maid.
leemell
Conductor
I worked housekeeping in a hotel for two summers (1960-61). We never received tips.
Ryan
Court Jester
No, it really doesn't.
I'd suggest going back and rereading the thread and take note of who says they tip and who says that they don't. The evidence is pretty overwhelming.
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white rabbitt
Lead Service Attendant
good morning ryan what is your take on the red caps
henryj
Conductor
That's because I never tip maids in hotels or motels. You never see them and you will never see them again or probably stay at that hotel/motel.
leemell
Conductor
Well I don't either for the same reasons and they are/were paid by salary and not expected to make a living on tips.
amamba
Engineer
I always tip hotel maids a few dollars per night. I will do something like $5 if I am there for two nights. My understanding is that is customary in the US.
I have a friend that was a hotel maid in the summers in college and she definitely lived off her tips (in a tourist ocean town). I also spent one summer working in a National Park and the maids there received tips, too.
I have tipped maids also, but maybe not every time I've traveled (don't travel much anyway).
I would take enough small envelopes for how many nights I'm away them each morning put $5 in an envelope and write on it that it's for the maid. Maybe include their name if they left a card. This would be so they knew the money "left out" was for them.
I would take enough small envelopes for how many nights I'm away them each morning put $5 in an envelope and write on it that it's for the maid. Maybe include their name if they left a card. This would be so they knew the money "left out" was for them.
leemell
Conductor
It never was customary in the US in the 60's, 70's or 80's. I believe that with the Starbucks cashiers putting tip jars out kicked off a trend to service employees to all start looking for tips where none were usually given before. Before Starbucks i had never seen cash register or behind the counter workers look for tips. Ironically, tipping in Europe is much less (and sometimes discouraged) and has not seemed to grow.
BTW, I worked in a major tourist hotel in Southern California. And I do tip for personal services, e.g. SCAs, wait staff. etc.
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I don't have an opinion on this as I have not traveled in a sleeper yet but I probably misread something here. If the number of passenegers is more like 480 instead of 240, wouldn't the tip per person go down? I think the $3.47 per person would work as the tip per room, which if all figures are correct would still be less than half the folks tipping.
The next trip I go on in June I am going to pay attention to tipping in the dining car. I don't know that I can tell much about tipping in the sleeper as that would be harder to see.
Dan
D.P. Roberts
Conductor
First of all, I have no idea what you're talking about, and I have no desire to re-read through this thread to find out what you're insinuating about the people who post here in this forum. If you have a point to make, feel free to make it.
Secondly, there is no data in this thread about tipping. Re-reading the thread won't actually create any data that proves whatever point you're trying to make.
D.P. Roberts
Conductor
Yes, in the sleepers it would be hard to know who is tipping and who isn't. That's part of my point - there's no real data on who is tipping and who isn't.
As for the dining car - I'm definitely going to watch that from now on.
Perhaps that's a less controversial way of addressing this topic? For those of you still following this topic (and the numerous other posts on tipping over many years), what have you seen in the dining car? Not what have YOU done, or what you THINK people should do, but what have you actually seen your randomly-assigned tablemates do?
My randomly assigned tablemates seem to almost always do what I do (sometimes after watching me do it): leave $3 for breakfast or lunch, $5 for dinner (for two of us). I sometimes see people leave up to double that, very occasionally nothing, but the tip I leave seems to be pretty average.
TimePeace
Disillusioned.
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I've seen it all too. Mostly it seems the same for sleeper passengers and coach passengers: some leave large tips and some leave smaller tips and some none at all. I myself usually do 15 - 20% of the cost of the meal on the menu, whether I am riding sleeper or coach. however, when I get a lousy server, I leave less or in rare cases, nothing.
Some may object to this by saying "Amtrak employees have the best salary and benefits in the known universe and don't need tips". To each their own. No rules apply.
Some may object to this by saying "Amtrak employees have the best salary and benefits in the known universe and don't need tips". To each their own. No rules apply.
My observations are that those from coach almost always tip. Some in the sleepers however don't seem to realize that tips are not included, just the meal; so they leave nothing. Other's follow the $1, $2, $3 rule, which corresponds to Breakfast, Lunch, & Dinner. Other's do $2, $2, and then more for dinner. Still others, like me, will do their best to calc 15% or more and leave that.
IMHO, other than doing nothing, I think any of the above do work. Again, we can't compare what an Amtrak waiter makes vs. a restaurant waiter makes and more easily than we can compare the difficulties of their jobs and their working conditions.
IMHO, other than doing nothing, I think any of the above do work. Again, we can't compare what an Amtrak waiter makes vs. a restaurant waiter makes and more easily than we can compare the difficulties of their jobs and their working conditions.
rusty spike
OBS Chief
When Starbucks put out the tip jars, I switched to McDonalds McCafe. 
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Ryan
Court Jester
Maybe that'll help make my point clear for you.
If you're too lazy to go back and actually read the thread that you are posting in, nearly everyone posting tips and has provided their suggested amount.
Finding people that say they don't tip is pretty much impossible.
Your argument that "tipping isn't customary" is dead. It has no data to support it and overwhelming evidence in the form of dozens of people saying "I tip this much" and precious nobody saying "I don't tip" that tipping is in fact customary.
Sure, the plural of anecdotes isn't data, but you don't seem to have a problem with that when one post later you're asking people about what they see in the dining car.
If you don't want to tip, don't. But "nobody else does either" is patently false.
D.P. Roberts
Conductor
Ah. I get what you're saying now. And no, I'm not "lazy", it just didn't occur to me to take anecdotal evidence from this one thread on a train forum as "data" on tipping. And, now that I do understand what you're saying, it's STILL not data, and I'm still not going to do as you said, because it still doesn't make sense.
First of all, what you're hearing in this forum is self reported. People WHO TIP - and feel like posting about their tips - are reporting what they tip. We're not hearing from everyone on this forum, just people who feel like chiming in. Secondly, this is is a forum for train regulars. I would be surprised if there were many people - if any - who don't tip in the sleepers. People here know the ins & outs of train travel (and what the SCA's job is like), know the SCAs by name, etc. To really figure out what percentage of all train travelers are actually tipping, you'd have to look at, well, all train travelers.
So, just for fun, I googled "Amtrak tipping", and found several articles and discussions (outside of this forum) about tipping sleeping car attendants. And in almost every article/discussion, I found people who said they didn't tip, or that you shouldn't tip.
So, let me summarize my point: we know for certain that some people tip. We know for certain that some people don't tip. What we DON'T know is the actual percentage of people who tip, and whether that percentage is large enough to be called "customary", and so "customary" that an international traveler who is unfamiliar with American tipping customs should be made to feel bad for being uncomfortable with the way we do things.
You can keep saying "It's customary, and that settles it," but it really doesn't. You can boldface, highlight, use pretty colors, and yell at me until you're red in the face, but none of this is actual EVIDENCE. You can't persuade or argue data into existence.
Yes, for dinner you get a salad & a roll, so that's an extra trip on their part. And while some do have desert at lunch, more people have it for dinner. Many people also like a cup of coffee after dinner, that they don't have after lunch.
Plus of course the idea is that the dinner is of greater dollar value than breakfast & lunch, so therefore a bigger tip should be left.
Aaron
Lead Service Attendant
Attempting to use posts in this thread or forum to determine how prevalent tipping is fails for a couple of reasons. For one (like the pirate was stating), the posters here are not quite representative of the typical Amtrak sleeper passenger.
For another, it's a lot more likely that those who don't tip or don't think it's warranted are going to clam up instead of posting in a thread like this. No one really wants to expose themselves to the possibility of being considered a deadbeat or a cheapskate or worse. If I were a non-tipper, I certainly wouldn't want to out myself in a thread like this where heated opinions are all over.
I think it's highly unlikely that the actual posts for tip/no-tip correspond to the actual breakdown amongst the passengers even in this group. In fact, I'd guess that it's more possible that there's some intentional boosting of dollar amounts in the pro-tip crowd to look better and help themselves feel better about themselves. In fact, as far as y'all are concerned, I always tip a flat $100 to every railroad employee, every time I step on or off a train.
For another, it's a lot more likely that those who don't tip or don't think it's warranted are going to clam up instead of posting in a thread like this. No one really wants to expose themselves to the possibility of being considered a deadbeat or a cheapskate or worse. If I were a non-tipper, I certainly wouldn't want to out myself in a thread like this where heated opinions are all over.
I think it's highly unlikely that the actual posts for tip/no-tip correspond to the actual breakdown amongst the passengers even in this group. In fact, I'd guess that it's more possible that there's some intentional boosting of dollar amounts in the pro-tip crowd to look better and help themselves feel better about themselves. In fact, as far as y'all are concerned, I always tip a flat $100 to every railroad employee, every time I step on or off a train.
Ryan
Court Jester
That's nice. It doesn't disprove the fact that tipping is customary. Since I never claimed that 100% of people tipped, I'm not seeing where your clever use of google proves anything.
Who exactly is saying that international visitors should feel bad for not knowing everything about American customs? I'm certainly not.
Despite your best efforts to do so, no - you can't.
At Walt Disney World, the rules regarding gratuities are very strict and union controlled. Valet Parking, bell hops, restaurant servers, mini bar attendants are tipped. ALL others are forbidden to receive tips, and if tips are collected by adamant guests, they are to be turned in to management. Because of the union rules, a person who's primary job was not tipped could not work in an area that was tipped for overtime (ie: Front desk clerk couldn't work extra hours in parking or bell services). Housekeeping was not an offically sanctioned tipped position, however, this was the one exception to the turning in rule. House keepers could keep what was left. Usually, it was pocket change, but there have been times when guests have left a C-note.
I don't think Amtrak has such clear guidelines. My experience would allow me to tend to believe that most are treated like the aforementioned housekeepers. Paid a wage that you're expected to agree to live on; tips are just gravy. As I mentioned before - and I still haven't received clarification - is there a means by which the L/SAs, SCAs can declare their gratuities for tax purposes?
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