Given that we now live in a world where you might be asked by a payment screen how much you’d like to tip at a self-checkout kiosk, it should probably come as no surprise that the matter of gratuities has arisen in airplane cabins.
An in-flight tipping prompt did, in fact, come as a surprise to a first-time Frontier Airlines passenger who shared the experience at Reddit a couple weeks ago.
Frontier does not offer complimentary beverages or snacks during flights, so user EffectiveRole7325 purchased those items using a credit card, according to the post.
“When I ran my card it asked me to select the tip amount,” the Redditor writes. “Admittedly I froze and clicked one, but afterwards (and still now) I am annoyed.”
Frontier Airlines Tipping Policy
Frontier has been giving passengers who make in-flight snack purchases the option to leave a tip for individual flight attendants since 2019. For 3 years before that, tips were pooled among the crew.
When you use a credit card to buy something on a Frontier flight (the airline doesn’t accept cash in the skies), the payment tablet that a crew member hands you will show a prompt offering the options of adding a gratuity of 15%, 20%, or 25%, according to CBS News. Alternatively, you can enter a “custom gratuity” or select “I prefer not to leave a gratuity.”
But with the flight attendant standing right there, you might feel obliged to leave a tip even if you don’t want to. That’s what the Reddit poster says happened in that case, prompting another user to comment, “You just explained why it won’t go away. … You didn’t push back, you didn’t say no, you didn’t refrain from purchase and tell Frontier. You literally proved the model successful.”
Other Airlines’ Rules on Tipping Flight Attendants
Other major U.S. airlines have not followed Frontier’s lead in this regard. In fact, most carriers, including American Airlines, Delta Air Lines, and United Airlines, don’t allow flight crews to accept tips from passengers, though many policies allow for small tokens of gratitude such as candy.
Several airlines give flight attendants commissions as well for persuading passengers to sign up for those credit cards that crew members are always hawking over the P.A. system when you’re trying to nap.
From time to time, you might hear tell of customers slipping flight attendants extra cash to bribe them for additional cocktails or seat upgrades, but those ploys violate airline regulations.
For the record, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA, a union that represents more than 50,000 flight attendants at 20 airlines, opposes tipping in plane cabins, too. In a statement released in response to Frontier’s gratuities change, union president Sara Nelson pointed out that flight attendants are “certified for our safety, health, and security work”—not for service roles.
“Safety is not variable,” Nelson argues, “and therefore base compensation for a safety job cannot be variable.”
Instead of relying on passengers to compensate flight crews, airlines should “step up and pay aviation’s first responders a wage that recognizes their critical safety role onboard,” according to the union’s statement.
Naturally, Frontier spokespeople have described the in-flight tipping option as a way to “appreciate the great work of our flight attendants.” But evidently, it’s up to you to express this extra appreciation in a monetary way ’cause the company would rather not do it.
According to U.S. News & World Report, flight attendants made a median salary of $68,370 in 2023, with the best-paid 25% making around $87,000 and the lowest-paid 25% earning a little less than $50,000.
Get ready for a shocker: Frontier flight attendants tend toward the lower end of the pay scale, according to aviation blogs and online forums.
While American Airlines reportedly offers those workers a starting hourly wage of $35.82 (which can go all the way up to $82.24 after a dozen years on the job), Frontier flight attendants are said to get something in the neighborhood of $26 per hour in the first year, reaching $67 per hour after 19 years.
What do you think about tipping flight attendants? Join our Facebook travel group and give us your two cents—and only your two cents, no gratuity expected.