Just for fun, you should have asked the LSA what a gratuity is. It would be interesting to hear his/her explanation for why customers are expected to voluntarily pay more than the posted menu price.
Not that I condone soliciting for tips in that manner, but what exactly would be interesting about the explanation? It's not like you, me, and the lamp post don't know it's part of the western culture.
Is this really part of Western culture at large? So far as I am aware, at least among industrialized democracies, this is a uniquely American social expectation. One that now has the appearance of being intentionally abused to browbeat passengers with an embarrassingly misdirected guilt trip.
Perhaps that was not the most appropriate generalization to make, but it is certainly not just an American (referring to solely the US) thing.
One of the rationales for tipping in the United States is that waitstaff are paid sub-minimum wage, and that tips are a way to pay for the service you are receiving. Since Amtrak employees do not make sub-minimum wage, that rationale is not applicable here. So it would be interesting to hear why, from a financial standpoint, a gratuity is expected.
He also gave the menu 4-5 times a day. And said the same thing about offerings in the cafe car 4-5 times a day.
More to the point, there are plenty of developed countries that accept tipping. There are also many undeveloped countries that solicit tips. What I have never seen is another industrialized democracy that overtly solicits tips.
The PA reaches nearly everyone, whether they want to hear it or not, and can make restful napping in a sleeping car surprisingly difficult. Thus the PA should only be used for alerts that virtually everyone would naturally want to know about. Events such as major delays, irregular operations, and emergency instructions. It should not be used to prattle on endlessly about Amtrak's junk food offerings and embarrassing tip begging. Put the meal details in a pamphlet or magazine so people can review the options on their own if and when they choose to do so. How slow does someone have to be to repeatedly pester 95% of continuing passengers so that the 5% new passengers can receive a sales pitch they may not even care about? If they insist on broadcasting such messages they should limit them to the speakers in the Sightseer Lounge rather than blasting the whole entire train each and every time.
Actually tips as in "Bakshish" is more a part of South and Southwest Asian culture, and is often a component of corruption rather than a legitimate activity. Most developed countries do not do much tipping. Service charge inclusion is a different matter, the proceeds of which often do not go to the servers but go to the establishment.
Jeese, buddy, if you don't want to tip, don't do it. No need to go on and on about it
The PA reaches nearly everyone, yet many people miss their stops on the corridor after personally being notified by a crew member that their stop is coming up, because they are deeply asleep, have earbuds in, are too engrossed in a conversation, in the bathroom, and many other strange reasons. Just yesterday I had someone in the Cafe miss their stop in Providence despite multiple announcements and sitting in the station for a few minutes, while he was staring out the window with no other noticeable distractions the whole time. So just because the announcement was made earlier, well...You get my point there.
Don't complain about pointless announcements. Do complain about the LSA soliciting tips in the announcement, since it really is despicable. I worked with someone in First Class who made an announcement regarding tips, and as I was the assist I had to be at the door to receive them. Boy did I feel like a real ass...
While I don't DISagree with this sentiment, I just found it highly selective that this poster picked out just the meal announcements (in fact, just the part about tipping, really), out of the endless stream of prattle. I was simply in my oh-so-cutting way pointing out that this wasn't just some guy hocking tips the whole time, with no other activity.
Good point. It's also huge in South East Asia, where you can not only "tip" your server but your local police officer as well. While he's still pondering how to handle a minor mistake or imaginary infraction. Which is partly why I try to use hired drivers rather than driving myself. If there is some sort of police related event the driver knows a lot more about how to handle it than I ever would. Even if things go south quickly I can simply hire another driver while they haggle over the details.
I didn't always feel this way. In the past I used to tip Amtrak staff regularly. Then Amtrak corporate began removing the remaining options for special requests and improved service. Shortly after that the tip begging started gaining steam and I started to feel like Amtrak staff were intentionally abusing our arbitrary tipping culture by pretending to be severely underpaid porters from the distant past rather than extremely well compensated employees among most service staff today.
Have you ever considered that people may have a problem hearing or understanding announcements. I do. Hearing aids help somewhat but often it still sounds like a MacDonald's drive-up speaker. I often have to ask my wife or another person (when alone) what the announcement was. It is embarrassing to me to have to ask strangers (it's a personal thing) so I hope it will be repeated. When on the 3rd time they say what sounds like the same thing, I get desperate.
I'd guess it is the American influence. Americans are so used to tipping, they often tip or offer tips even in countries where it is not normal or considered rude. As countries become "Americanized", they either expect it from an American or begin to expect it from any westerner.
Hear, hear. I totally agree. I where hearing aids also and have difficulty hearing announcements. And I, too, can tune out the noisy world and miss things. I've reached the point in my hearing loss that I'm going to get evaluated for a cochlear implant (CI). A CI is not a cure all, but I'm hopeful if I get one it will vastly improve my speech discrimination.
Actually I'd say it's a more European influence. It's not uncommon in Europe to have a bathroom attendant in a public bathroom who collects tips. While you may only see them handing out towels they often have other duties in the bathroom such as cleaning, etc. It's even not uncommon to find an unattended tip-jar (actually usually a bowl...) in the bathrooms. I never inquired but I presume that there is only 1 attendant there for both the Female and Male rooms (and they were in the other one).
I've run out of cash several times, in those cases, I'll ask the LSA to bring the CC machine, you can place a tip thru that. I generally leave 15-20% of the TOTAL of what the meal would have cost, had I been in coach. I've never understood the argument, "they make better money than the average wait staff.........." And your 'average wait staff' get to go home each night too, and when the 'average wait staff' aren't working, they aren't sleeping in the basement of the restaurant either (to illustrate that even when off duty, and NOT being paid, Amtrak staff are still captive) And while off duty, the 'average wait staff' might go see a movie, or go on a date, or go running, or shopping, NONE of which the captive Amtrak server can do...... Sheesh.
Point in case, and this is mild compared the long haul jobs, especially from Chicago to the west coast (being onboard for six days straight, with one day or night for a layover on the ground), but I just woke up 45 minutes ago (around 4:15pm) because I'm working 65 tonight.
While standing at attention...........just curious and answer at your discretion, if you were the most senior LSA what job would you bid?
That's a tough one. I'm in a tough position where I have car or license, since I never needed one before I worked here. Now that I have a need, I have no time to get road experience and get a license, since I can't convince myself to talk time off to do it.
