PerRock
Engineer
Well it's been 24 hours, so here's an early analysis. I'll keep the survey open for about a week.
[SIZE=11pt]86% of people polled tip Amtrak staff.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Starting with food staff.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Most people tip their meal service staff (waiters & at-seat deliverers) 20% of what the bill would be. It should be noted that tipping $5 is quite common as well.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Cafe Car Attendants are normally tipped about a dollar. Of those people 62% said that they tip $1, The remaining 38% tip a dollar+change.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Turning our attention to Car Attendants.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Most people (48%) tip $10 a night, although $5/night isn't uncommon for sleeping car attendants.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]A whopping 75% of those polled don't tip their coach attendants (actually more than that, if I weed thru the written answers). If you are going to tip, it's usually $5/night.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]At the station, Red Cap tipping still varies pretty widely. More than half the people tipped somewhere between $1-5 per bag (57%), with the flat-rate ot $5 being the most popular amount, if not tipping per bag (25.5%).[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]For the interested, some demographics.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Most people polled, 66% of them, take long distance trains. And it would appear that most of them travel by sleeper, with 72% of poll participants traveling that way.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]23% of poll takers live in a Northeast Corridor State (the state is on the NEC, but not necessarily on themselves) As for individual states the numbers are:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]10%[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]California[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]8%[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Illinois[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]7%[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Virginia[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]5%[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Massachusetts[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Internationally, as one would expect, 87.5% are from the US. However we did get responses from Australia, Canada, and Switzerland.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]And finally here are some comment highlights:[/SIZE]
In a different format:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xn27mv09ON0WFYNwlIHy9RJ9gcufShmObCwM67jrxYU/pub
peter
[SIZE=11pt]86% of people polled tip Amtrak staff.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Starting with food staff.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Most people tip their meal service staff (waiters & at-seat deliverers) 20% of what the bill would be. It should be noted that tipping $5 is quite common as well.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Cafe Car Attendants are normally tipped about a dollar. Of those people 62% said that they tip $1, The remaining 38% tip a dollar+change.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Turning our attention to Car Attendants.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Most people (48%) tip $10 a night, although $5/night isn't uncommon for sleeping car attendants.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]A whopping 75% of those polled don't tip their coach attendants (actually more than that, if I weed thru the written answers). If you are going to tip, it's usually $5/night.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]At the station, Red Cap tipping still varies pretty widely. More than half the people tipped somewhere between $1-5 per bag (57%), with the flat-rate ot $5 being the most popular amount, if not tipping per bag (25.5%).[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]For the interested, some demographics.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Most people polled, 66% of them, take long distance trains. And it would appear that most of them travel by sleeper, with 72% of poll participants traveling that way.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]23% of poll takers live in a Northeast Corridor State (the state is on the NEC, but not necessarily on themselves) As for individual states the numbers are:[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]10%[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]California[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]8%[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Illinois[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]7%[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Virginia[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]5%[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] [/SIZE][SIZE=11pt]Massachusetts[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]Internationally, as one would expect, 87.5% are from the US. However we did get responses from Australia, Canada, and Switzerland.[/SIZE]
[SIZE=11pt]And finally here are some comment highlights:[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Most commentators leave cash on the table after their meal (makes sense when in sleeper in particular)[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]If you are going to tip a flat-rate per meal it would seem most commentators tip about $3 for breakfast & lunch, then $5 at dinner.[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Commentators note that they usually only tip in the Cafe when the attendant has to prepare them food and/or is quite friendly (so no tip if their grabbing a soda or a bag of chips, etc.)[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]Most commentators tip their car attendants as they depart the train. And many note "if I never see you, I never tip you."[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]In the station [/SIZE][SIZE=9pt](as I expected)[/SIZE][SIZE=11pt] most commentators only tip Red Caps (or station staff fulfilling a Red Cap's role in a non-Red Cap station)[/SIZE]
- [SIZE=11pt]There are a few requests in the comments about bundling, or at least providing a way to tip in bulk at the end of the trip. [/SIZE][SIZE=10pt](ooooh this one is going to be controversial!)[/SIZE]
In a different format:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1xn27mv09ON0WFYNwlIHy9RJ9gcufShmObCwM67jrxYU/pub
peter