Tipping

[gracie]

I am traveling for the first time cross-country next week, by coach. Need help knowing what and who to tip. please.

 

[berkyo]

Hi. In coach I would not tip anyone unless someone goes way out of their way to help you. I tip the waiter in the diner if I eat there. but that is all.

Take a light blanket or throw and a small comfy pillow for the night time. if you are a light sleeper, take a mask and earplugs. the seat goes back and the chair lifts for your legs. Pretty comfy. You can pick up snacks before you board for the ride too and there is full diner plus the cafe downstairs of the Sightseer car. I think there is a happy hour too. Maybe just on the Empire Builder. Take you pc and game machine or whatever and you can plug in. No wifi but you can bring a DVD movie. I mostly enjoy the view out the window and talking to fellow passengers in the sightseer car.

Enjoy your trip!

 

[ehbowen]

I would not normally tip the coach attendant. If you have a lot of luggage and he helps you with it, or if he performs some other special service, you might consider it. If he serves you a meal at your seat then definitely give him at least as much of a tip as you would have given the dining car waiter.

If you eat in the dining car, tip as you would for the same meal in a restaurant. This applies even if you are in the sleeper and your meal is prepaid; leave a cash tip for decent service.

Should you ever decide to upgrade to sleeper (highly recommended for long trips!), a tip is appropriate if the sleeping car attendant performs his/her job competently--keeps the public areas and restrooms acceptably clean, makes down the beds in the evening and puts them back up in the morning, keeps fresh coffee, juice and ice available throughout the day. I would recommend $5-$10 per night in a roomette and $10-$20 per night in a bedroom.

One consideration that you might reflect on: The IRS presumes that sleeping car attendants and dining car waiters will receive tips, and makes them pay taxes on tips whether they actually receive those tips or not. So if you stiff them, you are costing them money.

The train operating crew (engineers, conductor, assistant conductors) is never tipped.

 

[me_little_me]

"One consideration that you might reflect on: The IRS presumes that sleeping car attendants and dining car waiters will receive tips, and makes them pay taxes on tips whether they actually receive those tips or not. So if you stiff them, you are costing them money."

While I always generously tip, that is the worst reason for doing so.

 

[NYC84]

"One consideration that you might reflect on: The IRS presumes that sleeping car attendants and dining car waiters will receive tips, and makes them pay taxes on tips whether they actually receive those tips or not. So if you stiff them, you are costing them money."
While I always generously tip, that is the worst reason for doing so.

Agreed ! At the end of the day...with me it always comes down to service. If someone is non existent, rude, nasty etc... they get nothing

 

[roomette]

I hope all of you who are Pro Tipping an Amtrak SCA also tip at Soup Plantation, Sweet Tomatoes, King's Table and the like. I give dagger stares to folks who leave a table piled high with dishes, bowls, glasses and do NOT leave a tip.

Those people take home a far lower hourly wage than any SCA.

I tip my physician 17- 20% because he is on call 24/7 and sometimes go days without sleep.

 

[Aaron]

One consideration that you might reflect on: The IRS presumes that sleeping car attendants and dining car waiters will receive tips, and makes them pay taxes on tips whether they actually receive those tips or not. So if you stiff them, you are costing them money.

The most recent Service Standards (blue book) doesn't mention anything about IRS assumptions for sleeper car attendants. It only mentions diner positions as being subject to this automatic calculation (page 6-22). Basically, all employees who receive tips are required to report them on their timesheet so that the IRS can tax them. But, for diner employees, 8 percent of the total gross receipts in a diner are divided evenly among all the employees who work that diner. If an individual employee's reported less than 8% of their share of the total gross receipts as tips, the difference is reported on their W-2 as income so that they can be taxed on it. This is pretty similar to the way most restaurant servers work.

Now, the big question in my mind is how are sleeper meals figured. When calculating the total gross receipts for the car, is every item a sleeper passenger orders included at menu price? Or, is there a fixed per passenger per meal cost allocated from one department to another? Or perhaps a percentage of each sleeper passenger's fare? Or, since no money is actually changing hands at this point, are they just not counted? An accountant who was trying to get a clear picture of the dining car's performance might choose one of those first options, and I'm sure Amtrak does something like that to figure out how much money the dining cars are (not) making. However, to calculate total gross receipts for tip purposes, I would think it's most accurate to counter sleeper car meals as $0, since there's no actual receipt of any money, (and since there's probably less tips from sleeper passengers since they aren't paying anything at the meal).

Anyone know exactly how "total gross receipts" would be figured for a diner for the purposes of establishing the IRS expected tip amount?

 

[zepherdude]

Why is everyone so worried about tipping? This is the biggest question on this board since they cut the Sunset Limited.

Who cares what everyone else tips. If one likes the service, tip!

If one does not like the service, don't tip.

Any amount is good.

There is no procedure or handbook. Just do what you wanna do!

 

[AmtrakBlue]

Why is everyone so worried about tipping? This is the biggest question on this board since they cut the Sunset Limited.
Who cares what everyone else tips. If one likes the service, tip!

If one does not like the service, don't tip.

Any amount is good.

There is no procedure or handbook. Just do what you wanna do!

*Like*

 

[GG-1]

Why is everyone so worried about tipping? This is the biggest question on this board since they cut the Sunset Limited.
Who cares what everyone else tips. If one likes the service, tip!

If one does not like the service, don't tip.

Any amount is good.

There is no procedure or handbook. Just do what you wanna do!

Halleluiah

I do not understand why such a fuss is made about Tipping.

I am not in a big tipping Industry. Most memorable Tip I ever received was memorable not for the amount but for how it was delivered. We had a simple show with just one artist. He arrived at the theater about 5 minutes before curtain, Chatted until time, Did his 90 min., or so, walked off stage, and as he shook my hand a bill was folded in his hand and he said "Thank you for your help." I had the pleasure of working with hip 4 more times.

Mahalo and Aloha