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Is a tip appropriate or expected for the wheelchair service at airports? — Anonymous
We don’t tip most staff members we encounter at the airport: gate agents, TSA officers, flight attendants. But you should absolutely tip wheelchair assistants. Here’s why.
These workers are tasked with the physically demanding job of pushing passengers through security to their gate, handling their bags, plus stopping at shops, food outlets and the restroom if needed (although they can’t escort them inside to help further). They are generally subcontracted employees for airlines who often make minimum wage.
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“People think that we work for the airlines so we must be making a lot of money doing what we’re doing, and we really don’t,” said Cecilia Ortiz, 42, who’s been a passenger service agent at Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport for just over a year.
While wheelchair assistants may look like airline or airport employees, they aren’t. Airlines are required by the Transportation Department to offer wheelchair services to travelers, free of charge. But to control costs to fulfill that duty, “the airlines subcontract their wheelchair assistance to big companies,” said Steve Mayers, Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport’s assistant general manager of marketing, customer experience and civil rights.
Not all companies advertise these jobs as a tipped position, but many do. In some cases, Mayers says, he has seen agreements between airlines and their contractor that explicitly say tipping is not allowed.
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“Are you looking for a flexible job in a friendly work environment where you have the opportunity to take home cash tips?” one wheelchair assistant job posting at Baltimore’s airport reads, for $14 an hour. One that pays $15.25 per hour reads: “Wheelchair Agent - Dulles International Airport TIPPED POSITION to $20PH.” At San Francisco International Airport, one opening promoted earnings of $20.72 per hour “plus TIPS!”
The job listing at Ortiz’s company, Prospect Airport Services, promises “GREAT TIPS!!(On average with tips, employees are making $18.00).” But the hourly rate for wheelchair assistants at the company starts at $13.85 per hour (Arizona’s minimum wage). When she moved up to “lead” passenger service agent in June, she got a 50-cent raise. I reached out to Prospect Airport Services to discuss tipping, but the company did not respond to requests for comment.
“We all absolutely rely on our tips,” Ortiz said.
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However, Ortiz acknowledges that many travelers who need wheelchair service might not be able to afford to tip, particularly those on a fixed income. But if you can afford to spare $5 or $10, it goes a long way.
A DOT spokesperson told me in an email that an airline or its contractor can’t require a passenger with a disability to tip a wheelchair service provider as a condition of providing wheelchair assistance. “However, a passenger with a disability may voluntarily tip a wheelchair service provider if the passenger wishes to do so, and the wheelchair service provider would be free to accept the voluntary tip from the passenger.”
The problem is airlines don’t make it clear that wheelchair attendants may accept a gratuity. “It’s not online that it’s okay to tip,” Ortiz said, “so it’s always a hit or miss.”
Ortiz says porters often get nothing, sometimes a few bucks. She has been given a handful of change. Her best tip was $20. She’s had passengers offer to buy her coffee or meals — a nice gesture that’s also complicated. If she says no to a food or drink gift, will she still get a tip?
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They also can’t go on the offense to inform passengers of the expectation. Ortiz says her company considers it soliciting.
In a quick search, none of the major U.S. carriers appear to have guidance on gratuity on their wheelchair services websites. I reached out to Airlines for America, the trade group for the major airlines, to get advice on your question, and it declined to comment.
A spokesperson for United Airlines told me via email that “whether or not one wants to share a tip is completely their decision, but it is not an expected or necessary action.”
I called the Delta disability assistance line and asked whether you’re expected to tip the wheelchair porter the airline arranges for you, and I was told by the customer service agent that tipping is not required, as it’s a free service, and that it’s “up to the person if you want to tip.”
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Drake Castañeda, a spokesperson for Delta, said the airline doesn’t have specific guidance on the topic, because wheelchair attendants are employed by subcontracted companies. But from his days working in an airport himself, Castañeda said, such tipping was more of an unwritten rule, like tipping hotel housekeeping or shuttle drivers. As with many service professionals, there’s no sign or rule saying to do it or not.
“When in doubt, I try to remember that it’s never a bad idea to show some extra kindness to those helping us,” Castañeda said in an email.
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