Tipping Guidelines for Helicopter Pilot

[ucancallmetink]

We are considering a flightseeing tour. It will be a very expensive excursion for our family of six, but I'm hoping the experience will be worth it. My question is this: is it customary to tip the pilot? The thirty minute tour will cost us roughly $800 and honestly, I can't fathom tipping 20, or even 15% of that cost. Curious, though, what is customary in this situation. Thanks for any insight you can offer.

[garrett619]

I know a handful of people have done the St. Thomas private island helicopter tour, but did anyone tip? About 95% I'll be doing this in April and I'm trying to budget.

 

Thanks,

Garrett

[Candycruiser3]

I think that a customary tip should be about 10%. I did one in Hawaii and thats what I tipped.

[donaldsc]

Just make sure that you do not low tip BEFORE you take off.

 

DON

[garrett619]

Gosh, so now I'm back to tipping? I did some google research and on another forum a pilot said he's very rarely tipped. He basically summed it up that he's well paid and it's not expected. I talked to a Captain of a boat and his personal belief is a salaried employee shouldn't expect a "tip" for performing their job, but should be thankful if a customer wants to give them a tip for exemplary service. They often receive tips, but he never takes any and allows the rest of the crew to split the tip. HOWEVER, I know it's customary in San Diego to tip your captain and crew if you charter a boat for fishing. My experience (having been crew for this type of operation) is captain and crew split the tips down the middle for chartered fishing boats.

 

I know a lot of people that live off tips, so I always try to tip and tip well. However a 10% tip would be over $80. It's less than a 15 minute flight each way. While extensive pre and post flight operations have to be executed that still seems like a very generous tip for less than 2 hours work.

 

Anyone else care to weigh in?

[AntiHamstr]

When was the last time you tipped the pilot of a jumbo jet? Should I tip him $80 if my flight costs $400?

 

 

Think about it this way. BIG helicopters that hold 13 people cost about $2,000-$3,000 to operate for one flight hour (including fuel, maintenance, etc.) Hopefully you are in a smaller helicopter, so it's probably closer to $1,000 per hour. The pilot isn't usually the one doing the maintenance, so tipping him based on the cost of maintaining the helicopter is like tipping your room steward a percentage of your entire cruise price: it has no direct bearing.

 

 

As a general rule, helicopter pilots like flying and are happy to have you there to pay for THEIR flight time, and are NOT relying on tips to earn a living. If he gives you an excellent tour, I would say tipping him $10-20 per person for 30 minutes of work is more than generous.

 

 

When I go heliskiing, I always shake the pilot's hand and he is always VERY surprised when I am passing him a tip. They honestly don't expect it. These guys are landing in some pretty precarious spots, within three feet of me, in high winds, and they aren't expecting tips.

 

 

Dennis

P.S. We used to tip the ski guide $20 pp per day, and they were ecstatic to get that much.

[garrett619]

Thanks. That's what I was thinking. I'll plan on maybe $40 for the two of us as a tip just in case.

 

Thanks again,

Garrett

[jimf41]

Tour helicopter pilots are generally not well paid. I NYC they make about $250 for a ten hour day. They do this type of job to build up their hours in hopes of getting a corporate job. Corporate jobs are well paid for the most part.

 

In STT I doubt they earn more than $150-200 a day and then only if they fly 8-10 hours. Tipping is always appreciated but not really expected by these pilots. It really depends on how satisfied you were with the tour and how well the pilot responded to any requests you had. I think $10 a person would be more than sufficient.

[marci22]

Interesting, as I would not think to tip a helicopter pilot :confused: