"American is already dealing with confusion over the new fee on a first checked bag. Spokesman Tim Wagner said passengers whose carry-on must be checked because the overhead bins are full won't be charged. He said only about half of U.S. travelers check at least one bag."

from
http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/080522/airlines_outlook.html

Well, at least that is good.

When flying for business, I almost always tried to get away without checking a bag. However, travel someplace with the Mrs. and a little one in toe and try not to check one...

"...only gave him a five dollar tip. Sorry, but that guy probably gets so many tips a day that he's doing just fine..."

That would be my guess too. Plus he probably gets a pretty good salary/benefits. Guess I spent too many years as a "public servant" to get all worked up over tipping...

I'm sorry but when did a $5 dollar tip for handling bags become bad?

Last I heard a couple a bucks a bag was standard for major airports. Up to $5 if a bag is exceptionally large or heavy. IMHO a fin would be about right for two average bags.

On the there hand some of the skycap and porter trade is a shakedown with the guy grabbing a hand bag, tossing it into a cab and smiling with his hand out. Sort of like the squeegee guys at street corners. They do nothing, or next to nothing, sometimes less than nothing, and then guilt you into a tip.

There are some that do real and useful work speeding people and their bags securely through the crowds. The best have connections with the cabbies and security so you get a good driver and move swiftly. They also coordinate with other passengers and drivers to make the most efficient use of time and space so you save money. A service well worth $20 or more.

But for every good one there seems to be at least one that is running a shakedown glorified by a hat and jacket.

I just checked a bag at LaGuardia last weekend. It had a sign posted that the fee to curb check a bag was $2 per bag. The guy who got tipped by IzzyJG99's Mom did better than the guy who checked me in. I tipped, but he did not get $5 in all, only $4.

Although, I would've given him a $5 if I had it, mostly because I kind of see that as the normal going rate for curbside, based on past comments and experiences.

There was one guy I gave at least $20 to a few years ago, but he got me out of and around a line when I was late for the plane.

If you look at the math, these guys work for probably 8 hours a day and check in on average probably a bag at least every five minutes. (When they are busy, I think it's a bag a minute, so I am liberally figuring in some slack time.) That's at least an additional $128 a day on top of any hourly wage, with just $2 per bag. Most have to do more bags than that and get more per bag than that.

Back in the late 90's I was put in charge of Skycaps by the airline that I used to work for. Managed a work force of over 300 of them for a few years.
Overall they are good hard working folks that do their best each and every day. They made significantly less than minimum wage because of tipping. Trust me...they made out just fine!
A decent Skycap working 4-6 hours a day (most of them worked part-time back then) would make between $100 and 150 per day CASH! A very good to excellent Skycap would make double that!
It all depended on which shift they worked (seniority got the best shifts) and how good they were with customer service.

Now that I'm retired whenever I travel I try to use Skycaps. For good to excellent service I tip $5/bag. Average service gets $2/bag.

"...guilt you into a tip..."

Fat chance of that with me. I don't mind tipping for good service, but I draw the line at that kind of BS...

I agree... I have no problem tipping for good service. When I get bad service, they are lucky if they get anything...

My philosophy is that I start with a set % of tip. What a waiter/waitress does can either increase it or decrease it.

"...When I get bad service, they are lucky if they get anything..."

I used to just add the tip onto the bill when I payed by credit card, but recently had it explained to me that if I do that the employee has to pay taxes on the money, if I leave cash they may not. So now even that depends on the quality of the service. If I have lousy service and am leaving cash I leave a nickle. Leave nothing and they will just think that you are cheap. But for really lousy service I write "no tip due to poor service" on the tip line of the bill. I figure that someone up the chain will read that, and hopefully do something about it...