Taking one for the team on AA to LAX from Sydney

[drron]

And I too have had great flights with great crew on both AA and BA in F&J. In fact the best FA I have had was in AA F from JFK - LHR. An easy name to remember - Marvel.

 

[cove]

Have gone thru a mountain of mail and I have my AAA updated motoring cards and an offer from Amex Platinum for 125,000 sign on points.AAA gets us discounts so I have had their membership card for 12 years.
Have one credit card being replaced as it was compromised and Mrscove has hers running fine so that is not a problem as I get a co-card on her account. The replacement card will arrive in a few days.
Mrscove bought me some casual shorts at Macys with pockets that button down on my legs as my credit card wallet has been sliding out of my normal pocket without me realizing it.
I cut off all the personally address labels from our mail to help avoid getting future scammers who try identity theft.
At the Cove apartment we will have a water leak detection system installed while we are here and it will be managed by the staff at Cove.
Driving a BMW is ok but finding out what buttons do what has us reading the manual from the glovebox.
Our family has Chubb travel insurance so that covers car hire. I pay the hire car with a US credit card that says we have some cover but we don’t want to rely on that when claims can amount to large figures.
Driving in the US means short right turns and long left turns. Figuring out speed limits still seem optional in Southern California.Everyone here is in a hurry so we just go with the flow.

 

[QF029]

After years of travel to the US I have become more relaxed about the tipping culture and I agree that earlier this year 20% seemed to be the norm but my opinion is this should be on the basis the waitstaff are expected to share out a portion of their tips to the kitchen staff. What I find irritating is the increasingly frequent practice of a 3%+ service charge added to support kitchen staff wages or similar. So the tip becomes 23%+ and then of course there is the debate about whether the 20% gets added to the ex tax or the inc. tax total (both variations seem to apply depending on the establishment).
But try not to dwell too much on all of this and enjoy your holiday!

Tipping is based on ex tax. NYC has always been 20% so the rest of the country is catching up. At least outside of big cities the base cost is lower hence lower tip $$ wise.

 

[cove]

Yes it is 20% of the ex tax figure in larger cities from what we are hearing.
When you come from Australia this is hard to remember to tip.

 

[muppet]

Tipping is based on ex tax. NYC has always been 20% so the rest of the cou try is catching up. At least ouutisde of big cities the base cost is lower hence lower tip.

Plenty of servers will tell you that you tip the total bill incl. tax and service charges. Most of the suggested tips on receipts also calculate it based on the total as well.

However, I agree and never tip on tax and when they say something I just politely ask why I should tip the government.

However, 20% is a blessing in USA now - it’s out of control where they are expecting 25 and 30%. Even self serve places now ask for a tip… who is that going to? the computer?

 

[Myrna]

Trying to get J or F from SYD to LAX has been mission impossible, so hubby has decided to trump up the dosh $$$$$ in J with ANA
Note for Mrs cove: Just managed to book award seats for 2 of us: F from SYD to DOH and J from DOH to LHR in September on QR. But not able to get return seats to SYD, MEL or ADL. Could get F to PER and J to BNE (but not sure if J seats would be Qsuites - first world problem).
kpc has suggested Etihad and SQ.
UPDATE: I have spoken too soon because the 'confirmed' booking for SYD-DOH-LHR has disappeared. QR chat line claimed that our bank CBA returned / reversed payment and since payment not received within a few seconds, booking disappeared. CBA is now closed (Sunday evening) so I could not talk to anyone to find out why. Seats gone (crying) due to CBA credit card horror. A peculiar thing was one payment with QR on a separate booking got through, but not the 'disappeared' one

 

[cove]

The State taxes in California vary based on which county you are in.
Yes no need to tip on that government charge.
Yesterday we were at Manhattan Village and the Islands restaurant had it summarized for tipping without that government charge.

 

[cove]

The Cheesecake Factory had their tipping rate set on including the percentage on the government tax so we ignored that idea.

 

[CaptJCool]

Tipping always seemed a something for nothing

However with minimum wage set in Australia at such a high level we don’t need to tip here

If you know
1. The minimum USA wage is low
2. In restaurants, the employer pays minimum wage LESS expected tips so this in the low wage states can mean like $2.13 per hour which really is MEAN

the federal minimum cash wage is $2.13 per hour (and higher in some states), there is a provision that, if a tipped employee does not make the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, the employer must make up the difference…

Minimum Wages for Tipped Employees

www.dol.gov

However in California this minimum wage is $16 and must be paid regardless of tips
So perhaps that gives some people an out to decline to tip

PS there was an article recently that said in Australia our average tip was 9%
But inconveniently for the “beat-up”, only 0.5% of credit card transactions tipped (they amended the article to remove that….)

 

[p--and--t]

PS there was an article recently that said in Australia our average tip was 9%

That figure comes as a shock. Some people must be tipping significantly more than myself and most of the people I associate with

 

[Cruiser Elite]

A dozen of us Ozwegians ventured to US mid Nov to mid Dec and visited from SFO to NYC to IAH to MSY and a number other locations - everyone reported tipping norm across the 48 is now min 20%. We went to celebrate a milestone bday with a daughter / niece / cousin who got a Green Card 12yrs ago and subsequently married a Yank and settled in IAH.

On numerous occasions they commented that indeed post Covid service in most industries has slipped yet expected tipping is on the rise - go figure?

 

[drron]

A dozen of us Ozwegians ventured to US mid Nov to mid Dec and visited from SFO to NYC to IAH to MSY and a number other locations - everyone reported tipping norm across the 48 is now min 20%. We went to celebrate a milestone bday with a daughter / niece / cousin who got a Green Card 12yrs ago and subsequently married a Yank and settled in IAH.

On numerous occasions they commented that indeed post Covid service in most industries has slipped yet expected tipping is on the rise - go figure?

It was one of the reasons why we have decided not to go back to the USA. I happily tipped in the past as service was usually at a higher standard than back in Australia. In fact I remember the second tip I ever gave back in 1981 when 10% was at the upper limit of acceptable. For the Top of the Mark in SFO the service was as close to perfection as you could expect so a 25% tip was given - helped by the fact back then that$A1 was worth ~ $US1.30.
However when the rate hit 20% I asked why the rate had gone up and I was always told because the prices at restaurants had doubled. None were able to comprehend that if X had become 2X then the 10% tip rate was also doubled in $ terms but now their effective tip was 4 times the amount that it had been. I guess Americans are not that good at maths.

 

[CaptJCool]

That figure comes as a shock. Some people must be tipping significantly more than myself and most of the people I associate with

99.5% don’t tip

Of the 0.5% who do the average was about 9%

 

[cove]

In Australia we rarely tip unless a restaurant goes out of their way In doing something special.
Over here in California it is totally different.Tips form part of the restaurant workers earnings.

 

[Happy Dude]

Mrscove bought me some casual shorts at Macys with pockets that button down on my legs as my credit card wallet has been sliding out of my normal pocket without me realizing it.
I cut off all the personally address labels from our mail to help avoid getting future scammers who try identity theft.
Driving a BMW is ok but finding out what buttons do what has us reading the manual from the glovebox.
Our family has Chubb travel insurance so that covers car hire. I pay the hire car with a US credit card that says we have some cover but we don’t want to rely on that when claims can amount to large figures.

God herself invented digital wallets so we didn't have to carry those things, or wear shorts bought by spouses. Literally do not carry an actual wallet anymore.
I cut and shred all labels with my name and address too. The risk of ID theft is never zero.
Surprised your Bimmer even has a manual. It may be preferable though as the in-car e-manual is a PITA often.
I couldn't find insurance that went over the $5k or so max excess. Don't really need to though I suppose.
We didn't tip much in our two month road trip, and definitely not near 20% when we did. Food was quite expensive, plus tax, and the FX rate was/is poor too, so any amount on top of that added up quickly and was significant for us.

 

[CaptJCool]

In Australia we rarely tip unless a restaurant goes out of their way In doing something special.
Over here in California it is totally different.Tips form part of the restaurant workers earnings.

Yes
Here it’s $11 per hour plus tips…

California Tipped Employee Minimum Wage 2024 - Minimum-Wage.org

www.minimum-wage.org

 

[cove]

Tonight Trader Joe’s was too much of a zoo and every idiot held up the parking by insisting on backing in to their chosen spot while we all waited.
The line at the Marina del Rey IN-N-Out was long as we drove past our local Costco to get home.
Almost time for some fine dining.

 

[drron]

Yes
Here it’s $11 per hour plus tips…

California Tipped Employee Minimum Wage 2024 - Minimum-Wage.org

www.minimum-wage.org

It has changed as of 1/1/24 to $16 per hour regardless of employee numbers or whether you get tips.

 

[Brissy1]

The Cheesecake Factory

Those serving sizes! Hope you shared.

 

[DC3]

Although, not everyone on the US lives in CA