Helicopter & Airplane Tipping

We will be going on Princess and have booked 2 excursions through them. One is a plane ride with glacier landing in Denali and the other is a helicopter with ice trek in Juneau. Was wondering what others have done with gratuities for the pilots. These are expensive tours and not sure how to handle the tipping.

Following. I was planning on $10.00 per person but would love to know what is appropriate.

15-20% of the excursion cost is the general rule we use for most of excursions. If the pilot is also the owner of the aircraft, that could be different since they’re already being paid for the excursion and aren’t just an employee of the company.

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15-20% of the excursion cost is the general rule we use for most of excursions. If the pilot is also the owner of the aircraft, that could be different since they’re already being paid for the excursion and aren’t just an employee of the company.

 

 

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15-20% of a glider or helicopter ride is a large amount of money. Way too much in my opinion.

DON

15-20% of a glider or helicopter ride is a large amount of money. Way too much in my opinion.

 

 

 

DON

Agreed!

Tipping is personal & normally we tip at the end of a tour-depending - was it great? Did they go above & beyond to make our experience better? etc

Personally I feel companies should include gratuities in their price

Tipping has gotten so out of control.

***JMO

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I feel the price of the excursions are high enough, and don't believe it's necessary.

In my opinion, "commercial" pilots employed transporting people are highly compensated professionals. Therefore, I am not tipping the helicopter/seaplane pilots in AK flying me from point A to B, just like I am not tipping the pilot/co-pilot/cabin crew of the A321 flying me from CLT to SEA. I understand some of the AK pilots are also actually giving the tour, but again they are highly compensated (or should be) for flying paying passengers. JMO

...they are highly compensated (or should be) for flying paying passengers. JMO

Teachers should be highly compensated for educating our youth, but we all know they aren't.

I was on a floatplane to Misty Fjords and no one tipped the pilot. Cost of trip is high and these pilots are I believe well paid.

After the high expense of the excursion (no complaints--it's Alaska and a helicopter and a glacier), we'd be embarrassed to tip $20. But we certainly can't tip 10% or 15%, so I'm hoping they're satisfied with the fare and our gratitude.

there are five of us going on a helicopter to the glacier and then dog sledding. these are two separate companies so i will tip 100 to the helicopter pilot total and 100 to the musher.