Tipping baggage handlers

[davekathy]

16 hours ago, quincytoo said:

What is an appropriate tip 2023?

Whatever you believe is appropriate.

[arizonaperson]

 I usually do give the baggage handlers a tip when I cruise.

But I’m just thinking out loud here.

Aren’t the baggage handlers called porters when you go on a cruise ship? I have no idea how much they make per hour or if their job is a temporary one,etc.

I think they make significantly less than longshoreman. Don’t longshoreman work forklifts ,containers on & off ships and equipment like that ,so therefore they get paid more? 

 I’m just trying to figure out when people say they don’t tip because they make a lot of money -the longshoreman ,just curious if the people at the curb handling your bags are really porters and make a lot less than you think. I have no idea .I have not researched this ,but I say no matter where you are ( restaurant, coffee shop, hotel, rideshare )tip what you feel like , up to each individual what they do. 

 Is it possible that we never have the opportunity to tip longshoremen  because they “work “behind the scenes getting our bags onto the ship??

[EDDY0827]

How much do Longshoreman make in San Pedro?

 

 

How much does a Longshoreman make in San Pedro, CA? The average Longshoreman salary in San Pedro, CA is $66,326 as of January 26, 2023, but the salary range typically falls between $59,827 and $73,293.

 

Longshoreman Salary in San Pedro, California

https://www.salary.com › research › salary › posting › san...

Considering the cost of living in L.A., it beats flipin' burgers at Mickey D's.

[cr8tiv1]

Hope this helps.

 

https://cruisewestcoast.com/cruise-tips-advice/what-do-you-call-the-guys-that-take-your-luggage-onto-the-ship.html

[MissP22]

3 hours ago, EDDY0827 said:

How much do Longshoreman make in San Pedro?

 

 

How much does a Longshoreman make in San Pedro, CA? The average Longshoreman salary in San Pedro, CA is $66,326 as of January 26, 2023, but the salary range typically falls between $59,827 and $73,293.

 

Longshoreman Salary in San Pedro, California

https://www.salary.com › research › salary › posting › san...

Considering the cost of living in L.A., it beats flipin' burgers at Mickey D's.

 

And that's before considering any tips. 

[PTMary]

7 hours ago, MissP22 said:

And that's before considering any tips. 

 

And probably less that the majority of cruise ship passengers. 

[rj59]

On 2/8/2023 at 6:59 AM, Tonsoffun44 said:

Sailed last week - showed up at port at 10:30am - luggage people weren't that busy IMO. 3 taxis including ours for 5 porter people. 30seconds after the taxi driver had our bags out of the trunk they were in the large ship carts and the luggage porter people were gone - no chance to tip them. Oh well!! 

Upon return from cruise - guys in the terminal were rather pushy about wanting to help people that clearly didn't need/want it. Best was they never even said a word to travel companion who is in a wheelchair pushing his own chair + rolling luggage at the same time. 

The addition of facial recognition machines instead of long customs lines has probably hurt the porters at disembarkation. In San Pedro, you could avoid the long lines by getting a porter to take your bags through a dedicated short line, but now there's no reason to do so. The dropping of formal night requirements, imposition of checked bag airline fees, and improvements in suitcase rolling technology also makes it easier for people to avoid needing porters. I know my parents brought 3-4 bags each for a cruise, but I usually go with a duffel bag with backstraps that I can carry on and off the ship without dealing with porters, and with Elite laundry service or free washers/dryers on Discovery, I could get by with a backpack for a week. I also think of the poor stewards, who after an exhausting and stressful morning of trying to clean every room quickly, then have to go cart and distribute luggage all afternoon, and pick up and store all the luggage late into the evening the night before disembarkation. 

[triple7tahoe]

When not cruising, I used to work at the pier in SF helping with embarkation. At that location cruise ship baggage handling is considered a prime job and I saw mostly senior UNION workers. They were at the top of the pay scale. At one time there were signs posted that stated they were union workers and no tips were needed-Were those signs highly visible ? Heck no but if you knew where to look they could be found! I found some of the workers would try and intimidate folks with comments like- "Just leave your luggage with me an I will see that it gets to your stateroom". It was fun to watch these workers jostle with each other as cars pulled up and they tried to determine which would tip the best. I can say that the longshoremen were slow to attend to cars that carried one group (racially determined) while quick to others 🙂 I turned in more than one of the longshoremen when he/she tried to intimidate foreign speaking passengers-All longshoremen wear numbers on their vest.. It is up to you if you want to tip but your luggage is only  handled by the folks on the street long enough for them to wheel it inside to go through screening and then placed in a cage for movement to the correct floor for the ship folks to handle if from there. Your room steward will handle it more as they move it to your stateroom than anybody prior to that.  FACT!

 

[wcc19]

That's what I like about the Port of Vancouver.  There are obvious signs that tell you not to tip the luggage handlers.  They are longshoremen and they already have a fabulous wage and benefits package.

[mellon1]

I think people want to know what to do and what is considered normal.  I realize no situation is the same, but most people want to do the right thing and not undertip or overtip.  That's where Cruise Critic and all of you who know so much come in handy so much.  I can't speak for everyone, but it is so very helpful to us and I don't know what we would do without all of you helping out.  

 

Just a little tidbit, when we were so young and it was the first time we traveled anywhere, we went to Jamaica and at the airport, we had one bag, the bagger took our bag (that was after they searched through our underwear--never knew that happened) we never asked him to take it, but then he put his hand out to my husband and my husband shook his hand and said thank you.  Friends we were with took care of the tip and let us know in the cab how things worked.  We were embarrassed.  We just didn't know better and there was no internet back then.  LOL  Hopefully some good laughs.  We still talk about that!  So, yes, we make sure we tip!  I think people ask questions here to know what is the right thing to do.

[arizonaperson]

15 hours ago, EDDY0827 said:

How much do Longshoreman make in San Pedro?

 

 

How much does a Longshoreman make in San Pedro, CA? The average Longshoreman salary in San Pedro, CA is $66,326 as of January 26, 2023, but the salary range typically falls between $59,827 and $73,293.

 

Longshoreman Salary in San Pedro, California

https://www.salary.com › research › salary › posting › san...

Considering the cost of living in L.A., it beats flipin' burgers at Mickey D's.

 

 Yes I see this about longshoreman ,but I think my question is -are the people at the curb handling your luggage for a cruise and putting it in a cart are they longshoreman or are they Porter’s? Who knows. Guess I still see longshoremans job different, but I have no idea ? I guess I thought they did more of the behind the scene things for cruise ships like working forklifts.

and the cranes for cargo ships etc. to off load and load containers?

 So a longshoreman in San Pedro making $70,000 a year -if they work all year that’s about $33 an hour ,I don’t think that’s a lot of money,but decent, sort of.But I guess we will never know if the guys and gals at the curb for a cruise ship are longshoreman or paid much less than that. Because I doubt any of us are going to  ask them how much they make  per hour, so then we can decide to give a tip or not. 

 I know the initial thread was about tipping for cruise baggage and I guess I still say totally up to you. 

Edited February 11, 2023 by arizonaperson

[triple7tahoe]

4 hours ago, arizonaperson said:

 Yes I see this about longshoreman ,but I think my question is -are the people at the curb handling your luggage for a cruise and putting it in a cart are they longshoreman or are they Porter’s? Who knows. Guess I still see longshoremans job different, but I have no idea ? I guess I thought they did more of the behind the scene things for cruise ships like working forklifts.

and the cranes for cargo ships etc. to off load and load containers?

 So a longshoreman in San Pedro making $70,000 a year -if they work all year that’s about $33 an hour ,I don’t think that’s a lot of money,but decent, sort of.But I guess we will never know if the guys and gals at the curb for a cruise ship are longshoreman or paid much less than that. Because I doubt any of us are going to  ask them how much they make  per hour, so then we can decide to give a tip or not. 

 I know the initial thread was about tipping for cruise baggage and I guess I still say totally up to you. 

I do not know about San Pedro but I assure you the folks in SF are longshoremen (Union). Two of my high school friends used to work at the pier. I would think (but don't know) that all of California is unionized.

[startedwithamouse]

 

But everything is taxed on the $70k a year. That is certainly not take home. Average rent is $2,500 a month, small homes start at $750k, plus utilities, gasoline (highest taxes in the country). Longshoremen are not wealthy. Southern California is not affordable.  Tips are also taxable income. 

[travelin.sisters]

long

8 hours ago, arizonaperson said:

 Yes I see this about longshoreman ,but I think my question is -are the people at the curb handling your luggage for a cruise and putting it in a cart are they longshoreman or are they Porter’s? Who knows. Guess I still see longshoremans job different, but I have no idea ? I guess I thought they did more of the behind the scene things for cruise ships like working forklifts.

and the cranes for cargo ships etc. to off load and load containers?

 So a longshoreman in San Pedro making $70,000 a year -if they work all year that’s about $33 an hour ,I don’t think that’s a lot of money,but decent, sort of.But I guess we will never know if the guys and gals at the curb for a cruise ship are longshoreman or paid much less than that. Because I doubt any of us are going to  ask them how much they make  per hour, so then we can decide to give a tip or not. 

 I know the initial thread was about tipping for cruise baggage and I guess I still say totally up to you. 

porters, crane operators, hauling things onto the ship (both luggage & supplies), forklift drivers & many other jobs for both cargo & cruise ships are staffed through the longshoremen's union at the Ports of LA & LB...different jobs will pay different wages & some require extra training & experience,

 

some of the people taking you luggage may only get a few shifts a month & others may work close to full time

[MissP22]

9 hours ago, startedwithamouse said:

Tips are also taxable income. 

😆

[Reina del Mar]

On 2/8/2023 at 1:34 PM, Princessfan20 said:

I am just amazed at how many people on Princess CC need so much prior information to travel - what should I tip, when should I get to the port ?

Not all passengers are previous cruisers and want to know what is the norm on Princess ships.

Not all cruisers are from USA  where tipping procedures may be very different from other countries. Some of these people want to know what is expected of them, rather than upset those expecting to be tipped.

 

[sunviking90]

We tip elsewhere in the US $1 per bag, unless it’s whisked away too fast. We were never sure if these were longshoremen or not. Now we know. We never tip in Vancouver (where we live) as we know how much these longshoremen make. Plus, we are Canadian, so what would we tip? A loonie, a toonie? They don’t want a pocket full of coins, and they’re not getting a $5 bill. I’m not tipping with USD in my own country. We didn’t tip in Southampton.

Edited February 12, 2023 by sunviking90

[wowzz]

14 minutes ago, sunviking90 said:

We didn’t tip in Southampton

No real need, as you can take your own cases to the "hole in the wall". No porterage involved.

[sunviking90]

Just now, wowzz said:

No real need, as you can take your own cases to the "hole in the wall". No porterage involved.

Yes, that’s what we did. One of the most efficient embarkations ever! 

[memoak]

14 hours ago, triple7tahoe said:

I do not know about San Pedro but I assure you the folks in SF are longshoremen (Union). Two of my high school friends used to work at the pier. I would think (but don't know) that all of California is unionized.

I was on a cruise leaving from SF during a “work slowdown” action and one crate of luggage ended up in the bay. It was raining and those who weren’t waving bills around got totally ignored. Yes we do tip

[startedwithamouse]

4 hours ago, MissP22 said:

😆

 

Here is an proof, not sure why you placed a laughing emoji to my comment Tips are also taxable income. This is an official website of the IRS. Any CPA or doing taxes for longshoremen at the Port of LA, working either as permanent or casual at the cruise port would report them, as they are 100% getting tips. 

 

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tip-income-is-taxable-and-must-be-reported#:~:text=Tip income is taxable and must be reported | Internal Revenue Service

[startedwithamouse]

30 minutes ago, memoak said:

I was on a cruise leaving from SF during a “work slowdown” action and one crate of luggage ended up in the bay. It was raining and those who weren’t waving bills around got totally ignored. Yes we do tip

What year was this?

 

We also tip - we do not want to be Elaine with baggage going to Honolulu.

[MissP22]

2 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

 

Here is an proof, not sure why you placed a laughing emoji to my comment Tips are also taxable income. This is an official website of the IRS. Any CPA or doing taxes for longshoremen at the Port of LA, working either as permanent or casual at the cruise port would report them, as they are 100% getting tips. 

 

https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/tip-income-is-taxable-and-must-be-reported#:~:text=Tip income is taxable and must be reported | Internal Revenue Service

Yes, tips are supposed to be reported. 😁

[travelin.sisters]

1 hour ago, Reina del Mar said:

Not all passengers are previous cruisers and want to know what is the norm on Princess ships.

Not all cruisers are from USA  where tipping procedures may be very different from other countries. Some of these people want to know what is expected of them, rather than upset those expecting to be tipped.

 

the 'norm' runs a wide range...pretty much from nothing to $5/bag, they will take your bags for nothing & at least at the Port of LA, in our experience, will not be standing around waiting hands out for a tip, they will however happily accept one...we travel with a bunch of bags & a walker & carryon stuff since they unload the back of our vehicle & help sort what is going with us & what they take so we always tip $10-20 for departure...when we get off the ship I find someone to come to baggage claim with their cart, gather our luggage as I point it out & take it out to the car or at least the curb again $10-20 depending on the time it takes & if they load it into the car...we also tip the people who pushes the wheelchair (there will be 2, one land side & one shipboard) $5...but we are 3 people with various physical challenges who couldn't handle our luggage by ourselves...so I think the closest there is to an answer is you can do what seems right to you & won't be outside the range of what is done

[memoak]

22 minutes ago, startedwithamouse said:

What year was this?

 

We also tip - we do not want to be Elaine with baggage going to Honolulu.

This was pre pandemic. Mostly it was a union labor issue