About This Site

Hi. I’m Josh Barsch, and I am not a pilot. I have no association with pilots or airlines or clouds or birds or Chelsey Sullen-whatever. My only association with airplanes is that I fly on them every month or so, just like a gazillion other people do.

In April 2008, I made what I thought was an innocuous and moderately funny blog post about tipping airline pilots. I’d just picked up the annual salary survey in “Parade” magazine and was shocked to learn how low the pay is for regional jet pilots. To be honest, it scared the living shit out of me that the guy flying my airplane in Rapid City could be living on $19,000 per year and sleeping about 5 hours a night.

It made me want to hand a few bucks to every pilot who safely landed my plane. It seemed natural that if everyone did that — just a buck or two — we could effectively double the salaries of these pilots. And don’t get me wrong — I’m not some bleeding-hearted crusader bent on raising everyone’s standard of living. I don’t deserve that credit and please don’t give it to me. This is a matter of self-interest. A better paid pilot can crash at a spendier hotel that’s 2 minutes from the airport and get an hour or two more sleep than the cash-strapped rookie who’s gotta drive halfway into a metro area just to find a sleeping room that’ll accommodate his tiny budget.

I tip people all the time. The usual people, you know: restaurant servers, taxi drivers, bell staff, baggage handlers, etc. In the case of bell staff, I’m giving them $1 for something it takes them literally seconds to accomplish. It makes perfect sense to me to tip pilots. I can’t think of many arguments against this.

So anyway, lots of people ended up responding to my post. Lots of pilots. Even the pilot I saw in “Parade” magazine responded (look for her in the comments). The post sorta took on a life of its own, so I moved it to a site of its own.

This site is a forum for discussing the idea of tipping your airline pilots. I suppose it’ll be a success we tip them just like we tip baristas and carhops. We’ll see. Until then, enjoy, and thanks for your thoughts!

Best,
Josh Barsch