Tipping an Air Taxi?

[Robinhood21]

My father, Uncle and I are getting together here in the next couple weeks or so to go over our hunt in 2020.

We are hiring an Air Taxi for a DIY Drop hunt. Basically they are hired to drop us off and pick us up from a "Moosy" area and will be called to pick up a moose if we are ever so fortunate to drop 1 or 3.

We are not guided but they know where the moose are and we are basically charged by the hour for flight time.

Does this merit a tip? Bottom Line, I will tip, but not sure of now much to tip. Obviously not as much as a guide would get tipped for a guided hunt but I'm trying to find out what some of you have done in the past?

 

[AKBorn]

Before I discuss my thoughts about tipping transporters, allow me to ask – if you get a moose early in the hunt, do you plan to have the meat and antlers/cape flown out of the field while you continue to hunt? If you do, I would recommend checking on the costs for doing that – it could cost a fair penny to fly 500-plus pounds of meat, antlers, and cape out of the field. Don’t want you to run into any cost surprises…

Tipping transporters is a personal decision, I won’t recommend that you do or you don’t. I have tipped transporters, and I haven’t…the decision to tip was not based on whether or not I harvested an animal that trip. Rather, it was based on factors such as the following:

- Did the transporter take the time to keep you informed and adequately manage your expectations? Good ones will try to let you know if there may be delays on flight days based on weather, a large volume of inbound or out bound flights, or other factors.

- Did he/she demonstrate that safety is a priority – not trying to fly with an overloaded airplane, not taking too many chances in iffy weather, etc.

- Did he/she appear to keep the aircraft in good working order?

- Were you able to reach someone when you try to call them from the field? Have heard horror stories of hunters in the field not being able to connect with their transporter for a few days – not a situation I want to put myself in.

- Did their operation seem to be decently organized, or did it seem like they were figuring things out as they went along?

- Did the transporter provide clear guidance on weight limits and any other limiting factors, well in advance of your fly-in date?

 

[Kevin Dill]

AKBorn hits it on the nose. I would only summarize it by saying you probably will get a feel for whether your pilot/air taxi is a pro and is working to be above average in terms of service. Try to ignore the personality and focus on the operation and service. It's no different to me than tipping a server who does only the basics and might get a basic gratuity. Fall below that line and no tip. Exceed expectations and I'll show my gratitude. A bit of friendly personalized service and professionalism will always win points with me.

When and if I tip, I do it with a face-to-face thanks and handshake. Drop the bills in an envelope and write a message of thanks. I make it a point to tell them it's in appreciation for their hard work. 10-15% per person is a good average, though I've never exceeded $300.

 

[bowhnt]

We had originally planned on tipping ours on our caribou hunt this year but decided against it after a few things happened. We arrived to their base and were told our originally quoted price was wrong and charged us an extra 2,000. What were we supposed to do. Stranded in a town way off the road 4000 miles from home.... had to pay. Got dropped in a valley with almost no caribou. Attempted to hike to the surrounding areas only to find we were boxed in by other groups on 3 sides and couldn’t go that far. I’m not one to blame others for a crappy hunt but not being able to hike to different areas with animals due to the other groups was frustrating. Needless to say I will still go back in the future and would tip if things improved.


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[Tod osier]

We had originally planned on tipping ours on our caribou hunt this year but decided against it after a few things happened. We arrived to their base and were told our originally quoted price was wrong and charged us an extra 2,000. What were we supposed to do. Stranded in a town way off the road 4000 miles from home.... had to pay. Got dropped in a valley with almost no caribou. Attempted to hike to the surrounding areas only to find we were boxed in by other groups on 3 sides and couldn’t go that far. I’m not one to blame others for a crappy hunt but not being able to hike to different areas with animals due to the other groups was frustrating. Needless to say I will still go back in the future and would tip if things improved.


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Ouch, thanks for sharing as a reminder of what can go wrong.

 

[Robinhood21]

Before I discuss my thoughts about tipping transporters, allow me to ask – if you get a moose early in the hunt, do you plan to have the meat and antlers/cape flown out of the field while you continue to hunt? If you do, I would recommend checking on the costs for doing that – it could cost a fair penny to fly 500-plus pounds of meat, antlers, and cape out of the field. Don’t want you to run into any cost surprises…

Thanks for your response! To the question above, yes we know what the cost will be to fly a moose out if one is downed early in the hunt.

 

[KJH]

Unless I had a some seriously bad service or a really bad experience before we flew, I would always tip. The amount I tip is based on how I feel they are doing. If he takes an extra 10-15 minutes flying your area to get you a good view without trying to avoid it, they get my thanks and respect... and a tip.

To answer how much:

I generally tip about a $100 per person on the flight to the field (usually 2 people for a moose hunt, sometimes 4 if it s beaver flight caribou hunt). Its the basic gratuity type of tip. I tip the pilot on the trip out when we land and get unloaded. Its a handshake deal. I do it because I feel its right if they do a good job. I also do it because I truly believe that it gets me some preferential treatment when things are stacked up for weather delays. I feel it keeps me at the top of the list for getting an animal out early. I admit, this is the selfish tipping, but it helps. If he has to choose to stop at my camp or someone elses, its the only thing that might get him to choose me first if I don't know him well yet.

I typically tip after we get back to the village once everything is settled. This tip is similar to the first, but can be more or less based on how personalized of service I get. If they did a great job, kept organized, and gave me good advice, etc. my tip is usually from $100-$300 to the pilot. The more times I use him, the more he becomes a friend and the tip is usually bigger. My partner can tip however he wants and thats up to them after we come out of the field.. If there is a guy at the hangar helping out, I give him a little something as well if they are helpful. I appreciate the help when you're doing a hunt on your own, and if someone does a great job or goes beyond what they needed to do, I show my appreciation.

 

[AKBorn]

We had originally planned on tipping ours on our caribou hunt this year but decided against it after a few things happened. We arrived to their base and were told our originally quoted price was wrong and charged us an extra 2,000. What were we supposed to do. Stranded in a town way off the road 4000 miles from home.... had to pay. Got dropped in a valley with almost no caribou. Attempted to hike to the surrounding areas only to find we were boxed in by other groups on 3 sides and couldn’t go that far. I’m not one to blame others for a crappy hunt but not being able to hike to different areas with animals due to the other groups was frustrating. Needless to say I will still go back in the future and would tip if things improved.


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Would love to hear more details about this - was this just a gap in communications during the initial booking, or did they mislead your party on the price? Did you compare notes with any of the other groups waiting to fly into the field? Sorry that this happened to you and your group -

 

[bowhnt]

Would love to hear more details about this - was this just a gap in communications during the initial booking, or did they mislead your party on the price? Did you compare notes with any of the other groups waiting to fly into the field? Sorry that this happened to you and your group -

We were sent a signed contract from the transport that had the wrong price listed. It wasn’t corrected until we were standing in their office and they were trying to figure out why I stopped counting money when I hit the lower amount. Sounds like it was a legit mistake on their part as everyone else paid the higher price. They needed up giving us a 500 dollar discount but that was still like 1500 more than what the contract we had said. It really threw our group off and but a cloud over the trip. It was bad.


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[Kevin Dill]

I would expect an air taxi which (1) provides a signed contract and then (2) discovers a big mistake on their part and then (3)hits you for $1500 extra on the spot....would probably not be anticipating a tip or any form of gratuity. Did I say that's a BIG mistake?

 

[mcseal2]

We gave the pilot $100 when he dropped us off and I gave him $200 when he picked up my moose, then we gave another $100 when he picked us up. After the hunt we also tipped the lodge staff and the owners each another $100. One pilot was also an owner so he got tipped more times. Ended up spending about $800 between 2 of us on tips. I don't know if this is normal or not, it was our first trip. They all did a good job we felt. I've read other posts that said the hunters only tipped the staff, not the owners that they had a contract with. We just tipped them all.

 

[AKDoc]

We've used the same transporter for five consecutive years, so we've developed some good relationships/friendships with some very good people. We are also out in the field for three consecutive weeks, which typically involves two different locations and transports, as well as meat retrieval of two to three moose from the field. Therefore, we may not be a representative example of tipping, but I'll share with you what we do.

We each put $500 into our tipping budget (a thousand total). The pilot always gets half, and the rest is distributed across two or three other working staff. We do not tip the owner...we tried the first year, but he said he wants to see his staff get the tips, not him. There has been one consistent guy in the hanger over the years, who is really helpful and reliable to get our meat immediately over to the transporter and into their freezer for shipment back to ANC, so he gets a significantly larger tip than the other workers. All tips are at the end, and of course handshakes are involved and expressed genuine appreciation for their efforts. I've also given a couple of personal items over the years to one or two people (in addition to the tip).