CMV: If you can afford to tip 15-20%, you don't need to fly economy

I don’t mean this in the “I’m better than you” sense. I mean it in the “you’re being wasteful” sense.<br>If you can afford to go out to a restaurant and tip every server 15-20%, you can easily afford to upgrade to first class.<br><br>Think about it. A server will often travel to your table dozens of times - taking your order, bringing you bread, bringing you your food, refilling your drink, bringing you appetizers and the bill, etc. Each one of these interactions is for the purpose of giving you the best possible dining experience. They’re constantly moving, and giving their full attention to many people. On a plane, a flight attendant will check in on passengers 2 or 3 times, bringing them snacks and drinks once or twice, and making sure everybody’s seatbelt is fastened once or twice. The biggest difference is that while servers have to deal with dozens of people (sometimes hundreds), flight attendants deal with many fewer passengers. However, the nature of the job is that they’re often on their feet for many hours, walking up and down aisles, and constantly smiling and interacting with passengers. In terms of quality of service, and the amount of time spent making sure you’re comfortable, it’s arguably the same quality of service that you would receive from a server at a nice restaurant. However, flights are much longer than the average dining experience. On a 5 hour plane ride, a flight attendant will spend 5 hours standing up and walking around, ensuring 60-100 passengers are safe and happy. Over the course of 5 hours, a server will go through 2 or 3 tables of 4 people each.<br>If you get on a plane and realize you don’t have any cash or tipping money, and you receive terrible service because you couldn’t tip, and you then go to a restaurant and tip your server, you’re being hypocritical. If you can afford to tip at a restaurant, but not on a plane, you can afford to shell out an extra $500 or so to sit in first class, and not have to worry about dealing with the flight attendants. <br>If you feel like flight attendants are bad at their jobs because they don’t get tipped, but you consistently tip servers at restaurants, you should shell out extra money to sit in first class, where the service is much better and more attentive.<br><br>Edit: Nobody has successfully argued that I am wrong. In fact, the only arguments have been “it’s in the past”, or “I can’t afford first class”. <br>The first argument, while valid, just confirms that I am right. <br>The second argument is the only one that holds any merit, in my opinion.