American tipping culture is simply out of control. When buying food lately, I routinely get presented with a screen in my face that offers options of tipping 20%, 25%, and 30%. Often this is for nothing more than taking the order. This isn’t tableside service, it isn’t a reward for a job well done. The person I have to decide what to tip is right in front of me looking bored (I don’t blame them) with the 30 seconds they spent inputting my order.

So I’m getting a little irritated. Most of the time now I choose the “custom tip” option and do some quick math to get a round number close to 10-15% of the sale. A little depends on my mood, a little depends on the order taker’s attitude. Context.

But tipping 25% for simply taking a food order just doesn’t make sense to me. A $20 airport hamburger becomes a $30 burger, with tip and tax. And yes, I know that there may be several additional folks in the kitchen or cleanup crew that benefit from tips, not just the order taker. If I work real hard at it, I may be able to rationalize these extreme tipping rates. But I don’t want to – I’d like to go back to the timeline where restaurants and fast food pay their staff a reasonable wage and a 15-20% tip for good service is the norm.

And I know, this all sounds a bit boomerish. But food service owners take note – I’m done with subsidizing your being cheap with the wages. Pay your staff and stop with the expectation of big tips. Chick-fil-A can do it, so why the fuck can’t you?

As I write this, I’m supposed to be halfway to San Diego at 40,000 feet. But I’m not. Southwest Air failed me today. They’re rapidly changing their behavior, and not for the good.

These last 4-5 years, one of the things I valued most about SW was reliability – their flights were generally on time, and when they weren’t they communicated quickly and were helpful in providing no-cost options. Almost none of that was true today. I woke at 5am to catch a 7am flight. One of the first things I always do on a travel day is check flight status. This time, SW showed that my flight out of Louisville was on time, but it showed an intinerary I didn’t recognize. Long story short, they had cancelled one of my flights and rebooked me on different flights. With shitty seats. No text or email notice of the change, which was weird. They’ve *always* sent rapid notices of changes, but not this time.

I spent time on the phone with a very apologetic SW agent who (a) didn’t know why the changes had been made, and (b) couldn’t get me a decent seat on any of the flights he offered. I thanked him and then got online myself, found an afternoon flight through PHX with good seats, and rebooked myself again. Then, I had to cancel my Uber rides for the day and rebook them for eight hours later. Uber charged me $25 to cancel 30 minutes before my first ride, and that was another unhappy surprise.

This was all a lot to deal with at 530am. But I did get to attend grandson Jesse’s 8am frigid soccer game, so that was good. And rather than cooling my heels in an airport, I can spend the next 4-5 hours comfortably at home. So things could definitely be worse. That said, SW is rapidly changing into an airline just like United, Delta, and American. SW’s value proposition of reliability, low cost, and customer service are all disappearing. I’m gonna have to rethink my travel habits, as it appears SW won’t be a good fit for my frequent back and forth travel. It’s a shame but there’s nothing I can do about it – once private equity gets their hooks into a business (and they’re deep into SW now), the business predictably goes to shit.

So….time to kill. Warm up after the soccer game, read and write a little, then start the whole “leaving home” process yet again. Can’t really attend the No Kings rally today, but I’ll be there in spirit.

It’s gonna be one of those jarring travel transitions from east to west. Leaving 50 degrees and sunny KY, going to 90+ degrees and wildfires in Socal.