By Jessa Schroeder For Dailymail.com
Published: 22:59 EST, 9 January 2019 | Updated: 01:25 EST, 10 January 2019
Frontier Airlines has instituted a tipping method allowing passengers to leave individual contributions for flight attendants.
The budget-friendly airline began accepting voluntary contributions on January 1, when a message was first issued via a digital payment tablet that said: 'Gratuities Are Appreciated!'
Travel blogger JT Genter shared a photo of the checkout screen showing the option to provide an automatic 15 percent, 20 percent and 25 percent tip, or to customize it.
Frontier confirmed it will no longer require flight attendants to pool their contributions and will accept personal tips from customers ordering food and beverages.
Denver-based Frontier Airlines is encouraging passengers to leave individual tips for flight attendants. Travel blogger JT Genter shared this photo of the new tipping method
Frontier became the first airline to accept gratuity on flights
'We appreciate the great work of our flight attendants and know that our customers do as well, so (the payment tablet) gives passengers the option to tip,' Frontier spokesman Jonathan Freed said in a statement over the weekend.
'It's entirely at the customer's discretion, and many do it.'
Association of Flight Attendants International President Sara Nelson said the union is opposed to the tipping method - arguing that attendants are responsible for much more than simply serving passengers a snack and beverage.
'Regardless of the tip issue, Frontier Airlines needs to step up and pay aviation’s first responders a wage that recognizes their critical safety role onboard,' Nelson told the Los Angeles Times.
'We view tips as additional compensation over and above flight attendants’ contractual wages.'
Association of Flight Attendants International President Sara Nelson (pictured in Washington, DC in May) said the union is opposed to the tipping method. She said: 'Frontier Airlines needs to step up and pay aviation’s first responders a wage that recognizes their critical safety role onboard'
The Association of Flight Attendants, or AFA, represents 50,000 attendants for 20 airlines, according to its website.
AFA serves 'as a voice for flight attendants at their workplace, in the industry, in the media and on Capitol Hill.
'Simply put, the goal of flight attendants who become part of AFA-CWA is to negotiate better pay, benefits, working conditions and work rules at their airline, and to improve their safety on the job,' its website said.
Frontier became the first airline to accept gratuity on its flights, according to the Los Angeles Times.
The airline instituted the option to tip three years ago, but contributions were evenly distributed between in-flight crew up until the New Year.
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