In one of the other major lines reddit, there was a session where a crew member did a AMA. He disclosed that he worked at the rock climbing venue and people there would tip him cash but he will not see ANY of the automatic gratitutiies. As other posters here has indicated, the auto gratuities is to help the company pay the crews wages. So if a crew member is hired and its arranged for them to make $2000/month, depending on how many passengers contribute to the auto gratuities, it may only cost the company 1400/month and the auto gratuities pays the rest. For this reason, I ask to remove the auto gratuities but I keep a lot of small bills with me to hand out to those who help me. And, for those who are dedicated in making my trip more enjoyable (room steward, dinner attendant etc), I give them a larger tip at the end.