Good point, IncyWincy. I once travelled in F from CPT to LHR. Through an odd mishap I had to later contact a fellow passenger and learned that she regularly flew that route in F with her maid in Y. That information had the same startling effect on me as Mrs H's comment has had on some people on this board. But I could never explain my own reaction to myself. After all, I am in the corporate world and the bigwigs get to fly F (I have to do it on awards ) while their minions fly Y - or J if they're lucky. And nobody gives it a second thought. If Mr Big were to refer to "my colleague in Y" nobody would bat an eyelid. Yet many of us feel uneasy when the reference is to "my driver" or "my maid".

I still can't explain it except perhaps to think that maybe those of us who do not employ full-time personal staff are inherently sqeamish about an employer-employee relationship that is so intimate. The implication is: "you put your poor driver/maid in y while you swan into F you unfeeling upper class snob". But that reaction just doesn't bear logical analysis. Very strange...