Originally Posted by
Mr H
"Excuse me, Stewardess" also sounds rather forced. Why not just "Excuse me"?
Well, for one, there are people on the plane that are not stewards or stewardesses. Adding a title to the "excuse me" clarifies who I am talking to. "Excuse me" alone could be directed at anyone around me.
Originally Posted by
Mr H
And in the example you quote, why would you only want the attention of the male or the female FA. Would you be worried that the wrong one might help you?
Does it matter why? Perhaps I had asked a particular FA a question earlier and wanted to ask a follow-up. Or perhaps the stewardess had been particularly helpful and I wanted to thank him. Or perhaps the steward was hanging up my jacket and I wanted to get a pen out of the pocket. There are any number of reasons that a passenger would want to speak to a particular FA.
But again, is there something inherently wrong with gender-specific titles?