BA emails and grammar
Jul 1, 2018, 12:19 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Jul 2014
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BA emails and grammar
I have received the following various forms of salutation in BA or BAEC emails:
Dear Steve
Dear Steve Takeiteasy
Dear Mr Takiteasy
Hi Steve Takiteasy
I am not the top of the class when grammar is concerned but feel #2 and 4 are incorrect? Seems quite poor from a British company.
Dear Steve
Dear Steve Takeiteasy
Dear Mr Takiteasy
Hi Steve Takiteasy
I am not the top of the class when grammar is concerned but feel #2 and 4 are incorrect? Seems quite poor from a British company.
Jul 1, 2018, 12:34 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
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I can only respond from an older person’s perspective. Call me Mister, unless we are personally acquainted!!
Sadly, yoof has taken over these days.
Sadly, yoof has taken over these days.
Jul 1, 2018, 12:42 pm
#3
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
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The fourth example strikes me as illogical, but it does not seem to me to breach any rules of grammar. The second one is interesting - many Quakers (and others) would tend to use the second form to avoid the use of titles, along with the Mrs/Ms/Miss. minefield. That would in any case be deemed a potential breach of etiquette rather than grammar. Potential, since it would depend on whether the recipient would deem it to lack courtesy. I once wrote a letter of complaint to the then editor of The Independent, using the form "Dear Andrew Marr", and he replied personally, by return and using the same style of salutation - which I remember more than the content of his reply!
Jul 1, 2018, 10:41 pm
#7
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Dear Steve
Dear Steve Takeiteasy
Dear Mr Takiteasy
Hi Steve Takiteasy
I am not the top of the class when grammar is concerned but feel #2 and 4 are incorrect? Seems quite poor from a British company.
Grammar doesn't come into it. But convention, comity, courtesy and just plain good manners do.
The third form is the correct way to address a stranger, though the second one is increasingly used to get round gender uncertainty.
Jul 2, 2018, 12:32 am
#9
Join Date: Feb 2009
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That assumes the writer knows the gender of the recipient. That may be unknown to the writer, not obvious, or apparently obvious and wrong. As an example I was recently introduced to "Danny", who was female. I would have (wrongly) assumed that was a contraction of Daniel and thus male.
Jul 2, 2018, 12:35 am
#10
Join Date: Aug 2015
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Assuming emails come as a result of having a BAEC account or BA flight, surely they already know one's title (Mr, Mrs, Dr, Your Excellency etc) from the information one gave them, irrespective of what gender one identifies as.
Jul 2, 2018, 12:42 am
#11
Moderator, Iberia Airlines, Airport Lounges, and Ambassador, British Airways Executive Club
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In the good old days of BAEC, when digital dropdowns were yet to be conceived, the paper form allowed you to write in your own choice of title into a blank field. I wrote in Comrade and for many years I got communications so entitled as Cde CWS.
Jul 2, 2018, 12:45 am
#12
Join Date: Sep 2014
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Another 4 years (or less) and you might do again...
Jul 2, 2018, 1:04 am
#13
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You might be expecting just a bit too much from BA and its IT system....
Jul 2, 2018, 1:30 am
#14
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Another 4 years (or less) and you might do again...
Jul 2, 2018, 1:38 am
#15
Join Date: Oct 2017
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Maybe it's a bit poncy of me, but I feel like I'd rather be called by my first name (or full name without title) than being called Mr. instead of Dr. I mean, what's the benefit of the 4 years I've spent doing a PhD if not being able to put it in front of my name! 