What do you want me to call you?
 

In J on SU the Chief Cabin (as their name badge says) comes around and introduces herself and asks what she should call you? The first time this happened I was so astonished I said "John". On the second flight I tried to avoid an answer but the request became an interrogation and I had to tell; on the third both the man in the next seat and myself managed to distract her enough to avoid giving an answer.

I find this odd as they already know my name and can easily use Mr Greenpen as a perfectly appropriate form of address. Incidentally, on both occasions I gave the name I should be called she never actually used it at any time during the rest of the flight.

Actually I would appreciate to be asked that, I don't think there is a need for formalities and I always find it annoying to be called "Mr. Ditto", mostly because they anyway can't pronounce it right :D

Standard question, and I believe, part of the operations manual . In Russian there are very formal ways of addressing someone, and informal ways. These days, some prefer one of the other.

If you're wondering where all of that comes from, its because in the heydays when Russia was flush with cash, when brent crude was 150+, SU hired McKinsey and SQ in flight cabin crew trainers to completely remake the airline, and to raise service quality levels without taking up too much of the crew time and expense . They also needed to memorize pleasantries in English…etc,. those that could not make the cut were let go. The effects remain to this day.

If you notice, the way champagne is poured, its exactly how a Singapore girl would do it.

After UN ( Transaero) went belly up, some of the better looking / fluent English/German/French/Mandarin speakers were absorbed into SU, and today work for SU and Rossiya. Those folks might not have gone though the same rigorous training, which is why sometimes you find lapses. In general though, the procedures are all laid out, asking how you would like to be addressed is one of them ( intercontinental flights)

I don't have memories of the old SU, but i heard it sucked. The new SU is kind of nice to fly no?

Fully agree with everything OpenSky said above. It's a common approach in Russia these days. I just don't get why is that such an issue for the OP?

Maybe you prefer "John" maybe you prefer "Mr. Greenpen"? Why not just tell them?

I will sometimes say "Papa Karlo" or "Ded Moroz" (both characters from Russian folklore) and it usually gets a chuckle out of the FA.

O/H

In Russian, formal addressing of people is actually the FIRST name and the PATRONYMIC name, for example, Ivan Ivanovich or Olga Olegovna. Most will be aware that non-CIS nationals won't have a patronymic name thus will revert to the first name. Using the family name is rather unusual in Russian unless required, in which case, it would be used first (e.g. Ivanov, Ivan Ivanovich or Ivanova, Olga Olegovna).

A linguistic culture shock :)

Patronymic = -insert name here-OVICH (for men) or OVNA (or something similar ALWAYS ending in A for women)
Family names can sound similar to patronymics but can equally be very variable.
Diminutives are really unclear to non-Russian speakers as I've found out over the last 3 years...lol, and I still keep learning new variations!

Used to be the opposite in Soviet era. The formal way to address to a person 30 years ago was "tovarishch %last_name%".