TA

Just to add an unrelated observation to this --

A few years ago I was in SFO Intl Terminal, and down the long corridor come walking the Lufthansa captain and 3 copilots (747 crew), leading a two-column row of ~12 flight attendants (walking in pair formation), everyone dressed sharply, stylishly, and acting/looking very professional. An amazing sight -- the idea that they all organized themselves after security and walked together like that, seeming like a single professional team, and that they seemed to hold themselves in high regard, not griping about everything under the sun while they were in the public eye.

What a contrast (at least in my mind at the time) to most US flight attendants, who you would never think of doing something like that. Just like the gate staff of a JAL flight lining up and waving/bowing goodbye to a flight. There is something to the notion of group behavior and organization that seems to get lost (for better or worse) when things turn too individual or something...

China Clipper

Oh wow, did anyone know that once upon a time people actually dressed up to travel?

PTravel

My first international flight was in the 60s, when I was 15 years old and went to Europe with my parents. We flew coach on Lufthansa and I distinctly remember going shopping for a new shirt, tie, jacket and slacks to wear on the plane for the flight. And I was not over-dressed!

oneant

Times change, and so do ticket prices.

While flying was once the realm of the wealthy, it's now the "right" of everyone.

I know some folks who still wear suit/tie when traveling internationally for business (they fly business/first). Every one of them is old-school, many former military officers.

Personally, if I'm going to have to wear the same clothes for 12 hours and try to sleep, I'm going to be be decently dressed but comfortable.

With fashion these days, there's a lot of room for that. And with shower facilities at many destination airports, it's easy to "dress down" for the flight yet still arrive at your destination properly attired. I certainly don't advocate flip-flops and shorts with a ratty t-shirt. People still judge you on appearance before anything else. Right or wrong, that bit is still important. Just not as important to me as trying to "dress up" for a long flight.

To tie this in to the OP, I'm sure the boys from Queer Eye For The Straight Guy had a show on this...or at least should have.

PhlyingRPh

I honestly don't care whether a FA is gay, straight, black, white, wiccan or druid. I find these descriptions to be very peripheral to the types of things I observe on aircraft. All I am really looking for is understated yet anticipatory, professional service and a few laughs now and again.

tommyleo

Interestingly, saying "every one of the Asian FAs I've had has been excellent" wouldn't cause much fuss at all. Hmmm.

oneant

Quite different from my point actually. Your statement implies that your expectation was otherwise or was in response to someone saying otherwise.

I didn't simply say that gay--based on my own admittedly flawed perception-- FAs were excellent. I compared them to others based on my experience.

If I'd said, "I've found that every black FA I've come in contact with has been better than everyone else" how is that inappropriate?

Audit a college-level sociology class some time if you've never taken one. Spotting similarities among groups of people is not racist, sexist, or inappropriate so long as it's been based on observation of multiple, objective incidents and not intended maliciously or in a slandering way.

Some folks just take political correctness to an unnecessary level.

I actually enjoy noting these things in life. For example, I've been annoyed by people that can't turn their car without first turning slightly in the opposite direction (i.e. a car is about to turn right onto a street but turns slightly left first, coming over to the lane line--sometimes over it--in an attempt to make the subsequent right turn more gradual, I guess).

So on my commute I started tracking the types of vehicles that would do that, the time of day, and some other details including the visible general race of the driver (white, asian, black, etc.). I roped in some other willing folks at work to help out. Apparently we all have too much time on our hands.

The only interesting result was that approx 75% of the people that we observed do this were black. All the other specifics washed out and were inconsequential.

What do these results show? Only that, based on our experience in this area, at those certain times of day, during thoe two months, more blacks did this than any other race.

Does it mean anything? Who knows. Is it important? Not at all. But it's still interesting.

If you don't think so, then I'm glad I didn't invite you participate.

PhlyingRPh

I'll just say that there are many people who honestly don't consider skin colour, apparent sexual orientation or other traits when evaluating others. It's just not a part of the equation and has nothing to do with political correctness but more to do with focusing on what is important - an individuals behaviour, character, etc.

PTravel

Well said! ^

britenbsas

Couldn't have summed it up better myself ^

ReconDoc

"An amazing sight -- the idea that they all organized themselves after security and walked together like that, seeming like a single professional team, and that they seemed to hold themselves in high regard, not griping about everything under the sun while they were in the public eye. "

A dress parade?

This sort of reminds me of coming out of the jungle with my team after 4-5 days chasing or being chased.

We would at times see these really spiffy, well dressed, marching in step remf's. Happy looking guys with smiles on their faces.

Trust me if your butt was in a jam it was not the well dress ones you would have wanted coming to help you out.

Now if good looks and marching in step had something to do with flying those planes better and safer I would be all for it.

Otherwise just unimportant window dressing.

Christopher

I usually wear a tailored jacket and sometimes a tie when flying, especially when in a comfortable class.

Just because times have changed doesn't mean standards should slip.

Yaatri

In the early 70's, when I was in college, you were not over dressed if you went to class wearing a jacket, a tie, and everything else that went with the outfit.

PTravel

Wow! We clearly went to different colleges.

De rigeur at my school was bell bottoms and a tie-dye t-shirt. Head bands were optional.

UK Traveler

Same thing at my college!