I couldn't agree more, and I hate to see that anything I write here could be interpreted as an effort to prevent anyone from receiving such respect.

Hey, with two Simpsons quotes in this thread already, I needed to pull something out. I have never heard the Bette Midler version though... I need to get my hands on it!

Then call 'em Safety Officers. Flight attendant sounds too much like men's room attendant. The position and job description is quite properly steward. andyandy demonstrated this quite clearly in post 75 of this thread. Click here: http://flyertalk.com/forum/showpost....5&postcount=75

And it was the airlines that first employed females as stewards. Aboard ocean liners, that position was traditionally held by men. The airlines were being very avant-garde 60 years ago in their hiring of women in the position of steward, and coined the phrase stewardess as a mark of distinction.

A most interestic topic. I wrok for an airline where we are Cabin Crew. I am surprised that no one has mentioned the fact that the term like most of those within flying derive from the sea. On the sea those who tended the passengers were Stewards and Stewardesses. The term was always used at BEA and BOAC which became British Airways and this was still in effect almost until the merger with BCAL. Oddly enough, TWA (so a Senior Crew Member once told me) never employed Stewardesses (and remember many US airlines never hired male crew members until the changes that came about in Equal Oportunities in the seventies) they employed Hostesses. To my mind a hostess is there to meet, greet, entertain, and make her guests feel at home.

Hfly is right about the training - but it was a different world back then. When I started flying more years ago than I care to remember (at least they were jets!) and certainly prefer in my vanity not to admit, the travelling public were completely different. Flying was the perogative of comparatively wealthy people. Upgrades were unheard of and milage collection had not even been thought about. In point of fact Economy or Coach class (neve understood where that term came from) was the standard and First Class something people never even aspired to. The first APEX fares had not htat long come along and I mention that because it is relevant. We were trained in wines. make-up and grooming, and deportment. Laughable now isn't it? Still we were inspected before we flew - somedays I have seen Flight Attendant who look as though they stood in the middle of the room and their partenrs threw their unforms at them. I have watched crew clumping around in shoes that were more like clogs. I wait for the day that I see my first pair of Crocs. Uniforms are more of a European thing (the new Delta ones seem rahter pleasant (rather like ours) but all I would say is that what is permitted now is different. Maybe no one else cares but me -- but then that has never stoped me before. Social skills you were supposed to bring with you. At my airline no one is allowed to serve in First Class until they have been trained in First Class service and have at least two years experience. We now find that a lot of people have no idea which way round a knife and fork should go. No one ever showed them. To my generation it was standard knowledge but that has gone now for good or ill.

We are there for your safety. Ultimately to try and get you off a burning aircraft alive. We hope that the worst we will ever have to do for you is to mop up a spilt drink but that it is the reality. For myself, I have a title that means little outside the airline which is Cabin Service Director. I used to be a Purser (again a nautical term). To me the difference is that the job is different and I do not look after passengers except to sort out problems and look after the service. The crew - well I think that a rose by any other name is still a rose and I do not think that it matters what you call them. All of us love it when you address us by name - which is why we wear name tags. We like actually like it when you ask for things and make eye contact. Yesterday I went out on a trip and according to a colleague on the Upper Deck no one even lloked up when she asked them what they would like to eat or drink. So - given that level of contact calling us Stewardesses or Hostesses or Flight Attendants matters little to us. Still this is a very interesting topic but the days of Stewardess to me were the days of this being a Glamour job. When we are fighting the gash bins to try and cram more in them in the back galleys Glamour is not the first thing that comes to mind!

Thanks for starting this and sorry to ramble (lethal dose of jet lag!)

I was one, TWICE, and just recently, within couple of years.

Anyhow, both times the flight attendants were nothing short of spectacular.

The first time was with QF in F from LAS to SYD and the second time was with AA on a shorter ORD-TPA flight also in F.

On the QF flight the captain was informed of my condition, and he had the first officer actualy come down and talk to me. I was looked after by an FA for any needs I had. I was asked if they needed to ask for a doctor. I didn't think so and everything worked out at the end.

On the shorter AA flight the F FA knew what was going on (MD80 - the F toilet is right next to the galley) and paid extremely close attantion to me. In fact towards the end of the flight, when I felt a lot better, I asked for a beer and she played the "mom" role and informed me that there is no way I'm drinking anything outside of water/juices/club soda, etc....

Both times it had nothing to do with drinking. It was some light food poisoning that I must have caught from the restaurants at the airports.

Both times the FAs did an excellent job of taking care of me, so let's stop with the generalizations..... (the great old times vs the bad new times):rolleyes:

Many of the "new" FAs are still trying and most times are doing a GREAT job!!!

nacirema ~ I merely commented on the scenario, and that scenario only ~ as it was described on another FT thread, to which I unfortunately was unable to provide a link.

I'm very happy that you were well taken care of ~ and I am not surprised in the slightest! That is as it should be. Rather than look for critisisms to my post, your response to it, might have been a bit more helpful to the travelling public without the rolled eyes etc.

Your experiences, were very different from those of the woman who was merely asked to move back into Y, while she was in the throws of being sick.
Though you did not comment on this, it would seem that this poor lady, not only ejected out of the cabin, was in fact left to fend for herself. It was this, which I addressed, providing my experience of the procedures of "the great old times", lol ~ I did so in the context of flight personnel being called Stewardess vs FA , the topic of this OP. I fail to see that I in any way disparaged today's "FA" by examining possible differences in duties.

Having said that, in "my day", we certainly did not have the added stress of potential terrorism training, nor did we have Air Rage to speak of, and sex in the lavatories was virtually unheard of. So indeed, a lot of change has taken place......

Bringing back the word "stewardess"
 

In my experience of flying as a passenger for over 40 years the female cabin crew has and always will be known as a Stewardess as it is to everyone I know young and old and the males are known as Stewards.

I have noticed in recent years though that most seem take offence at being called that, its as if they think their role has changed - which I doubt very much that it has. From what I see their main duties are to look after the passengers by making sure they are fed and watered. I appreciate they also have the H&S of the passengers utmost in their minds as well, but the Stewards and Stewardesses that work on board a ship or train also have that role to play in their jobs in an emergency and they don't seem to think they are carrying out tasks that are beneath them the same way that some of todays air cabin crew do.

The idea that cabin crew are there primarily for the passengers safety and the serving of food and drinks is just a tolerated part of the job that has been added on to their "safety" duties is frankly laughable...it is the other way about.

Am I being unfair?

My Hat Is Off To You
 

[QUOTE=PUCCI GALORE;8160986]A most interestic topic. I work for an airline where we are Cabin Crew. I am surprised that no one has mentioned the fact that the term like most of those within flying derive from the sea. On the sea those who tended the passengers were Stewards and Stewardesses. The term was always used at BEA and BOAC which became British Airways and this was still in effect almost until the merger with BCAL. Oddly enough, TWA (so a Senior Crew Member once told me) never employed Stewardesses (and remember many US airlines never hired male crew members until the changes that came about in Equal Oportunities in the seventies) they employed Hostesses. To my mind a hostess is there to meet, greet, entertain, and make her guests feel at home.

I most graciously tip my hat to Pucci Galore

Many thanks for your years of service

Whatever happened to "uniformed cabin crew"? ;)

Does anyone remember the Southwest ads a few years ago about how well they accommodate "differently abled passengers"? That term for the disabled was almost dead, but Southwest gave it one last shot, and failed. May the term RIP.

I wonder how many of the disabled every liked that odd and meaningless term.

That sounds like a good thing.

Have to admit I learned that at home as a small lad - and we never even had formal dinners (so, if you want me to tell you which fork is which, I'm at a loss.)

Most name tags I see are either too reflective to be read easily (KL), or not worn at all consistently - some FA's either don't have them on, or have them obscured (CO, NW). Makes it difficult to send complimentary notes to management when you've no idea who's giving you good service. :(

Maybe I should fly Pucci's airline instead.

Much more important than what we call the various crew members, I would rather have a return to the standards of service we used to have. Unfortunately, air travel has been mass transportation.

But how unfortunate is that? "Mass transportation" entails affordability, which was notably absent from commercial aviation in the old days. You have to be pretty poor these days not to be able to afford an occasional trip. It wasn't that long ago when air travel was the playground of the rich, wealthy, and, when they really wanted to splurge, the middle class.

Call us anything you want, just don't call us ma'am.!:mad:

I doubt that anyone would really continue to use a word that insults some of the people it's directed at, simply for purposes of nostalgia, right?