Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
“I did not spend 8 years at university to be called Miss.”
Gotta wonder about her motivation to get those letters in front of her name in the first place. It could have been worse...the attendant could have called her Ma'am implying that she was older too!
Eight years of advanced study didn't teach her much...including that life is just too short for this garbage.
Last edited by Parnassia; 09-06-2018 at 02:27 PM..
While I understand that this was a slight and sloppy customer service, in the long run this was a 5 second interaction that doesn't really matter. If it were a long-standing business colleague who was consistently disrespectful, that's one thing, but an airline employee on autopilot saying, "Have a nice flight, Miss/Ma'am/Sir" as they're scanning a long line of boarding passes isn't really something to get on edge about.
That's a good point. Glancing at the boarding pass and using Ms/Mr is verbally "ergonomic." OK, "Miss" is a tad objectionable to some, but hey, at least they went to the trouble to say, however reflexively, your name, which is more than most airlines do. If this was an international flight, then the ground personnel could have been processing upwards of 300 passengers, so cut the QANTAS personnel some slack.
Personally, I wouldn't be miffed if someone called me Mr instead of Doctor or Reverend or whatever.
Maybe a simple smile and saying "have a nice flight" would be safer in this hyper-twitchy world we live in.
People.
Back when I was in school we had a supervising professor who threw a fit because the person working the desk at the hotel called him Mr. instead of Dr., PhD doctor.
It is news to me that doctors insist on being called "doctor" in all settings outside of the medical setting.
My uncle was a PhD but always preferred people not use the prefix. He said it made him sound arrogant and embarrassed him. This from a graciously sophisticated, courteous and witty college provost who could put a room of total strangers at ease. Wish the world had more people like him.
I think it's silly for her to pitch a fit about it, but I get what she's saying. If you're going to make the effort to look at the boarding pass, read the name, and use it to address the customer, get it right. You wouldn't call her by a different last name than is on the boarding pass, so why a different title?
Simple solution is to not use names. Just stick with sir/ma'am. Or don't use it at all. Just say "thank you, have a nice flight"
Just to clarify, she is a PhD, not an MD, DDS, DC, DO, or DVM.
I do hope the flight attendant is OK after suffering those strains from the reflexive eye-rolling.
Anyone who wigs out over this issue has some significant problems. People with healthy self-esteem would say "call me anything you want, just don't call me late to dinner".
How did people handle their sensitive hurt feelings prior to the development of social media? Pahlease let's go back there and grow up!
Please register to post and access all features of our very popular forum. It is free and quick. Over $68,000 in prizes has already been given out to active posters on our forum. Additional giveaways are planned.
Detailed information about all U.S. cities, counties, and zip codes on our site: City-data.com.
Please register to participate in our discussions with 2 million other members - it's free and quick! Some forums can only be seen by registered members. After you create your account, you'll be able to customize options and access all our 15,000 new posts/day with fewer ads.
