What is with all these different names for Flight Attendants?

Question

I get why people are discourage from calling F/As Air Host(ess) or Steward(ess), but why are F/As still referred to as Crew Members, Cabin Crew, Cabin Crew Members, Uniformed Crew Member, and Cabin Attendant. Cant the world just pick one name for the occupation and stick with it. Are there non-uniformed crew members? It really pisses me off when F/As say im cabin crew for x*x airline. Its impossible for a single person to be cabin crew. You can be a cabin crew member but you cant be cabin crew. Thats like saying im soccer team.

Answer 1

On a bombardier CRJ100 / 200, or a DeHavilland Dash8, there are only 50 passenger seats, and only 1 FA - when operated by Air Canada Jazz, so yeah, you could be the entire crew in the passenger cabin.

Answer 2

I prefer Buh-Bye Babe, but I'm old fashioned.

Answer 3

At lot has changed from the early days when the first stewardess's' were required to also be nurses.  That changed after a while but it was still a job where only women were used,  by the 1950s they had to be single, under a certain height and weight.  Any of those girls that got married let themselves go, or heaven forbid pregnant they would have been out of a job.  

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The whole profession changed in the women lib era of the 1970s.  Suddenly you found men as stewardesses so no they started calling them cabin crew or host and hostesses.  You could also tell that there were no longer requirements in regards to looks or marital status.

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Answer 4

Before you get too upset and blow a gasket, there are some reasons for the different names.

The Host(ess)/Steward(ess) thing went out for political correctness.

Flight Attendants (job title, most specific reference) are Crew Members (general reference). They wear uniforms when on duty, so at that time they are also Uniformed Crew Members (general reference described in the FAA regulations). They work in the aircraft cabin, so they are Cabin Crew Members (more specific reference) as opposed to Cockpit Crew Members. I hadn't heard of Cabin Attendant before.

Yes, there are non-uniformed crew members. You could have a pilot or F/A traveling on vacation, not on duty or traveling to/from their base of operations, so not in uniform. The main difference is that FAA regulations require you follow all instructions of Uniformed Crew Members. Someone off duty and not in uniform doesn't have the authority of the FAA behind them.

Saying they're "Cabin Crew" is just sort of a contraction of "Cabin Crew Member" so they don't have to go around saying "Uniformed Cabin Crew Member", "Flight attendant" or something like that all the time. It probably sounds better to them. I also often wish people didn't so abuse the written and spoken English language, with improper spelling, lack of punctuation/apostrophes, lack of capitalization, etc. The Internet and texting have done us all a disservice in that area.

Answer 5

Yeah, I know how you feel.  I get really angry when people say "ATM machine."  That's the same as saying, "Automated Teller Machine machine.  The M in ATM stands for machine, no need to say it twice.  But, who really cares?  Nobody has said air hostess or stewardess for years, and I'm guessing you're not even old enough to have ever heard those terms except in an old movie.  So, what are you really upset about?  Perhaps you should find something real to worry about.

Answer 6

Political Correctness.  Same reason we have "postal carriers" instead of "mailmen" and "administrative assistants" instead of "secretaries".

Answer 7

people dont call YOU specifically cabin crew, they call you, and your co-workers cabin crew, which is perfectly fine, just like calling an entire team a soccer team