Flight Attendants Secretly Hate This Seemingly Friendly Passenger Habit During Interactions

There is far more to a flight attendant's job than meets the eye. Aside from all the duties they have keeping passengers safe during an emergency and helping to keep them as comfortable as possible, they work in conditions that most of us wouldn't be able to handle. Imagine your workspace were a very tight aisle, and the only area you had to decompress were a small galley where passengers could still have access to you. Anything you can do to make their job easier is a wonderful thing. However, there is one behavior that, while it may seem like a friendly gesture to you, flight attendants secretly hate. In addition to things like tapping or touching them to get their attention or the seemingly innocent act of serving yourself from the food and beverage cart, flight attendants hate being called by nicknames or terms of endearment. 

We're talking about calling them by terms like "honey," "dear," "sweetie," and the like. While some older adults or people in some regions of the country consider terms like this polite, they're likely not going to be perceived that way in the air. A flight attendant isn't a close, personal friend, child, or partner. (This goes for other people in the service industry, from your barista to the person working in a clothing store. Take it from someone who spent a lot of time trying to smile through being called "dear" while working retail.) They may not correct you, but it's impolite. 

Terms of endearment like "honey" and "sweetie" can feel very condescending, even if they're meant in a friendly way. In fact, flight attendant Tania M. tells Reader's Digest, "Passengers calling me 'darling,' 'honey' or 'sweetie' is my biggest pet peeve as a flight attendant." In a thread in Reddit's r/flightattendants, one person says one of their major issues is someone "calling flight attendant's [sic] 'babe' or any variation of that." 

If you really need to get a flight attendant's attention, look at their name tag and call them by their actual name. (Remember that the names of the crew in your cabin are usually announced over the intercom when the flight is getting ready to take off and the doors are closed.) You can also use terms like "ma'am" or "sir." However, a polite "excuse me" is always a good choice. It's also important to remember that "flight attendant" is the correct term and not things like "steward" or "stewardess," as one commenter on r/flightattendants says. Speak to people the way you'd like to be spoken to. It's the golden rule for a reason. Finally, if you're interested in more behind-the-scenes flight attendant information, here are five code words they use in emergency situations.