Note to travellers: be careful of this one. In Australia (and other Commonwealth countries too, I suspect) putting letters of any sort after your name is your fastest ticket to the “pretentious wanker” label (whereas using ‘Dr’ where anyone else would use ‘Mr’ is utterly unremarkable).
We always used to laugh our heads off over movie credits where the cameraman or the sound tech or whatever would have a huge string of letters after their names. If it’s a legitimate cultural difference I guess that’s unfair, but that may not stop me in future!
Why is there no M.D. designation? Isn’t the whole issue here about airline crews being able to know ahead of time (via the manifest) which passengers are physicians in case of emergency? If so, WHY THE HELL IS THERE NO M.D. DESIGNATION? I think somebody ought to really consider adding it… otherwise, how can anyone tell the difference between a medical doctor and a PhD? Oh wait… I remember… just force some doctors to say they aren’t doctors, even though they are, but have some other doctors say they *are *doctors even though that is unnecessarily ambiguous and confusing because they could simply be called M.D.s instead.
It not a PhD’s fault that our society is rather witless-- a PhD is not to be blamed for the ignorance of airlines and flight crews (and the general public) who are convinced that ‘doctor’ means physician, period. It’s just one more sign of our sorely under-educated, intellectually lazy culture.
This is fucking ridiculous and a really, really, lame pitting.
Ahhhh… Dutch honorifics/titles… I get such a tickle every time I get a statement from my Dutch bank. The letters are always addressed to “De Heer I Love Me, Vol. I”.
I’ve been reading this thread with interest and amusement. Maybe it’s because I currently work in academia, but I never assume that someone called Doctor is part of the medical profession. In fact my first thought is often, what mickey mouse PhD do you hold then?
However, IMHO whatever subject the PhD is in the holder has earned the right to use it if they choose to. I don’t know whether I will use mine or not, when I’ve eventually earned it, but I don’t object to people using it if they want.
And why not use it to your advantage, a friend of mine was having difficulty with his bank and called them up and they advised him "Mr x. you are overdrawn, he said it’s Dr X actually and they said “don’t worry we’ll just increase your limit”. You’ve earned it so use it, everyone else with a way to gain advantage uses it so why not your PhD?
As for the whole flying issue, I thinks it’s a bit of a non starter, the aircrew would call for medically trained personnel not go through a passenger list which would take time on a large aircraft.
Ok, let’s say you’re flying across the Atlantic in the middle of the night (or Pacific or Indian Ocean) on a 14 hr flight and someone complains of chest pains. Not a heart attack, just chest pains. What does the cabin crew do? Do they announce over the loudspeaker (and wake the entire flight and freak everyone out) that they need an MD ASAP? Or do they check the manifest for a “Dr.” and ask them discreetly if they can help out?
And for all those with anecdotal evidence that they’ve heard the FAs paging a doctor (and that’s proof I tell you, PROOF!), how many times has it been handled discreetly when no one even knows it happened because they check the manifest and ask the MD to help out without freaking out the rest of the passengers?
Well, to reiterate what I and several medical doctors in this thread have said: despite using the “Dr.” honorific while flying, no one has ever approached us discreetly for any purpose. In my case, this includes two obvious emergencies (heart attacks), where they were obviously in a rush and paged for medical personnel over the loudspeaker, and two non-emergencies, where they walked down the aisle and asked for medical personnel in soft non-frightening tones.
In case anyone is freaked out by the idea of medical emergencies on a plane: both of the heart attack victims were doing well by time the plane landed. The non-emergencies included a woman who had fainted, and was cared for by my mother (who is a physician), and a very elderly lady who became confused and incontinent, who was cared for by some fabulously accommodating and discreet stewardesses and about 40 family members.
Of course, if there were any evidence for the other side whatsoever, you’d have more of a point. But since neither the OP nor anyone else has bothered to back up his claim with anything even vaguely resembling a fact, all we have is anecdotal evidence. And whose fault is that?
Edit: and of course we have my experiment with direct booking, in which none of three major airlines gave even the slightest indication that they gave a shit whether I was a medical doctor or not. Is that just “anecdotal”, or should I check every airline before it counts as evidence?
From a 1997 transatlantic flight:
*John Stevens, a consultant psychiatrist and psychotherapist, was returning with his family from a holiday in California in January 1997 when the call for a doctor went out over the American Airlines jet’s public address system. *
Doesn’t say if it was middle of the night, but that’s a cite to show that a public request is used by AA*
Interestingly, for those discussing the “EMT vs Podiatrist” angle, Dr Stevens said:
*“I sat on my hands because I felt the best doctor would be one who deals with emergency medicine all the time. Then I heard a kerfuffle a few rows behind, so I couldn’t ignore it. The second call went out, and I felt impelled to act.” *
It may have changed since then, but the AA policy re. doctors on flights was summarised thus: *“We have a strict company policy that we don’t pay doctors in circumstances such as this. Our position is that it’s a matter between the doctor and the patient, and the fact that treatment was on our aircraft is incidental.” *
Which suggests the airline have no interest in capturing details of whether or not you are a medical doctor, as it would then imply (maybe?) a duty of care to inform that doctor if a crisis occurs. By asking for (implied) permission to use a person’s medical expertise before the flight it might be viewed as a contract for services from the doctor’s point-of-view, whereas most airlines would rather avoid that whole area of liability.
(*or more accurately, since you’re a pedantic wanker, a public request has been used at least once by a this particular airline within the last 15 yrs)
As I said earlier, I take no pleasure in beating up on the weak and the stupid. But since you’ve continued to put yourself out there…
Your original assertion was that one could add letters to the end of their name when booking a flight. That was a stupid and ignorant point, which was proven wrong.
Your 2nd point was a Google cite that was 10 yrs old, as others pointed out. They also pointed out the problems with your so called argument.
I recently pointed out that you are the butt of jokes around here. Did you miss the 3 page thread about your jr modding?
Until we get real evidence from FAs and pilots about the situation with flight medical emergencies, we are all just speculating on the significance of the title “Dr.” in the air.
Fuck off. I was simply saying that airlines don’t state any need for MDs to put Dr in front of their name. I put “in my experience” to allow for the possibility that some do it but I haven’t seen it. I was actually moderating my reply.
Anyway, I’ve asked the question here, lets see what the airline pilots have to say about it.
While we’re waiting perhaps you can find some cites for the opposing view.
Jesus. All right, I’ll go and bug the people at PPRuNe.org if it’ll satisfy you. Will you require a notarised copy of any reply I get, or will you take me at my word? I recommend the former; you can’t be too careful in Pit threads about completely fucking stupid topics like this.
Preview: Oh, 1920s has beaten me to it. Great minds, etc.
