Soon, you’ll be able to choose among four gender options when you book your airline tickets in the USA.
American, Alaska, Delta, Southwest and United Airlines have confirmed that they intend to offer four options for gender when booking tickets:
- F – Female
- M – Male
- U – Undisclosed
- X – Unspecified
This comes at the urging of Airlines for America, the same lobby group that loves to attack the Gulf carriers.
United will likely be the first, hinting at a change coming in the weeks ahead with some specificity:
In the coming weeks, customers will be able to identify themselves as M(ale), F(emale), U(undisclosed), or X(unspecified), corresponding to what is indicated on their passports or ID. … Customers who do not identify with a gender will have the option of selecting ‘Mx.’ as a title. We are excited to share this next step as we continue to break down barriers to promote inclusion.
Meanwhile, it may take a bit longer at Southwest:
While we don’t have a timeframe to share, Southwest is currently investigating solutions and the technical requirements needed to provide our Customers non-binary gender marker options during the booking process.
Delta also has not outlined a specific timeframe:
As part of Delta’s ongoing efforts to accommodate the needs of diverse customers throughout our business, we are planning to offer a non-binary gender option during the booking process.
American Airlines told the Chicago Tribune its reason for the change:
We certainly have a very diverse customer base. This will be well-received, and we’re happy to do it.
CONCLUSION
At least in theory, federal law requires the name on your ticket to match the name on your ID. As more U.S. states allow for non-binary gender options on driver’s licenses and other forms of state-issued identification, it was only a matter of time before the airlines followed.
image: TSA
If the name is what really matters when booking a ticket, then the airlines should simply not ask the gender of the passenger.
@Joey Agreed. The real issue is on state issued ID or drivers licenses. Are the genders on these ID’s there for identification? If yes, then adding extra categories like X and U make having that category useless.
Either keep it M or F, or don’t have the category at all.
How do the sort out the bodies in a crash?
Because, science.
Your either Male or female. Period. More descending into socialism just as the liberals are celebrating Amazon not bringing 25000 jobs paying over 115k a year. Idiots.
Better than white nazis aka Republicans celebrating killing people.
What?
@Daddy: I always love seeing people who still can’t figure out the difference between “your” and “you’re” calling other people “idiots.” CLASSIC! Thanks for the laugh, and for sharing your delusions and paranoia about socialism with a bunch of strangers online.
It’s a good thing we have people like you to point it out…
LOL
Um, no.
I won’t bother o mention your crass spelling error. Instead, I’ll point out that there is no biological or scientific basis for your insistence that humans must all be one of two sexes, which I presume you would also claim map to gender.
Your claim that recognition of multiple genders is somehow political is, in fact, correct. It was only when science broke free of politics that this fact was widely recognized. This mirrors the moment when “race” lost all biological content, which happened when eugenics fell into disfavor. That was when we declared war on the axis powers
Just saying.
Non-binary. Does that mean if I don’t have a carryon and don’t need to use the overhead bin that I’m non-binary ?
Ridiculous and unnecessary but United (like AA, DL and WN) are sooooooooo afraid of any politically incorrect crap and lawsuits that they fearfully cater to the .0001 percent of the population (under the guise of “tolerance”, “equality”, “diversity”, “inclusion”, “breaking down barriers”, etc.). The only barrier existing is FORCING normal people to accept this. If we hit the ground and all body parts are intact below the waist, there is only one way to identify gender, not some idiotic code (other than male or female) on a passport.
Ironic, given your hysterical reaction which puts you pretty far outside any definition of normal.
See…. American are plain stupid…. Lol
Hey big corporations pander some more to a noisy few, and don’t forget to marginalize your regular male/female passengers in the process.
How on earth is anyone marginalized as a result of this? You kind of sound like a crybaby, complaining about something that will have literally no impact on your life, and that harms literally nobody.
Smart..let’s make the boarding process even more of a sh_t show than it already is…
The boarding process is influenced by gender? They call people to board based on gender? Have you ever actually flown anywhere?
Humans are male or female. Dress however you’d like. You are male or female. Discussion over. This is pathetic and stupid. Get on the plane and shut up. No one cares how you “identify” yourself.
This is for people who seek an alternative and has nothing to do with whether you care or not. Why are you trying to make it about yourself? Ignore the issue and “shut up.” See how that works?
@Evan we will shut up, if those espousing variable gender identity stop trying to promote and enforce their ideas.
Never in history has gender identity been a major issue and the rest of the non-western world (and many in it) think this is an absurd notion.
If you want to call your transgender friend Ze or zir, that’s fine. But to force others to conform to something that is not rooted in reality is ridiculous.
“Alternative”?? Evan, you’re not too bright. A human is either male or female. There are no alternatives.
“A human is either male or female. There are no alternatives.”
Then please explain intersex and hermaphrodite for us please.
My gender delusion—I mean, self identity—can change fairly rapidly. If I step onboard with a ticket that says I’m a male yet step off as an Inuit female, having transitioned somewhere over Greenland, will I be in violation of any laws?
I think they should stop asking for gender. If gender is meaningless then don’t try to give it meaning by force.
And politicians should stop pandering to the minority. Equal treatment not equality is the goal of the constitution. Giving a disproportionate amount of time and political capital to an issue that only affects a small population is discrimination.
The gender and form of address on the tickets doesn’t serve a useful purpose anyway and are only for the passenger’s benefit (why else would there be an option to choose “Dr.”, Sir etc – it’s just to satisfy the passenger’s vanity), so there wouldn’t be any drawback in making these changes.
But — how will this affect international trips? Many foreign airlines only have two gender options — I wonder if one would then have issues connecting in Asia or the Middle East, after boarding as “Mx”. For example, those airlines might be unable to issue connecting flight boarding passes, unless they update their IT systems.
I prefaced my conclusion with “at least in theory” because in my experience name doesn’t matter at all. Heck, my wife traveled from Germany to the USA with a ticket in her maiden name even though her passport had already been updated to reflect her choice to take on my last name.
I do have to wonder does this all really matter? Why are we getting worked up on something so petty? Let those people who make such a big deal over something so menial scream and shout and we can carry on with our day
@Aaron that’s the exact problem. If people want to make issues of gender identity an issue among their friends and family, then that’s their choice.
There is so much backlash because the immensely powerful LGBT movement is trying to force their ideals upon the masses. People are getting fed up with being told what they must believe in order to not be a racist, narrow minded, bigot.
Somehow being so-called “inclusive” and “tolerant”, has become the greatest virtue and not being so the greatest vice.
Backlash? On what planet?
There are some disgruntled bigots who see a chance to complain. That’s the extent of it. Since it’s not the time of year to complain about the war on Christmas, you’re complaining about this. It’s always something, we learned to ignore you long ago.
What a tangled and unnecessary web it will weave, you watch. I can’t wait for passengers to be paged and then suing because the incorrect gender pronoun was used.
Why not just ask to specify salutation? That’s what these questions are really about, not ide tity or anything else.
Why not just ask:
Are you XX or are you XY?