This is a cool thing. American Airlines just began offering non-binary gender options for customers during the travel booking process. The new 'U' and 'X' gender marker options will be rolled out online soon, but they're already available for customers who call and book tickets on the phone.
"We recently completed a system update to offer non-binary gender selections," American spokesman Ross Feinstein said. "Taking care of our customers and team members is what we do, and we are glad to be able to better accommodate the gender preferences of our travelers and team members."
"United became the first U.S. airline to give customers non-binary gender options while booking their flights back in March," reports USA Today:
The airline worked with LGBTQ organizations The Human Rights Campaign and The Trevor Project on training employees in conjunction with these updates. Such training included the use of preferred pronouns.
"By providing non-binary gender selection for ticketing and the gender-inclusive honorific 'Mx' in user profiles, United Airlines is taking an important step forward for non-binary inclusion," Beck Bailey, acting director of the Workplace Equality Program at the Human Rights Campaign, said in a statement at the time.
United's announcement came after two big trade groups – Airlines for America (A4A) in the USA and the global International Air Transport Association (IATA) – recently approved a new international best-practices standard that suggests accommodation for travelers using "non-binary IDs."
The suggested standard is to create an option for "unspecified" or "undisclosed" for passengers booking tickets. That option would be in addition to the options for "male" or "female."
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American Airlines begins offering non-binary gender options during booking process [USA TODAY, David Oliver
