American Airlines joins United in offering non-binary gender neutral option for customers

American Airlines will become the latest carrier to offer gender-neutral booking for customers who do not identify as male or female.

The company’s website will soon offer non-binary gender options during the booking process.

Those buying tickets for American flights will soon be able to pick either ‘U’ or ‘X’ for their gender, USA Today is reporting.

‘We recently completed a system update to offer non-binary gender selections,’ company spokesperson 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.’

Customers who wish to update their gender designation can do so for free by calling the airline.

In March, United became the first US carrier to offer customers non-binary gender options when booking flights.

United launched the initiative in concert with The Human Rights Campaign, one of the country’s most prominent LGBTQ advocacy groups, as well as The Trevor Project.

Company employees were also trained on the usage 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 of HRC said in a statement at the time.

United was implementing a policy recommended by two large trade organizations – Airlines for America and International Air Transport Association.

The groups suggested that airlines begin accepting ‘non-binary IDs.’

In March, United became the first in the world to let passengers identify as genders other than male and female

Delta, United, Southwest, and Alaska airlines told USA Today that they plan to introduce similar changes.

‘Please know that while we don’t have a time frame 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,’ a Southwest spokesperson said. 

An Alaska spokesperson said: ‘The appropriate teams at Alaska are working to finalize our plans and still determining when this capability will be available to our guests.’

The representative said the airline is ‘committed to providing non-binary gender options for our guests when booking and traveling.’ 

A Delta representative said the company is working on its own rollout of a similar plan.

‘Delta works throughout our business to accommodate the needs of our diverse customers,’ a spokesperson said. 

‘As part of that effort, we are exploring options to be even more inclusive by offering a non-binary gender option during the booking process.’