Consider this example from WestJet's website which asks the same question two different ways when making a reservation. I wonder what happens if you select "Master" for the title but then select "Female" as the gender. Would the system accept it? I did not try it -- was too busy completing my reservation. That is the point WestJet. Don't ask me silly redundant questions when I am in a rush trying to finalize my reservation!
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7 comments:
I imagine this is a standard setup by the company on the back end (in this case, Saber) for gender neutral titles, such as Dr. I realize Dr. isn't a choice given here, but taking away an option in a drop down is easier than removing a whole question all together.
Thanks for pointing it out. It seems a bit strange to require the title for air travel if the gender is being required separately anyways.
It likely has to do with transgender rights issues - or something along those lines. A person could be addressed as "Miss" or "Mrs" yet still be "Male" if they live life as a woman, but haven't had full gender reassignment surgery as of yet (their "gender" on their profile would have to match their ACTUAL gender)
Also a good point. The only thing I can think of is that the website system is slightly different from the system in the call center and at the airport. That system doesn't have an option for gender and goes off of the title, which is why Dr. was removed as an option.
Really, the gender should be removed from the website, but possibly it just wasn't feasible and wasn't considered important enough to put time/money into.
The website is also quite new still (it was recently changed) and still has some updates to go through. Hopefully the gender will be removed at a later date.
Good point Jeff - I didn't think of it! In that case, I hope I have not unknowingly trampled on transgender rights by making WestJet review this on their website?! (According to WestJet's reply to my tweet https://twitter.com/TheIdeasOfMarch/status/216035091745480704)
Knowing the passenger's gender before the time of boarding is necessary to pre-estimate the aircraft's weight and balance.
It seems like this information is being collected for the USA Transportation Security Administration agency (TSA) as shown in the picture above so I am not sure if they are calculating the aircraft's weight using this info. Also, wouldn't it make sense to just ask for the weight itself instead of calculating weight from the passenger's gender?!
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