British Airways customers were furious as an embarrassing website gaffe told female passengers that they could not be doctors.
When customers attempted to use using the moniker “Dr” they were told that “title and gender do not match.”
An error message popped up asking the passenger to try again.
Dr Juliana Kling, a professor of medicine at the Mayo Clinic in Arizona, USA, posted a snap of the pop-up online.
She said: “Apparently, ‘'Dr,’ and ‘'woman’ do not match on British Airways. Looking forward to their reply.”
The error message in full reads: “We have found some problems with the details you provided.
“Title and gender do not match. Please try again.”
It follows a similar incident in 2019, when a passenger who prefers to use the non-binary term “Mx” found the option unavailable when trying to fill out their personal details on the Executive Club section of the site.
But when author Lee-Anne Lawrence tried to use the non-gendered term “Dr” instead, they also received an error message.
The message read: “Error. Title and gender do not match. Please try again.”
Lee-Anne, from Wales, said: “You don't provide Mx as a title, so I decided to change it to one that causes less dysphoria and I get this message?
“Titles are not even legally recognised parts of our identity and have nothing to do with gender. So please help me out.”
At the time, a BA spokesperson said: “We know how important it is for all of our customers to feel comfortable and welcome no matter how they self-identify.
“We are working to see if we can change our booking platform to reflect this.”
Social media users raged over the most recent incident.
James Tabibian said: “Please Lord tell me it was a technical glitch.”
Momto Rox added: “Hey @British_Airways any ETA on letting women be doctors in 2022?”
Karen Stern said: “Wow. I think that calls for a free upgrade to first class and an apology.”
Amy Oxententko said: “What in the world?!? While women may have lost recent rights, we have not lost our titles!
“‘Doctor’ and ‘woman’ can (and are!) compatible. She needs an upgrade!”
Another social media user pointed out the incident appears to have taken place while the British Airways Twitter account used a version of the Pride flag as its display picture, due to June being Pride month.
A British Airways said: "We’re sorry for a technical issue that has occurred in one drop down box on our website and we're urgently investigating."
