Michael Roberts

Hi All,

I'm transgender and transitioning later this year (male to female). I'm a gold card holder and have 2 flights booked (one in October to Japan using my birth name and one in May to New York using my new name).

I haven't changed my passport yet as I'm still travelling to Japan as Michael which means I can't leverage my gold status to book good seats on the flight to New York - is it worth phoning BA, explaining the situation and asking them to reserve seats for the May flight in line with my status or is it a waste of time and I should simply wait until I change the account over in January / February?

My only concern about waiting is whether the prime UD seats will be gone by February?

Thanks!


Michael (for now)

bisonrav

I'd hope and expect that in this day and age BA would have a process in place to accommodate this situation. My suggestion though is that you start with the twitter team who can get you in touch with something other than the normal front line customer support. You should certainly expect nothing less than a smooth transition and that you get the benefits of your status, including the UD seats and so on.

Best of luck with both aspects of this.

madfish

Prospero

i think the question here relates to timing. If the account details are updated before the Tokyo trip is flown, the challenge is ensuring these flights (booked under a different name) track/credit okay.

I have no answer to this

corporate-wage-slave

And this would perhaps be a rare occasion where I would suggest a PM to @BA Executive Club as an alternative to Twitter or calling up. My guess would be that it should be possible to retain your BAEC number but change the personal details associated with it. Changing name happens that way, and BAEC membership isn't too gender specific. Certainly for the moment I would continue to use your existing BAEC number for the time being including on the NY service. Moreover JFK is a good one for late bookers, so normally the good seats are still available a few weeks before travel. The PM link is here:
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/private.php?do=newpm&u=8671

Perhaps later on it may be useful to update the forum on what happened. It's a very personal decision so one would understand if you prefer not to do so, but it may be of assistance to someone else in the future.

Good luck with the journey ahead. BA I think has a good track record in this area, as at least suggested by this video, so I would hope this aspect at least isn't troublesome.

Michael Roberts

Thanks all - the problem I currently have is that I can't add my BAEC number to my New York booking (name doesnt match) which makes sense.

I don't expect to be able to add it to the booking until I change the account name (after Japan) but ideally wanted to be able to reserve seats for NY using my GC privileges without changing the name yet.

madfish

Michael Roberts

This would be perfect

Mixbury

One question to ask is: if you book flights using your existing BAEC credentials and then subsequently the details on your BAEC account are updated, will this update future bookings, either automatically or through some manual process?

As a matter of interest, what is the method by which the legal name is changed? Is it by deed poll or is there a process specifically for this situation?

Michael Roberts

Mostly deed poll with some additional hoops from a GP to confirm the change of gender for passport purposes.

It's a pain but not too difficult (in theory anyway, we'll find out next year how smooth it actually is!)
https://assets.publishing.service.go...nformation.PDF

mikesyr18

Not to derail the thread... But I have to debunk your point. Most companies don't accommodate this situation.

bisonrav

Well yes, but most companies are tiny, nowhere near the size of BA, and BA sets its store around diversity. I'd suggest that most large multinationals do too these days - mine certainly does. It's not that it takes much beyond basic common sense anyway, in this case all that's needed is to allow seat selection using the old name which I'd imagine will happen.

I guess your point is that companies should do more, and I wouldn't argue with that, but my point was specific rather than general.

mikesyr18

No. Companies should stay neutral with anything political.

But partially agree - because companies should make certain situations (like this) much easier.

britenbsas

What on earth does this have to do with politics???

bisonrav

I wasn't aware that seat selection was political, but hey ho.