Forum: travel.stackexchange.com
Tags: <air-travel><tickets>
Title: Why do airline tickets have titles in addition to names?
Question: Every time you book a ticket, the airline website asks you for your title. As an example, here are the options provided on Lufthansa's website:   But why do airlines ask for the title in addition to the name? It's not like anyone ever asks you to prove that you're a doctor or a professor. So why not drop the Title field and just ask for the name and gender?  (inspired  by this somewhat related question )

Answers:
sents: text: Airlines communicate with their passengers.
text: Sometimes, in letters (emails these days) and sometimes verbally.
text: In the past (and much of the software that runs airlines is old, or copied from older versions) proper address included a title.
text: You could no more start an email "Dear Kate Gregory" than you could start it
text: "Hey Kate" (as Netflix does when emailing me.)
text: I know for a fact that airlines I use address me formally in emails, and if I happen to speak to a human, they also do.
text: Like while boarding, "have a nice flight Ms Gregory" as they give me the boarding pass back after scanning.
text: The fact that many passengers don't want to be called Mr
text: Whoever or Miss Whatsit doesn't cause the disappearance of those who do want to be addressed that way.
text: The software exists, and sort of handles titles -- though clearly you can see design decisions from people who never imagined names ending in mr or dr, so the motivation to change it is very small.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/46/Kate Gregory
score: 50
sents: text: In Germany, Doctor becomes legally an addendum of the name.
text: Kind of medieval and never updated.
text: The title is written in official identity documents, etc.
text: This does not apply to Professor, but if you make a special case for Doctors, why not go the whole nine yards?
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/27778/o.m.
score: 24
sents: text: Same reason so many web forms reject valid e-mail addresses.
text: Because people who make web forms copy older ones.
text: So the hasn’t-been-needed-for-years “required field” endures.
text: “We’ve always done it that way.”
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/12555/WGroleau
score: 11
sents: text: If you think Lufthansa is bad (they only use two titles plus address—or three titles if you include Mr/Mrs as a title), then wait till you see British Airway’s list:
text: On the other hand, Finnair does precisely what you suggest:
text: Given this glaring difference between three European airlines (and flag carriers) that should otherwise be very similar, I strongly suspect the underlying reason is one of culture, heritage and history.
text: In Germany, the title Dr. has a special legal status, can be added to your ID documents, your credit card and you can insist on being called Dr. Meyer.
text: Prof. does not have this special legal status but still carries a general prestige with it; interviewees, for example on television, will often be titled Prof. in the name badge things that pop up at the bottom of the screen if appropriate (exceptions exist).
text: In the UK, aside from the old distinction Mrs/Miss still being kept (as well as
text: the more neutral Ms being available) and the you’re-not-quite-a-Mr-yet,-boy title master, a lot of those titles that can be selected relate to the old aristocracy or still existing royal institutions (The Rt Hon).
text: While indeed most of the time most of those titles would not be used, proper politeness in formal situations requires being aware of them.
text: In Finland, society is perceived as much more egalitarian.
text: Thus, all those distinctions are irrelevant and it boils down to Mr/Mrs (although the selection fields are male/female).
text: To further elaborate, allow me to present the booking form of Deutsche Bahn , the German railway company where online tickets are tied to a specific person whose name must be entered.
text: I couldn’t expand both menus simultaneously, the left one simply contains the options Herr and Frau or Mr and Mrs .
text: In a sense, it is identical to Lufthansa’s except it separates the gender and title into 2 × 4 fields rather than one list of 8.
text: (I didn’t think of using the English booking system, sorry.)
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/43483/Jan
score: 8
sents: text: When travelling with business/first class with e.g. British Airways you may be greeted with your title.
text: I for one have been greeted with "Lord" when flying with Club World.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/18374/Mikael Dúi Bolinder
score: 7
sents: text: First of all, not all airlines do this.
text: I know plenty of forms that only offer mr/mrs or male/female options - but always at least that.
text: Some offer additional options for that field.
text: If they do, it presumably for a simple reason: They know that at least some of their passengers like to be addressed in that way.
text: In many cultures and/or demographics addressing people with their title is considered important and people will take offense if it’s not done.
text: And those who do not care can simply select mr or mrs - the inconvenience to them is minimal.
text: How to address your customers is not a question of right or wrong, but of knowing who they are.
text: Instagram will never address users as “dear mrs user”, but if your bank starts important letters with “hey Kate” that would be just as wrong.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/83455/averell
score: 4
sents: text: Title is a part of name
text: The reason for this is that traditionally (at least in some societies) the honorific title is an unalienable part of the full name when adressing someone.
text: It's impolite to omit the title, and it's extremely impolite to use the wrong title - so if you want to address someone in a polite formal manner, you need to know their full name including the title.
text: You can't simply assume a title based on gender.
text: Calling Sir John Doe as Mr John Doe is totally wrong; if your relationship allows that, then you might call them informally as John or Johnny or whatever, but if you address them using a title, then it must be Sir and not Mr, and of course for women there's the marital status implied by the title with you can't know without asking.
text: The other option is to simply avoid using titles at all - but that means using language that's informal and
text: (at least traditionally, at least in some cultures) considered not polite enough for companies addressing their customers with proper respect.
answer_details: author: travel.stackexchange.com/users/11553/Peteris
score: 0

Summary of the answers:
On some airlines, you may be greeted with your title. Also, doctor is often a legal title in some countries.
Some airlines greet people with their title, while in countries such as Germany the title is part of the name.