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Airplane passenger hoisting a beer. Photo: aroid / Flickr
There was a post on The Economist‘s travel blog titled, Turning seatmates into SeatBuddies. It talks about how airBaltic is following the example of Dutch KLM in allowing passengers to link their social network profiles with the airline website. Then you could pick your seatmate as well as your seat. From the description, it sounds like you get potential candidates who have similar interests to yours.
This excerpt explains the process:
Passengers who want to participate in the scheme will select one of four flight moods before travelling. “Business network” and “easy chat” are for those who want to interact with their seatmate for commercial or social reasons; “work” and “relax” are for those whose approach owes more to Greta Garbo.
I can’t help but think how this feature might be abused. Maybe you could try to get a bigshot as your seatmate, to help secure a job or cut a deal. Or choose an attractive member of the opposite sex. On the other hand, you could use this to avoid passengers you wouldn’t want to sit next to. For example, a screaming baby.
Social networking seems to be creeping into everything these days. Do you think some serendipity is lost? Or would you welcome this level of control over your flight experience?
Would you participate in a service like this? Do you make new friends when you fly? Please share your thoughts in the comments.
June 18th, 2012 at 7:37 pm
Since I sometimes pretend that I do not speak English, no, I would not participate.
June 19th, 2012 at 8:25 am
Call me anti-social but a flight, for me, means reading a book, having a nap or watching a film. The prospect of hours of awkward small-talk with a total stranger that you can’t escape from makes me shudder.
June 19th, 2012 at 10:28 am
I confess I can be a bit of a misanthrope myself when I fly. I usually use the time to get reading done. Even when I’m feeling social, it’s hard to tell how social my seatmate is feeling. So, while I occasionally do some on-plane bonding, most of my socializing happens when I get to my destination…
June 20th, 2012 at 3:30 am
Yes, I’ve had intriguing conversations with other passengers, played cards and became friends with one seatmate on a transatlantic flight and we still keep in touch. However, in general I’m not interested in joining a social network to pick a seatmate. But to play the devils advocate; a few years ago when I was flying the same route for business every few weeks, naturally those flights were more like a social hour because at least 50% of the passengers were regulars. So for them it might be a great added feature.
June 23rd, 2012 at 3:51 pm
I think it’s a matter of the devil you know…also purely situational . If you are travelling as a family, you don’t necessarily want to talk to anyone new, however if you are by yourself on an 11 hr flight, it may help to sit beside someone who may actually have something interesting to say…obligation or not…If you choose to speak to someone, chances are, it will be a good conversation.