Have you ever had a morbidly obese, chain-smoking, McDonald’s-loving, shower-hating seatmate next to you on a six hour transcon? Or the guy who won’t stop talking about his work? Or granny who feels the need to retell her family history to you between telling it to each of the FA and the passengers across the aisle? I certainly have and I am sure we all can share our own seatmate horror stories. It is these unfortunate situations that make the concept of picking seatmates based on common interests, destination, background, or physical appearance appealing. Until now, though, no airline has stepped to the plate. Starting next year, though, KLM will make that possible.
Using a new feature called “Meet & Seat,” KLM allows passengers to browse the Facebook profiles of other passengers in hopes of making each flight a bit more intimate. The romantic angle of the new option isn’t explicitly stated — and you could just as easily pick a potential seat neighbor based on their favorite TV show or other interest — but singles could definitely take advantage by turning a plane ride into a bite-sized date.
But all this begs the question–do you want to talk to your seatmate when you fly? Generally, the answer is “no” for me. I do not mind talking to my seatmate and have met a number of interesting people on my flights over the years, but I am not one to initiate a conversation–I appreciate peace and quiet onboard a flight (about the only place where I can turn off my computer and relax) and figure others do as well.
Still, I’ve got to admit that as a curious person I would be very tempted and probably ultimately would check out who I was flying with, even if it meant others could check out my profile as well.
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