KLM meet & seat

Although occassionally you hit it off with the person sitting next to you on a plane, most of the time I've found that one is merely polite to each other. So, I was delighted to see that KLM have at last launched their controversial Meet & Seat program. It integrates Facebook & LinkedIn into their flight booking process, so that you can choose to sit next to passengers with similar interests!

You'll only be able to see the details of other passengers who choose to share them. You select which interests you want to share; like your name (then you can see if there's anybody you know on the plane), university, interests, which company you work for reason for travel & languages you speak. KLM's system matches passengers' social profiles with those with similar interests or profiles. If you see somebody you'd like to sit with, then send them a messaging telling them you met them via KLM's Seat & Meet, and ask whether they'd like to share a seat with you.

You can use KLM's Meet & Seat between 2 & 90 days before a flight, giving you plenty of time to get to know each other better before you fly.

Once you've booked your seat you can check out other passengers' Facebook & LlinkedIn profiles by logging into the KLM system with either of them.

A controversial aspect is that people may use the system to avoid sitting next to our larger kith & kin (when I chatted to somebody about it, they responded that this was the first thing they'd thought of). Also, what happens if you decline sitting next to the person...do they glare at you at the airport!

On the plus side I can see this leading to more friendships & even marriages (& more members of the mile-high club?). And for KLM it may lead to more sociable people using their airline.

I haven't used KLM's meet & seat yet, but would love to hear from readers who've tried it.

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