When Social Media and Travel Merge: KLM “Meet and Seat”
Posted by Patrick Murphy on Mon, Jan 02, 2012
Here’s a new one: imagine selecting your seat on a flight based on the social media profiles of other passengers. That’s what’s coming up over at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines very soon.
So, have you ever had a really annoying person sitting beside you, making the entire journey the trip from hell? Conversely, has luck ever been on your side and you’ve found you’re sitting beside just the right person to do business with or just provide good company? KLM Royal Dutch Airlines is working to make this seat selection process much less of a hit and miss experience with a new initiative, linking social media profiles with bookings. This marks another evolution in the way social media can profoundly affect our lives. We’ve already got social media becoming a main business networking and job searching tool, and now it’s going to affect the kinds of people we meet on aircraft, and it could put an end to random encounters.
Ever want to filter out your fellow passengers? Now you can
KLM is developing a seat selection service over the web called “meet and seat”. The passengers Facebook and LinkedIn accounts will be linked to their booking. It will allow passengers to select their seat assignments based on common interests, their business connections, or EVEN based on their looks. So how do we prevent this from becoming some twisted blind date service in the sky? Passengers will of course be allowed to opt out of participation in the program.
Most of the details of the project are still under wraps, but we assume that when passengers make a booking they will be allowed to attach their social media profile to their seat. Then they can see who else may be sitting around them based on interests, etc. We don’t know yet if the airline will charge a fee for the “meet and seat” facility.
Brands are becoming more creative with their social media marketing
This isn’t the first social media idea that KLM has conquered. The airline already has a highly successful Twitter customer service programme and has dominated in other social media fields too.
We love to see this kind of social media innovation coming from brands. This year, we expect to see more fantastic ideas coming forward and can’t wait to get involved.
What do you think of “meet and seat”? A useful idea or a surfire way to get creeped out in the sky? Do let us know below.
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