After selecting your target - go back to your seat, relax and give the target time to get bored (everybody gets bored on a long flight).

My technique (before I was married, of course):
- Later - take a hopefully empty seat beside the target
- pull out a travel backgammon set and ask: "Do you know how to play backgammon?"


1) Target: "Yes"? You: "Let�s play".
2) Target: "No" ?" You: "Let me teach you".

That way you promise relief from boredom not involving strain or dangers of forced conversations.

The rest is up to both of you ...

(from the airline passengers guerilla handbook).

First, I hearby accept today's EMMETT_NANCY
award.

Second this is a very G-Rated entry!

What a great idea! First I would have to
brush up on my backgammon. Haven't played in
years.

Basically if there's a good and friendly looking woman next to me (who's not busy with work) I go into my little bag of tricks and pull out my frequent flyer card holder (with all the cards and passport inside) which generally gets her to say "WOW! You travel a lot!" Then we get to talking about travel and other things.

Or I'll pull out a picture of my cats and lay
it out on the tray table. If she's a cat lover she'll talk and we'll talk. That's how
I met a great woman going to New Orleans on
Continental. (it was worth the four and a half hour delay from Houston.

Jaws the shark 43... maybe I should switch to
Continental!!! CATMAN

Well, Rudi, that was a great line back when "guerilla" wrote it. But, the flights I have
been on lately have no "hopefully empty" seats". I agree the Q&A principal still applies and maybe try it at the gate waiting area. Then a possibility of exchanging seats is still viable.

Many, many, many years ago when I was about 17 years old, I was flying from FLL to ATL on Eastern. When I went to the gate agent to check in, I asked him to please change my seat so that I could sit next to this pretty girl he had just checked in. He did that for me and I was able to strike up a conversation with her on the plane. Alas, she was not very interesting.

MileageAddict: you "cheat", didn't you pretend not to be interested in that topic (only in people carrying overweight-suitcases?).

Catman, the Ol' Tom, has really got this topic mastered. Guerilla had better listen to TopCAT!!!!

yes CATmAN, I only realize now, that you and/or your cats may belong to the "fritz the cat"-family ...

Since I travel quite a bit and live alone, I unfortunately am forced to live with "no pets and no plants". But Catman, I should would like to borrow a picture of your cats to use with friendly females. Does this approach work well?

WOW!!! I'm about to go two ina row for the
EMMETT_NANCY award for going off frequent flyer topics (Well, this is kind of one.)

Rudi: I'm not and my cats are certainly not
like "Fritz the cat" We're more like Felix
the cat. (That's skipped tip intrigues me.)

MileKing: Happy to fill your request and sent
you an e-mail.

Here's a great suggestion to make friends (especially of the opposite sex Give them
TIPS ON FREQUENT FLYER TRAVEL!!!! I also suggest they get Inside FLyer and read Flyertalk. I got my New Orleans lady to sign up for Continental One Pass on the plane. She heard of ff programs but thought they were
too complicated. I walked her through!

I also got attention for carrying my holiday
and other gifts in a big Harrods bag wtih Cats on them. Next time I go to London I have to get one for one lady I met.

Now I must try to get this Guerilla book!!!
CATMAN

Have to confess though guys... I'm lucky I
get to sit next to an interesting PERSON,
let alone an interesting female. I was
lucky on the "flight from heck" on Continental to new Orleans. THat was Coach too!

Mostly I get mothers with screaming kids,
elderly ladies who ask too many questions
or snoring big men. So when I meet someone
special it makes for a memorable flight.
CATMAN

Now for the other side of the coin: I was coming back from a wedding with my wife (SFO-IAD) this spring. Me in the aisle seat, her in the middle (selfish me!). In the window seat was a fellow about my age (thirties). I guess I was not being very attentive or talkative with my wife because, once underway, he offered to buy her a drink (understand that she wears a ring with pearls instead of a wedding band so she is often mistaken for single). She politely declined. He insisted. She winked at me and accepted. She ended up being the object of his attention for the next 3 and a half hours. I got to see how pathetic and desparate his advances were, and it reminded me how glad I am that I dont have to work the "singles" scene. The point being that while seeking a "good conversation" is one thing, looking for "sex objects" on a plane puts one in a rather unflattering (and pathetic) light.

(Of course, the best part was the look on his face when, as we were standing to deplane, I stuck out my hand and thanked him for entertaining my wife for the duration of the flight...)

So.. flirting is fun, but don't make an ... of yourself?

A lot of non-ridiculous chat-up lines work well in a non-sexual situation & if one thing leads to another, well then...

Good places to start include sharing a bottle of the airline's best wine; showing off your well-travelled passport/wallet of ff cards; talking about the places you've just left/are going to (being either ignorant or an expert works for these); having some amusing/relevant anecdotes to tell. An interesting job helps too.

Don't drool, & don't make your new friend feel that you've chained them down. Matt's wife may not have been as entertained if she'd been travelling alone.

You guys are so funny. Trust me, a wedding AND engagement ring which are both very visible, is like a call to the wild. I can't believe how many guys ask me out when I'm traveling. Do they think that married women who travel want to date obviously married men?

On the other hand, I've been lucky and have met some very interesting people on planes.

TropicalFlyer, Your statement also works the other way. I have been "hit on" by more women, both married and single, on airplanes than anywhere else. And, as you say, I also have met some very interesting people.

And don't forget the pheromones. You can buy them and drop them in your aftershave or perfume. www.athena-inst.com

I actually ran across their ad in a medical journal tonight (I'm obviously not a pheromone user, haha)

If it doesn't improve your sex life, using pheromones might still get you the upgrade if the CSR is of the opposite sex!

Jim