Finding a seatmate
#16
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But there is a "right" way that it could be done: At OP's request, DL theoretically could contact the mystery gentleman and provide him with OP's contact info and brief message ("I was the person seated next to you on this flight; please contact me if you'd like to continue our conversation"), which he would then be free to act on or ignore. This is SOP in any professional situation when someone asks to be put in touch with a third party to whom privacy is owed: The one who seeks to initiate contact is the one whose info is shared.
AFAIK, doing so at OP's request (without revealing anything to OP about the pax) would not violate DL's obligations, so it is "merely" a matter of making it worth DL's while. If OP really wants it, perhaps a business attorney who has airline industry contacts and experience negotiating one-off deals could help. Airlines, like all companies, presumably make lawful private deals all the time if the price is right.
There is some $ offer amount ($100K? $1M?), put in front of the right office at DL, that would have them sit up and take notice of the opportunity to pad the company coffers by humoring OP, assuming that the request is lawful. That is, large enough that they would fear being dinged by their bosses or shareholders for ignoring the revenue opportunity. Unfortunately this is probably more than OP is willing to spend.
Another option is to hire an experienced private investigator to see if there is any chance that more clues can be gathered through public records and voluntary interviews, starting from whatever OP does remember.
AFAIK, doing so at OP's request (without revealing anything to OP about the pax) would not violate DL's obligations, so it is "merely" a matter of making it worth DL's while. If OP really wants it, perhaps a business attorney who has airline industry contacts and experience negotiating one-off deals could help. Airlines, like all companies, presumably make lawful private deals all the time if the price is right.
There is some $ offer amount ($100K? $1M?), put in front of the right office at DL, that would have them sit up and take notice of the opportunity to pad the company coffers by humoring OP, assuming that the request is lawful. That is, large enough that they would fear being dinged by their bosses or shareholders for ignoring the revenue opportunity. Unfortunately this is probably more than OP is willing to spend.
Another option is to hire an experienced private investigator to see if there is any chance that more clues can be gathered through public records and voluntary interviews, starting from whatever OP does remember.
Maybe that passenger would be thrilled. Maybe he was traveling to a funeral, cheating on his wife and doesn't want her to know, otherwise had a bad trip and takes the DL outreach the wrong way and switches to a competitor.
I have to presume that the HVC's who are the core of DL's profitability want a safe & clean aircraft piloted by professionals. If they want a confidential dating service, they can sign up for that.
#17
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: LAS, MPL
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Posts: 1,320
I seem to remember vaguely that for some time KLM was testing a social media app that allowed one to either get in contact with somebody on an flight or chose a seatmate based on some criteria. I think I saw it in a KLM flight magazine. No idea whether that went anywhere and/or is still around.
#18
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 1,159
I seem to remember vaguely that for some time KLM was testing a social media app that allowed one to either get in contact with somebody on an flight or chose a seatmate based on some criteria. I think I saw it in a KLM flight magazine. No idea whether that went anywhere and/or is still around.
Last edited by FlyingEgghead; Aug 18, 2017 at 10:59 am Reason: Make proper link
#20
Join Date: Sep 2016
Posts: 1,159
If you are asking whether DL could lawfully offer such a service, I suppose that it could. I am trying to think of something more brand-damaging which a company engaged in one business could do to itself.
Maybe that passenger would be thrilled. Maybe he was traveling to a funeral, cheating on his wife and doesn't want her to know, otherwise had a bad trip and takes the DL outreach the wrong way and switches to a competitor.
I have to presume that the HVC's who are the core of DL's profitability want a safe & clean aircraft piloted by professionals. If they want a confidential dating service, they can sign up for that.
Maybe that passenger would be thrilled. Maybe he was traveling to a funeral, cheating on his wife and doesn't want her to know, otherwise had a bad trip and takes the DL outreach the wrong way and switches to a competitor.
I have to presume that the HVC's who are the core of DL's profitability want a safe & clean aircraft piloted by professionals. If they want a confidential dating service, they can sign up for that.
Everyone else here just said "no, can't be done", so I wrote what I might constructively attempt as a way to get in touch with the pax if my life depended on it.
I don't know that receiving an unexpected communication from an airline is all that brand-damaging. A pax has to have a way (e.g., email) to be notified about the reservation in the first place, and sometimes there are follow-up surveys, so if the flight itself is a "secret" the pax has to consider that.
#21
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Location: Canada, USA, Europe
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They're trying to run an airline, not be Tinder v2.
But there is a "right" way that it could be done: At OP's request, DL theoretically could contact the mystery gentleman and provide him with OP's contact info and brief message ("I was the person seated next to you on this flight; please contact me if you'd like to continue our conversation"), which he would then be free to act on or ignore. This is SOP in any professional situation when someone asks to be put in touch with a third party to whom privacy is owed: The one who seeks to initiate contact is the one whose info is shared.
AFAIK, doing so at OP's request (without revealing anything to OP about the pax) would not violate DL's obligations, so it is "merely" a matter of making it worth DL's while. If OP really wants it, perhaps a business attorney who has airline industry contacts and experience negotiating one-off deals could help. Airlines, like all companies, presumably make lawful private deals all the time if the price is right.
There is some $ offer amount ($100K? $1M?), put in front of the right office at DL, that would have them sit up and take notice of the opportunity to pad the company coffers by humoring OP, assuming that the request is lawful. That is, large enough that they would fear being dinged by their bosses or shareholders for ignoring the revenue opportunity. Unfortunately this is probably more than OP is willing to spend.
Another option is to hire an experienced private investigator to see if there is any chance that more clues can be gathered through public records and voluntary interviews, starting from whatever OP does remember.
AFAIK, doing so at OP's request (without revealing anything to OP about the pax) would not violate DL's obligations, so it is "merely" a matter of making it worth DL's while. If OP really wants it, perhaps a business attorney who has airline industry contacts and experience negotiating one-off deals could help. Airlines, like all companies, presumably make lawful private deals all the time if the price is right.
There is some $ offer amount ($100K? $1M?), put in front of the right office at DL, that would have them sit up and take notice of the opportunity to pad the company coffers by humoring OP, assuming that the request is lawful. That is, large enough that they would fear being dinged by their bosses or shareholders for ignoring the revenue opportunity. Unfortunately this is probably more than OP is willing to spend.
Another option is to hire an experienced private investigator to see if there is any chance that more clues can be gathered through public records and voluntary interviews, starting from whatever OP does remember.
#22
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It might not be romantic.
Maybe OP changed her mind and decided he actually does to buy the life insurance that her seat opponent was selling.
Maybe OP changed her mind and decided he actually does to buy the life insurance that her seat opponent was selling.
#24
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Join Date: Jul 2003
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I'd say there's some strange Serendipity or Synchronicity right here -- you're posting to a 3-year-old thread just 2 days after a new thread was started in this same forum on the same topic. The answers there might be of interest:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...ne-flight.html
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/infor...ne-flight.html
chgoeditor
co-moderator, Info Desk
#25
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Posts: 50,262
Indeed, these are reasons DL might reject a deal. There is a limit, though: For $19B, one can buy a controlling stake in Delta Air Lines, Inc., and get what one wants. So it's just a question of how much the price can come down from there.
Everyone else here just said "no, can't be done", so I wrote what I might constructively attempt as a way to get in touch with the pax if my life depended on it.
I don't know that receiving an unexpected communication from an airline is all that brand-damaging. A pax has to have a way (e.g., email) to be notified about the reservation in the first place, and sometimes there are follow-up surveys, so if the flight itself is a "secret" the pax has to consider that.
Everyone else here just said "no, can't be done", so I wrote what I might constructively attempt as a way to get in touch with the pax if my life depended on it.
I don't know that receiving an unexpected communication from an airline is all that brand-damaging. A pax has to have a way (e.g., email) to be notified about the reservation in the first place, and sometimes there are follow-up surveys, so if the flight itself is a "secret" the pax has to consider that.
Even a DL employee with access to the information would be violating that policy and subjecting herself and DL to close to certain liability if she were to use the information for a purpose which DL does not specify in its policy.
Bottom line is that the information was not collected for the purpose the OP wants it used for an DL cannot, without creating liability for itself, use the information for another purpose.
Silly hypotheticals won't change that.