Xandrios

KLM will offer a new Check-In feature in two weeks from now, called Social-Check-In.

Basically it allows you to see the facebook/twitter profiles of other people that have used the feature at check-in. This allows you to choose a seat next to somebody with the same interests as you, for a better flight experience.

Source: http://www.adformatie.nl/nieuws/beri...checken-social

Personally I think this will never work, in fact, I find it borderline ridiculous. Most of the people will not share their details, resulting in no other profiles to base your seat choice on. Furthermore I would not want people to sit next to me because they think I'd be in for an engaging talk about whatever we have in common.

Maybe its useful to change your seat before boarding, if it turns out the guy next to you is overweight and would be taking up half of your seat ;-)

Gajan

I actually find it quite interesting.

I am curious to see if it is a success. Considering quite a few people have a form of social media it could be a hit.

Sjoerd

Ok, we would all want to sit next to the hottie of our choice, but does the hottie M/F have the option to change seats to get away from the dirty old man M/F that chooses to sit next to him/her?
This could lead to some interesting musical chairs.....

El_Duderito

Interesting idea and I guess KLM is the airline which you'd expect to come up with this .. or at least give it a try if somebody else 'invented' it.
Now let's see what happens if people start publishing their FF status ala 'can guest somebody into the lounge'. That might have a negative impact for the carriers, esp. when done at remote stations where KLM might have to pay for lounge access.

FrankC6

I would like to propose a seat-mate-request, where the dirty old man can request to sit next to the hottie, but the hottie has the ability to accept or deny his request.

cityflyer369

I think this is a really cool idea, but I reckon it comes 10 years too early. Currently there is a huge change, caused by social media, with respect to what type of information is considered private and what is considered public. In 10 years time we will have loads of people who grew up with social media and then this concept will definitely be attractive.

Cupart

Wonder how will this work across the different fare buckets (and assigned seats) AND/OR Elite status'?

Silly idea, BUT I don't think the exercise has been though up for the actual outcome of people meeting people with the same interests etc, but rather having it as a media stunt. This will give some publicity, gather more info for marketing purposes and cost KLM nothing...

Will I be using it? Erh, don't think so...

ajs123

Well, I am neither an overweight guy, nor an old one (have spent as many years being on Facebook as being a frequent traveller), and I can count on two hands the times I travelled with a companion. So I certainly like the idea. I do not think it is ridiculous, but am not sure how it will be implemented.
Though on flights with a 3-3 configuration I prefer to have the whole row just for myself - usually happens on short-haul. On long haul a pleasant discussion would be a nice change


Didn't AF or KL have a sort of social network site or something a few years ago? Bluenity or something?

chunk73

Sounds like quite a fun idea, dirty old men aside.

Xandrios

The point that I don't like about the idea is that it is the other that decides to sit next to you. Which means somebody might choose to sit next to me with expectations to have a conversation about a certain subject, while I might be tired and just wanna rest/sleep for instance.

It would, imho, be much better if you can first make a match (which both accept) on facebook, and that the KLM website then allows to check-in such match together. That would also fix the issue of an inappropriate match (as both have to agree first).

I do believe that something like this could be useful in the future if implemented properly.

KLflyerRalph

I wouldn't use it either. Kind of strange but if some people like it...

peachfront

This is really creepy. We don't live in a world of "dirty old men aside." We live in a world where lots and lots of flyers are middle-aged/older men, many of them lonely souls traveling on business, and in my humble experience of life in this world as a woman, this results in endless hustle and hassle. Not all of you guys are horndogs, but there's a non-trivial percentage of horndogs out there, and I hope you decent guys out there can acknowledge the honesty of what I'm saying. I'm a bit too aged to have to worry about this any longer but for younger women traveling, what a hassle! It would be like the old phone book, sure, you could just use your initials, but the pervs knew perfectly well that the initials users were MUCH more likely to be female and so they aimed the sick calls in your direction anyway. "Hotties" are used to being pestered and I don't think they're going to share, but the creeps will figure out pretty fast that it's guys sharing info about what sports they want to chat about in-flight and the girls who are sharing nothing...

For people who want brief encounters in a strange city, with someone they'll never meet again, why not try craigslist or a club or something, instead of the person trapped next to you in the airplane?

Gajan

According to Nu.nl the pilot will be started in 2012 and KLM was not willing to share much information about this yet.

strikerbird

I still think the emergency exits are still the hot seats to get, and not a hotty. I mean wow she or he is hot, but 10 minutes into the convo, you know you are going anywhere, and 99.9% you won't be going anywhere. While, in the emergency exit you are guaranteed a big leg room for the full journey.
SB

747400F

How do you go about finding a seat mate who like I just like to sit and NOT TALK to anyone on a flights. Now if someone found an app like that I'd pay for it.