Now that ‘friendship’ has gone viral on the social networks, real life is set to imitate virtual, it would appear. So what if you never met the 2,567 friends you have on Facebook? If they’re on the same flight, you could share face time with them and cement that relationship for real!
At least, that seems to be the idea behind KLM Royal Dutch Airlines’ proposed ‘meet and seat’ service, linking co-passengers’ Facebook and LinkedIn profiles, to let you browse and select your seatmates. Thankfully, it’s an opt-in service, but it certainly stirred up a Twitterstorm.
There’s a more grown-up — and less stalker-ish — version already in existence (though also new) from an Aussie bloke who met the date of his dreams on a plane… and forgot to get her number. Will Scully-Power used his marketing analytics experience to develop a flight-wide search for your lost new friend. Instead of plugging in profiles from the get-go, you share your story on wemetonaplane.com and hope the other guy had the same great idea; (s)he can then choose to re-connect — or not.