Years ago, flying used to be fun. People would actually consider it to be an enjoyable part of a vacation or a business trip. They'd dress in their best, they'd have a martini, and they'd sit back and enjoy the ride. Hard to imagine today, isn't it? The modern airline experience is very different indeed. It's bad enough that you have to be poked and prodded and treated with suspicion until you get to your departure gate. But with airlines cutting costs and customer standards dropping, you're also treated like a herd of cattle when you fly. Peanuts and a complimentary soda? That's a thing of the past.
But there are some people out there who are trying to make flying fun again. A new company called Satisfly, recently started by a young Italian entrepreneur, is in talks with several airlines to make it happen. His company's goal? To use the information you provide on your Facebook or Myspace or other social networking pages to match you up with seatmates you'll be comfortable --or even happy-- to fly with.
How it Works
The process is supposed to work in a variety of ways. On the one hand, it has some great applications for singles; it can work almost like a cross between a blind date and internet dating. But even if you don't want to meet that special someone on the four o'clock to New York, if this company gets off the ground, it may still benefit you. Satisfly is actually more about being compatible with your seatmates than anything else. Are you on the way to a job interview and want to make some professional contacts on the flight over? The system can match you up with people who work in your industry. Want to make a few friends? Then you can sit with people who share your interests. Or, like me, do you prefer to just read your book and be left to your own devices? This company intends to make it easy to do just that.
While it's not widely in use yet, the application requesting the information (in the form of questionnaires, etc.) that Satisfly will need to match you up to an appropriate seat mate will soon be available for sign up on sites like Facebook. In addition, the airlines that use this service will probably include a short questionnaire in the passenger information section of their online purchase systems. You'll be able to specifically say whether you'd like to make some friends, develop some business contacts, or just sleep without being bothered.
Moving Forward with "Intelligent Seating"
All of this sounds pretty nice as a passenger, doesn't it? Well, it's even better for the airlines involved. The happier and more comfortable a passenger is when he or she flies a particular airline, the more likely that person will be to book with that airline again. If the system really begins to take off, the decision whether or not to choose a particular carrier could be based party on whether or not that airline offers the Satisfly service.
While the idea of shared interests in your specific seatmates is new, the idea of specialist flights or airlines is not. Unfortunately, though, most of these airlines have never been able to get off the ground (so to speak). From an airline with a scantily clad all-female cabin crew, to an all-nude or all-smoking airline, plenty of ideas for matching people up with others with similar interests have been spreading around the industry. But until now, nobody seems to have come up with anything people will actually, well, pay for.
Hopefully, this Satisfly thing will be a bit different. If it spreads among the larger of the world's airlines, we'll be able to choose the kind of person we want to sit with, while still flying the carriers that we prefer to use. And without having to pay extra to do it. However, no matter how innovative this new idea might be, that's no guarantee that it'll even get off the ground. Right now, Satisfly is being tested on some Hawaiian Airlines flights, and is in talks with several other airlines. If it works, you never know... the skies we fly may just start to be friendly again.
