KLM’s latest plan to allow people to choose who they sit next to according to social media profiles sounds like fun in theory.
The idea is to link your social media profile to your check-in information and choose a seating partner presumably with similar likes and dislikes.
But, it also leaves you wondering how far they’ve thought through the plan, which could become reality early next year.
What  has made KLM, already well-known for quirky social media campaigns, think this is something passengers really want as opposed to a service the airline believes they might want?
One thing is to think a passenger might get on with another based on social media profiles, the reality could be quite different.
On a basic level, a business traveller might not actually be interested in talking business on a flight, preferring instead to read the newspaper, listen to music or catch up on sleep.
Of course, passengers don’t have to link up their profiles if they’re not interested but what if they play along and end up with someone who just wants to make a sales pitch.
You have to wonder how many people will be willing to take that chance.
KLM is not the first airline to tout the idea with Malaysia Airlines releasing a service on Facebook enabling passengers to see what friends might be taking the same flight or travelling to the destination around the same time – the obvious difference being that they already know each other.
Virgin Atlantic has also mulled the idea of allowing people with similar likes to hook up during a flight.
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Brilliant. It’s an opt-in/opt-out service, so everyone can choose. Great idea!
Would be interested to know how this is implemented on the back-end, i.e. what level of integration was required.
An excellent strategy to increase demand for middle seats.
Celebrities like @kevinlukemay could select center seats, enabling legions of super-model fan girls to position themselves not only on each side, but in the rows immediately in front, behind and across the aisle from him – each treasuring a dream of attracting his attention or even striking up a conversation…
@robert – you’re freaking me out a bit
This is a hoax. KLM is not even not able to coordinate seating now. Do not even want to talk about their miserable service and outdated product. I have been fying with many airlines, have about 90 to 100 segments a year, but my few KLM flights were all disappointing. Their economy class is cramped considering the Dutch are one of the tallest people in the world. The food is tasteless microwave fast food, the service – if one can talk about service at all – is unpersonal. I have also tried their business class to and from Beijing on the 747 upper deck, supposed to be their flagship. It is better but on a level as Emirates or Singapore Airlines 15 years ago.
@michael – thx for the rant. Now what about the story?
this gets interesting if you insert bidding into the process
hell yes! you might be on to something there
The social network spectrum of each of us can and should influence offline services. I am very happy to see such initiatives, since it proves again the power of social network and the ‘controlled serendipity’ that can occur in any moment of the 24 hour time of the day.
KLM is known for their interest and attention to social media, compared to other air carriers that forget that. Thanks Linda for the article, it appeared also in some of the Dutch newspapers couple of days, but wasn’t capable of understanding the whole Dutch text.
the picture looks like the cabin of TG
I just found that http://www.seatid.com is also doing Social Seating. Interesting…
This is ridiculous! As if you can be bothered to set up a profile when booking flights. My main aim when on a flight is to try and sleep and just get through the flight. I barely even speak to my partner when we fly on long haul flights. This is completely off putting and will avoid it like the plague.
@carla – why would people need to set up a profile, it would integrate through Facebook Connect, no?
KLM should name the service “Manifest Destiny,” a play on US imperial ambitions and the predetermined list of passengers on a flight. The news release headline could be “KLM’s Manifest Destiny Driven by Social Networks”
Well, we’ve all seen the guys from SatisFly preaching social seating at airline conferences for the last two years, right? They seem to have already thought of all the aspects mentioned above.
The big news here is finally an airline who gets serious about trying it.
I believe the KLM social initiative is nothing but another way of harming one’s privacy for business purposes. Just imagine how much room for misinterpretations is being open by this endeavor. For sure I wouldn’t like to be assessed and judged by someone who doesn’t know me at all only based on my social profile. We had numerous discussions with our clients on such topics recently at http://www.sprinxcrm.com and we take time to understand the ethical connection between social media and quality customer relationship management systems. The truth is, no one has a solid definition for privacy protection on social media yet. So the question is: how far are we willing to go with snooping your our clients’ privacy to serve them well? I’m not sure someone has the answer to this topic at this point.
I see it as more of an opt-in/opt-out kind of service, i.e. you will only be able to be seated alongside a ‘matching’ person if you requested this and likewise the other person must have requested the same.
Hope it’s like that anyway… just doing this without getting the opt-in would be a big FAIL.
@Dieter Holle – yes, I totally agree with you this should only be mentioned as an opt-in service. This I feel as a must.
But anyway, the question I still have is if it is okay in the basic principle to give anyone (including me) the option to choose the person I would like to sit beside?
For me this whole thing is too close to the era of racism and much more. This kind of option can harm so many people. It scares me, really. Just think what may happen – there are groups of people inside the plane who matched they fit one another. And there also is a group of those who want to stay “unknown”.
Will those who match together get the power to ask somebody from the unknown group to leave the seat just because he doesn´t match them? Will the plane be divided into 2 separate places for these 2 groups? And if you even evaluate someone, can you really be sure the trip will be as great as you think just because you´ve believed someone´s Facebook profile – potentially a fake one? E.g. Are you sure he will smell fine to you?
There are many questions to be answered and I´m only afraid where this whole thing can go to.
Think it scares people like me and you, but there is a whole generation very open to this. I’d personaly not make use of this service, but know many people who would jump at it. Actually 10 years ago I probably would have done so too.
I’d like to see how this is actually implemented and integrated. What happens if I opt-in but don’t find anyone suitable to sit next to from the available choices? Surely opting-out again cannot be an option, as that would then really open a loophole in being able to invade personal information.
Anyway, I do commend KLM for thinking out of the box and taking a bit of risk with such an innitative.
Now you´ve just hit the nail! That´s exactly what I´m seeing as a big problem of this whole thing (I mean using social media for business purposes in common).
As you´ve said there is a generation looking forward for this kind of services. Here´s the risk I can see:
- you can never be sure the person who agreed to be matched is really the one he says on his profile. How can I know the photo of that charming person is reality? How can I be sure there´s no slayer hidden behind, waiting only for a chance to meet the best possible victim?
- I don´t think anyone should have the right to really evaluate anybody before they meet face2face. This is really only one little step far from racism, religious prejudices and so…
- and as you´ve mentioned the question stays upon the realization from the technical and business side. If KLM is able to provide me your Facebook data, they surely have the access to them too. Do you think they won´t use the big chance to keep them for their own purposes? Even to get some stats, create a special campaign for the “nice” people etc.?
As I do still think, this idea now creates a buzz for the KLM´s brand, but the realization should stay apart for a little bit longer. Till all the risks and questions are solved.
This is why our company didn´t join the SocialCRM thing by now. It doesn´t seem to be ethical to us. We think one´s privacy should stay closed and should not be used for business purposes – even as the opt-in. I´ve just written more at my blog about this topic – see http://www.sprinxcrm.com/blog/december-2011-%281%29/ethics-in-using-social-crm-principles-%E2%80%93-is-the-lim.aspx.
Marketa
I would be happy enough just to get the aisle seat that I want. This model assumes that there is enough empty seats to get even more granularity in the selection that I desire.
Very intresting article. Thanks for sharing!
The key message here is that such schemes are fraught with pitfalls but are great for garnering free publicity. Who cares if no passenger uses it? We’ll never know. This will get some KLM social media manager invites to numerous speaking opportunities for a relatively low cost of building the app. Cheap branding.
Being opt-in, lots of people will stay away. As others have mentioned, people on long-haul flights are in the mood to relax and fall asleep. But it could work for very short-haul trips, provided that one is willing to give up a preferred seat.
Has KLM’s idea actually been put into practice and rolled out yet? Will be interesting to hear what kind of actual response they get and how it works out in practice. Does anyone know of any non-airline companies in the travel industry that are considering a similar initiative?
Sounds more like a mile-high innitiative