In Brief

Business Travel Just Got A Whole Lot More Fun

When you’re forced to travel for work, you generally want to spend your time mid-air catching up on sleep or perhaps looking over some documents. Rarely do you want to chat with the random dude sitting next to you about his favorite Justin Bieber song. Lucky for us, though, social media is here to save the day!

Airlines have finally realized that putting two strangers next to each other on a transatlantic flight may not be the best idea. Sure, sometimes you luck out, but more often than not you end up stuck next to some guy with bad BO who won’t shut up. That’s why some tech-savvy airlines are now allowing you to use social media to find a seatmate on your next flight.

Today’s New York Times profiles several of the new seat-assignment apps that are making air travel (somewhat) hassle-free, and we decided to share some of our favorites.

The first seat-assignment app is Dutch carrier KLM’s Meet and Seat. It sounds very easy, which is always a plus. All you need is a Facebook or LinkedIn profile, which you can upload and then view others’ to choose the perfect seatmate.

Another program, which sounds kind of similar to Foursquare, is Malaysia Airlines’ MHBuddy. The app allows users who book and check in through the airline’s Facebook page to see whether any of their friends is on the same flight.

But the app that sounds the most fun is Satisfly. It not only allows users to create personal profiles, but it also has a space where users can declare their flight “moods”– meaning, whether they’d prefer to spend the flight chatting or snoozing. The whole thing sort of reminds us of those mood rings we used to wear way back when. If it turns blue, you’re in the mood to befriend your seatmate. You know, that sort of thing.

So start working on those airplane personals profiles. You may just end up algorithmically placed next to your future client.

 

TAGS: social media | social media for airlines | social media for flights

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