On KLM flights, seat selection gets a lot more personal

When choosing where to sit on an airplane, most travelers pause to consider whether they’d like the window or aisle seat; the emergency exit row or the seats near the front of the plane. Now, many passengers have a whole new (and more personal) set of options.

Thanks to KLM’s Meet & Seat program, passengers on select flights of the Dutch airline can now choose their seatmates as well. The program allows ticket-holders to share details from their Facebook and LinkedIn profiles and choose a seatmate also looking to socialize based on information from the social networking sites.

The airline believes its customers will be eager to sit next to those who have similar interests or career goals to themselves.

Meet & Seat is only available to passengers who are willing to connect their Facebook or LinkedIn accounts to the booking process and those who opt to use the program can pick and choose the parts of their profile they wish to display.

Once travelers decide to share their profiles, they are presented with a seat map showing where others who have linked their accounts are seated. After picking a seat (and a seatmate), the other flier is notified and receives a message with the applicable details.

The New York Times reports:

On a flight from Amsterdam to São Paulo this week, for example, you could have chosen the director of a British answering service, who has a passion for reggae and jazz; an Italian chemical engineer fluent in Dutch, English, Spanish and Portuguese; or a Norwegian alternative-rock fan en route to visit family in Argentina.

The service is currently only being offered on flights from Amsterdam to New York and from São Paolo to San Francisco, but KLM plans to extend the program to all intercontinental flights by the spring.

Image: Curimedia/Flickr

This post was originally published on Smartplanet.com