Some of you are extreme extroverts. Everywhere you go you meet people in a substantive way just because you enjoy it. You know who you are, and honestly… you freak the rest of us out. But we appreciate your efforts. Anyway, when you are traveling and seated on the plane next to people who refuse to talk or take off their headphones, you get antsy. This causes you stress as you look around for an outlet to your social energy. On flights like this, you feel trapped.
Now, Virgin Atlantic is feeling your pain and about to introduce technology to their aircraft that will keep you from having a complete and total social crisis and allow you to make connections with other people on the plane who are just like you. Built into the back of the seat console is something they are calling “Seat to Seat Chat.” It will only work for those passengers who put their seats into a “discoverable” mode. There is no doubt that this is a cool thing for Virgin to do, but what I love about it is the utilization of online social networking in a non-digital environment. You can see who wants to converse, initiate a networked chat with them, and then get up and meet over by the bathrooms for a friendly debate on current events or to share stock tips. This is also cool because flying today is a horrible experience and totally inhospitable. Anything airlines do to ease the discomfort of flying is going to pay huge dividends in creating a memorable guest experience. This is the type of offering that could completely transform the way we fly in the near future and make flights the new way to network.
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