KLM rolls out ‘Meet and Seat’

Airlines will let you pay for all kinds of privileges—more legroom, better food. But even in business class your choice of seatmate is often left to serendipity. Right now even the best prepared passenger is always at risk of being seated next to a close-talker, heavy drinker or dreaded human baby. KLM is aiming to change that. This month, the Dutch carrier is rolling out a new program called Meet and Seat. On select routes, KLM passengers have the option of uploading information from their Facebook or LinkedIn profiles and picking seatmates based on the profiles of others. The amount of information each customer shares is up to them. Based on what they see, they can pick and change their seats as often as they like up to 48 hours before takeoff. For now, only passengers travelling between Amsterdam and New York or San Francisco and Sao Paulo can use the system. But the company told the New York Times it should be available on all intercontinental flights starting this spring.