First, a bit of history. Social seating goes back a long time at SimpliFlying. We were actually the first to point out that choosing potential seating partners via an intelligent social seating system in an airplane would ultimately go mainstream – that was a product powered by our good friends at Satisfly. This was way back in 2009 – almost three years ago! Then in 2010, we discussed incorporating social media in the flying experience – and showcased Twitter seating charts.

Then, last year, there were significant indications of things to come with Malaysia Airlines allowing customers to sit next to their Facebook friends. However, a couple of months ago KLM announced that they would launch the first “truly” social seating system for airlines matching customer’s social profiles with those having similar profiles or interests.

So far, given the lack of details about how the system would exactly work, the announcement was both welcomed as well as met with trepidation by the online community. Some claimed they’d love to try this new system, saying that it would spare them long hours of boredom …

Sociable – like real-world sociable..
Have you ever been sat on a plane wishing you were next to someone else – may be the guy next to you was chatting non-stop while you wanted to take a nap? Have you ever had time to kill as you waited in an airport – but found yourself staring at the disembarking passengers?

Planely allows you to share your travel plans (even through TripIt) and see which of your friends are at the airport at the same time as you, or on the same flight – so that you can hang out (or may be avoid each other!). It’s similar to what Satisfly does with intelligent seating, as we had shared last year.

Planely has now exclusively shared with SimpliFlying that it’s launching a competition to determine the “world’s most sociable airline”. The winner will be the airline that gets be added by Planely’s customers the most – that is to say that the maximum number of the airline’s passengers are trying to identify and potentially connect with one another.

All flights added to Planely will be analyzed between April 13th and April 20th – so the airlines just need …

After Delta Airlines pioneered the booking engine on Facebook, Malaysia Airlines has become the second major airline to introduce booking, and also allow passengers to check-in and choose to sit next to a friend, using Facebook! I had shared this example in my keynote last week in San Francisco, and after receiving multiple emails, sharing the screenshots here too.

The application, called MHBuddy, is disruptive not in the fact that it allows booking or check-in on Facebook, but because it ties in the users’ social graph at each step too. For example, during booking, a box at the bottom shows which other friends of yours will be at your destination at the time you’re there. That’s truly value adding to the customer.

Moreover, if your friends used the same application to book the same flight, you can see where they are seated and either sit next to them – or even change your flight if you’d like to avoid them! Now, there’s one good upsell opportunity for the folks at Malaysia Airlines!

While very advanced intelligent seating systems like Satisfly have been around for a couple of years, the real value of MHBuddy is that …

.
Ancillary revenues – money an airline makes from things other than the asirfare – have always proven to be attractive profit centers for airlines. But very often, they tend to be random, with airline executives making their decisions based on how much money the source brings to the airline, rather than anything else. Moreover, ancillary revenue streams are often garnered from outside the cabin, like having special offers on the website or charging a fee for baggage check in.

But as I mentioned in my white paper on airline branding, Brand eXperience is one of the most important factors affecting the brand perception and the time spent in the plane forms the most important part of the eXperience. According to recent research, the most important factor determining the in-flight experience is not service or in-flight entertainment, but the person you’re sitting beside! 80% of passengers feel their seat neighbor’s bahaviour influences their overall flight satisfaction. And there lies the opportunity.
Bring in Satisfly – to optimize your seating in the plane
A friend of mine, Sergio Mello, has started up a company called SATISFLY, which solves …