In-flight dating is just plane wrong
By Beth Teitell
Wednesday, February 8, 2006
As if air travel weren’t already stressful enough, here’s another reason to angst out: A new company aims to match fliers with compatible seatmates. What’s to stress, you say? Think about it: What if you fill out AirTroduction’s little form, listing all of your great traits, and - high school flashback - no one wants to sit next to you.
‘‘Can you lie about having a good personality?” one of my many insecure friends asked, ‘‘or would that be a felony?”
In case you’ve been lucky enough to remain oblivious to AirTroductions, here’s how it works: masochistic travelers register online, post their itineraries and get information about other fliers taking the same flight, whom they can contact (for a $5 fee). The two then meet in the airport and can arrange to sit together. If they want.
Now not only do you have to worry about being reunited with your shoes after passing through security, buying take-on food, and timing your anti-anxiety medication, but now you can fret about being blown off by a complete stranger in the terminal. How awkward would that flight be?
You know how you normally hope no sits next to you on the plane? Well, thanks to AirTroductions, that empty seat’s now a Scarlet A (for Alone). You can almost hear the Cool Fliers snickering as they walk past solitary you, on their way to a party row in the back.
As far as I’m concerned, AirTroductions is the worst thing since the airlines toyed with weighing passengers on some flights. As if the terrorist threat wasn’t enough. Now they want to brand you a porky loser. Some friendly skies.
AirTroductions was started by a man, one Peter Shankman, after he happened to be seated next to a Miss Texas, and realized how nice it would be if you could choose your seatmate. It sounds good - in principle. But apparently there aren’t enough Miss Texases to go around; although almost 4,500 people have enrolled in AirTroductions since it began in the fall, only about 60 have made matches.
Randy Petersen, the editor of InsideFlyer magazine, has said he’s doubtful the program will take off because having a good seat trumps a good seatmate.
And there’s the larger cosmic issue to consider: Shouldn’t some things in life remain the luck of the draw? ‘‘It seems to violate some principle of random selection,” my friend said.
She may be right, or perhaps it was just her fear of rejection talking. As for me, I’ll stick with the tried-and-true method of guaranteeing a seatmate: I’ll just crack open a good book.
