Thursday 25 April 2013

Mile high flirting: Virgin Air rolls out a seat-to-seat text and flirt option

Mile high flirting: Virgin Air rolls out a seat-to-seat text and flirt option, The days of hearing this direction from the flight attendant while flying at 30,000 feet: “Please turn off your cell phones and electronic devices,” may be shortly changed to, “Please switch on your seat and get to know one another.”

A new seat-to-seat communication technology is being unveiled on Virgin America, and is being dubbed “mile-high flirting," according to an April 25 Yahoo! News report.

The new service is based off the airline’s existing Red on-demand food ordering system, which currently allows passengers to request food items from their seats using a digital menu.

While it's not really flirting, the change will allow passengers to roll out the ubiquitous pick up line ‘Can I buy you a drink?’ without even unbuckling their belt.

Passengers can locate the object of their interest using Virgin's digital seat map, browse the menu and have a drink, snack or meal sent over, along with a text message.

English business magnate Sir Richard Branson, speaking on behalf of Virgin America, said, “Here’s my guide to getting lucky at 35,000 feet. First, pinpoint the object of your affection. Treat her, or him, to something delicious with the Red seat-to-seat delivery system. I say that your chance of deplaning with a plus 1 are at least 50 percent.”

On the official Virgin America website, the airline describes the services as “seat-to-seat delivery,” “open tab,” and “chat.”

While the 'friendly skies' are about to get much friendlier, the idea of passengers sending each other alcohol and trying to network with one another, and perhaps inappropriately flirt or send off-color text messages under the influence clearly has potential drawbacks to the flight crew, families on board and others.

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