Have You Ever Met Someone On A Plane?
Every time I fly I follow a certain protocol. My path through the airport typically involves as little human interaction as possible – as little friction as possible. I try not to check a bag, I always pre-check-in on my phone or use a kiosk to print my boarding pass, and I will do my best to arrive at the gate when they are calling my name on the loudspeaker so I can just waltz onto the plane and find my seat without having to dawdle in gate-purgatory for an hour-and-a-half.
While I admit my approach to getting on the plane is a bit anti-social, I always practice one seemingly contradictory rule once seated: I say hello to my neighbor. I immediately break the ice. The way I see it, you have something inherently in common with this person: you’re both traveling from Point A to Point B. You’ll be sharing a very close space for the next X hours so you might as well acknowledge each other’s presence and discuss the thing you are both about to do together.
The commonality between the two of you makes it exceptionally easy to start a conversation. Plus, having established a connection with your neighbor, they’re far more likely to happily let you out when you need to pee, nudge you when the snacks roll by, or help you remove your seat cushion/floatation device if you ever find that you’re suddenly swimming in the middle of the Pacific Ocean together.
You Never Know Who’s Sitting Next To You
I find that getting to know your plane neighbor can be very rewarding. I’ve met a pulitzer-prize-winning author disguised as an old granny, a scared shitless 13-year-old girl taking her first solo flight who needed a friend, a dental hygienist who offered me free lodging at his coastal villa, and so on. It’s amazing what stories come out when you’re seated next to a stranger with nothing to do and one thing in common.
On a flight not so long ago, after having one of my more profound plane/neighbor interaction experiences, I thought to myself, “It’s not just my neighbor and I who are sharing this experience — everyone on this plane is traveling towards Point B together at 600 miles-per-hour. Why should I be limited to establishing a pee/food alliance with this one random neighbor? I wanna break the ice with all of you turds!”.
That’s about when I had an idea.
“What if there were an application that could connect me with everyone on this flight?”
I want to be able to chat with all of these people and see what other weirdos are crammed in this fuselage with me! Maybe, just maybe, there’s a truly meaningful connection to be had on this flight. Maybe a work opportunity? Maybe someone who has some travel tips for my destination? Maybe a babe who wants to join the mile high club with me? Infinite possibilities.
Here’s The Idea In Full
I want an app that I can fire up right when I book a trip and see who else is going to be on my flight. I want to be able to chat with those people in the weeks prior to travel, pose questions to the entire plane, share flight or destination-related news and possibly meet an interesting person or two. I want to then be able to connect with those people in person before getting on the plane, on the plane, or shortly after the flight.
This app should take into account all the necessary privacy and security concerns regarding strangers meeting for the first time on a rocket-bus 35,000 feet in the air. It should be fun, informative, and private. It should allow for group discussion and private messages giving users full control over how much and what personal information is available to the plane community. If successful, this app should inspire people to rearrange their seats to sit next to the cool new person you just met online.
I’m going to build this app. I’ll be chronicling the process here online and keeping you all abreast of my successes and failures along the way.
Next time: Now that the idea is out in the open, I’m getting the itch to start learning. I’m going to research the best learn-to-build-an-app-online resources and report my findings. Stay tuned.
