Fly the Friendly Skies

I don't know why this news story about a company called AirTroductions caught my eye, but I felt compelled to blog about it.

An excerpt:

The idea is to connect like-minded fliers — either in the personal or professional realms — who are traveling on the same flights. Here's how it works: Travelers join AirTroductions (airtroductions.com) for free and post personal and/or business profiles. Then, before taking a flight, they enter their itineraries and are notified of other members booked on the same flight. They're given the option of sending anonymous e-mail through the site (at which point a $5 fee kicks in) to determine whether they want to meet at the airport, and, if mutually acceptable, get reassigned to adjoining seats.

Well, being able to be matched up with a compatible airplane seatmate is a good thing. Much better, I'm sure, than being seated next to a killer.

Still, I can't help thinking that we'd all be sitting next to great people if the airlines were like they were back when I was a child. Was it just the wide eyes of a little girl on a big plane or were those stewardesses (yes, that is what they called themselves back then) really, really pretty and nice?

I seem to also remember airplane food that didn't taste bad and was actually food and not a tiny bad of three peanuts. All the male stewardesses (I'm sure they were called stewards but back then, what did I know?) were gay and flamboyant (of course, back then, I didn't know what gay was. I just thought they were HAPPY.)

There was plenty of room on planes (okay, might have been the fact that I was four feet tall) and everyone watched the movie and it was always a good one, and they'd bring snacks out in addition to meals and glasses of orange juice - and this wasn't even first class.

Everyone was smiling and chatting to their neighbors and curling up with fluffy pillows and soft blankets. I really do believe that when I was a little girl, air travel was cushy and luxurious, even in coach.

Today, you are lucky if a flight attendant doesn't snarl at you and glare at you sideways as he/she rolls the beverage tray like a bat out of hell down the aisle because God Forbid you ask for a drink or a second bag of three peanuts.

Today, all the people who sit next to you are obese and sweating profusely, often with a body odor problem and a hacking cough.

Today, the headsets for inflight "entertainment" cost a lot of money - I'd rather save for an iPod.

I'm sure today they still give out those little wing pins but probably plastic instead of metal and only if you are a child traveling alone so grownups are shit out of luck.

Whatever happened to the days of sparkly, happy air travel? Maybe Air-Troductions will bring back just a little bit of that friendly sky romance. Or at least increase the number of couples having sex on planes.

Comments

[Mike Bawden]

I'm not sure if Air-troductions will bring romance back to air travel, but I do suspect it will lead to an increase in applications to the "Mile High Club."

[Greg Hoffman]

I know a single female PR strategist in upstate New York that needs to buy a ticket on this airline this wekeend.

[Kazumi Baker]

What a great concept. I can just see an international dating version being developed. I guess you'd just hope to God you don't get stuck on the date from hell (without escape)!