KLM uses social media to allow passengers to choose their ideal seat neighbours

KLM Dutch Royal Airlines is using social media to support its Meet & Seat boarding experience, which is designed to make it easy for passengers to connect with one another on flights, whether it's for business or social reasons.

KLM is using the Gigya Social Login system to support the Meet &Seat service, which allows users to see who else is on board their flight. When customers choose to opt in to Meet & Seat, KLM prompts them to log in socially and share their Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn profile details with other participating passengers.

With Meet & Seat socially logged in flyers can see the profile details of other participating users, as well as their seat assignments. For a more social flight experience, Meet & Seat customers can choose seat assignments next to other passengers based on their social profile information.

By offering new ways for passengers to learn about one another through social media and incorporating social data capture to obtain valuable personal data on its customers, KLM says it is "building a valuable knowledge base of its customers".

Rob Zwerink, director of development at KLM, said: "Gigya's Social Login and consumer management technologies equipped our business with the tools to create a personal in-flight experience. In the future, we look forward to collaborating more with Gigya to understand our customers better and leverage this knowledge to create even deeper, more personal experiences."

KLM is a well established tracker of passengers that use social media to communicate. It has a dedicated social media team who are known to occasionally respond to Twitter messages or other social media posts in person at Schipol Airport in Amsterdam, or electronically.