Virgin America Is Determined to Help You Find Love During Your Flight
Love is definitely in the air.
Virgin America has unveiled a new gimmick called Get Lucky in which passengers can flirt with other people onboard.
If you see someone who catches your eye, you can order them a drink or some food and have it sent to their seat. It’s kind of like sending a drink over to someone at a bar, except on a plane there’s nowhere for the object of your affection to hide if he or she is creeped out by your attempts to hit on them.
Once you spot a passenger who gets your heart racing like the engine of a 747, you can scroll through the plane’s digital seat map on the back of the seat in front of you. Then, you just decide what you’d like to order and pay with a credit card, turning the poor, unsuspecting flight attendant into your wingwoman/matchmaker.
Of course, we can’t help but remind you the importance of making sure you send the drink to the right seat. You do not want to flirt with the guy who looks like he hasn’t showered in a week and is snoring so loudly that the control tower demands he wake up.
After the order has been sent, you can start a text conversation with a new program Virgin developed which allows passengers to communicate. If things go really well, you could soon be arranging a time to join the Mile High Club; or you could end up trying to figure out why you've been served with a mile-high restraining order.
Virgin founder Richard Branson is optimistic that this novel approach to finding love will work, claiming, “I'm not a betting man, but I say your chance of deplaning with a plus-one are at least 50 percent.” Worst case scenario, you've got someone to pass the time with while you wait for your luggage at the baggage carousel.
Our take: don't get your hopes up too high. It is Virgin after all. The odds of picking up someone would probably be much better if you booked a flight on Hugh Hefner Airlines. Worth a shot, though.