Innovation

How often do you pat yourself on the back for having the best seat on a flight? While it may be a good feeling, we often get the best seat on the plane through sheer luck, and not through any means under our control.

For the millions of passengers who pre-select their seat choice prior to flying, it makes a big difference to get a good seat – both physically and psychologically. There are many sites that provide information on the best seats based on the airline, class of travel, flight, and aircraft type. You get to know which seat gives maximum leg room, clear window view, less disturbance (away from the galley or toilets), and also the one easiest for exiting in case of an emergency!

So far, you are limited to making a best guess on a 2-D seat map and just hoping that it's just as you assumed it would be.

Now, imagine you could do this on a next level of experience with Virtual Reality (VR). Imagine the experience if you could don on a VR kit and walk your way into the aircraft. You would be able to walk along the aisle looking at the seats, evaluating how they suit your needs. This will be the next wave of digital experience that really puts passenger experience on a new high.

The possibilities of having a VR based seat map will be a tremendous new development for the airline industry. The choices are immense and not just limited to seat booking. The customer can walk his/her way in and view the seats with visual cues attached. A visual graphic on the seat could give additional information if the seat has been blocked or if it is reserved for people with special needs. Airlines can even have hovering price tag information on the seats if the seat choices have a special price structure. The customer can select the seat, auxiliary services and even make payment choices in the VR environment. This indeed would be a path-breaking digital experience, and would make the customer experience much more engaging.