Wingman Is the Mile-High Tinder

Flying can be agonizing or delightful, depending on what time you have to crawl out of bed to be at the airport and if you have elite status to avoid lines and eat yogurt pretzels in the lounge. Luck has had me seated next to some antagonizing personal space offenders. But there are usually girls I'm crossing my fingers will sit next to me on a flight, and it was only on a flight to Madrid a couple years ago that I sat next to a gorgeous Finnish girl whose number I really wanted to ask for.

Enter Wingman. While Virgin Airlines gave its passengers the ability to buy each other drinks from their seat's media controllers, now there's yet another way to get to know the girl in 17E. When a tip came to my inbox this Valentine's Day labeled "Tinder for Flights," I perused Wingman's website to check out this app that's yet to take off.

What's missing when you board that flight and the girl in 17E keeps shooting looks over to where you're sitting in 21B? An introduction, a decent pickup line? Wingman tackles awkward plane encounters by letting you text before you talk. Things should be no different in the sky anyway. Besides, without the handy interface displaying our interests, where would we be? Saying "Hi?"

When you're en route from point A to B, time is of the essence, Wingman reminds us. But if you need a few minutes (before approaching 17E) to get settled and trace your mortified escape plan to the plane's nearest exit row, the app can buy you time without having to get off your ass. This also seems ideal for turbulence.

Wingman works over Bluetooth in the case the plane you're on doesn't support wifi. I can't seem to get the Bluetooth on my iPhone to work with any of those rad wireless speakers everyone has, so at this point I can't interrupt the music. But I'm inclined to interrupt the girl in 17E once I get it fixed and Wingman hits the app store. Seat reserved.