Chicago Tribune: Before taking a flight, many people would think about a question: what kind of stranger will I be sitting next to for several hours? It could go well or horribly. You never know.

However, it turns out that now, in a few cases, you can know.

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines offers a program called Meet & Seat. It lets passengers share parts of their Facebook, Google+ or LinkedIn profiles, see the profiles of other participants on their flight and choose seats next to someone who seems like good in-flight company.

And the Quicket smartphone travel app recently introduced a Facebook check-in feature that lets users see who will be sitting next to them and, if those passengers have allowed it, link to their Facebook profiles.