Virgin passengers set to share onboard social travel tips

Virgin Atlantic has showed it has plenty of street cred by providing its passengers with the opportunity to communicate with the rest of the plane on board, using a social media network located in the flight entertainment system found on seatbacks.

Social media has been one of the greatest innovations of recent years with even those visiting far flung places on their backpacker travel insurance able to communicate with those back home and post photos of their adventures.

Virgin now offers its passengers a community facility, named the Travel Tip Catcher and is aimed at business fliers, as well as those simply taking a holiday on their single trip travel insurance. It is accessible via the company's website and passengers simply select the kind of travel they are interested in and where they are going, to see comments and hints left by their fellow fliers.

The innovation is being tipped as potentially a great success as it offers benefits to all passengers. Those less experienced in visiting other countries making one of their first holidays abroad on their single trip travel insurance plan, can log on to see what others have suggested.

For passengers who fly more frequently, such as those going overseas on their backpacker travel insurance, the system could still be useful to gain fellow tourist hints about their latest destination.

For those that feel they have something to share with others, it is possible to submit messages while in the air. At present there is a limit of 140 characters and hints are to be sent via Twitter.

The social media system is currently in use on two of Virgin's planes but as the new A3330-300 models are rolled out in the next 24 months, more planes will be kitted out with the technology.