13-Year-Old builds CoSeat app to help train and flight passengers swap seats

A common problem faced by passengers, being allotted seats far away from their family members or travelling companions, has prompted 13-year-old Shireen Kalra to build an application (app) that helps people to find other passengers open to exchanging seats.

Inspired by her family members’ train journey where she and her family members had been allotted different seats, Shireen did not see it as an insurmountable problem and wondered if technology could help.

Her application, that she named CoSeat, is designed to connect passengers with similar preferences and willingness to exchange seats. For train journeys, the person looking to change their seat can enter their PNR details and specify the kind of seat or berth they are looking for and the system will try to find compatible passengers who might be willing to exchange.

The application does not change anyone’s railway seat booking. It allows passengers to connect with each other on their own and any exchange happens with consent and abiding by all applicable rules.

It is useful for a variety of situations including families travelling together wishing to travel together, parents wanting to travel in a lower berth than their children, or elderly passengers desiring to travel sitting in a lower berth.

On the company’s website, it says that Shireen was inspired to come up with the idea while on a family trip where the family was separated due to the seat allotment and went on to design and build the product with the help of her parents.

Seat preferences also come into play for flights with some people preferring window seats and others aisle seats and the application also helps with such scenarios.

However, information about flights is not directly available with the company, and is entered by users, according to the application’s website.

The application shows how a common problem can become a learning curve for young students and how they can think out of the box.

Instead of building a product to sell, Shireen had identified a logistical challenge and built an application that would make it easier for people to connect with each other.

The application works on three basic steps: verifying a passenger’s journey, identifying which seat arrangement they are looking for and connecting them with someone who is willing to exchange.

It also makes one wonder if technology can help resolve other issues with public transport. Though the seat allotment is done by the railways, there are passenger-to-passenger exchanges that happen.

For Shireen, a family trip turned into a challenge that prompted her to test her knowledge of new technology and build a product that helps people to solve a problem that they encounter almost everyday.

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