Delta Created A Program For Networking In The Air

Screen shot from Delta

You won't have to stick in headphones or feign sleep to avoid airplane chatter anymore. Delta's new "Innovation Class" is seating professional experts to eager "up-and-comers" next to each other in order to create a mid-air "mentoring" program.

Here's how it works: Find a Delta flight that offers "Innovation Class," apply for a seat through LinkedIn, and if you're chosen, fly for free while squeezing in some quality networking time.

"We have customers flying with us who are big thinkers and innovators and are changing the world," Mauricio Parise, Delta's director of worldwide marketing communications, told CNBC. "We want to bring the ones succeeding in their field together with people who aspire to follow them."

The first duo was expert Eric Migicovsky, the inventor of the Pebble Smartwatch, and James Patten, "Innovator and Visual Artist." Their flight from Salt Lake City to a TED Conference in Vancouver, B.C. last week concluded with Migicovsky saying of Patten, "We'd love to draw some inspiration from what he's working on," in Delta's video.

The next mentor will be chef Sean Brock, flying from Charleston, South Carolina to New York on May 5th for the James Beard awards.

See how the first flight went below: