Your backup seat.
Guaranteed.
Lock a real seat on another flight before anything goes wrong. When your flight is cancelled or delayed, one tap boards you on the backup you already hold — for less than an airport coffee.
A concept in development at The Adjacent Possible.
MustBoardLIVEWhen a flight fails, the traveler loses.
A cancellation hands you back to the very airline that broke your trip — on its schedule, its next open seat, its hold music. In the US alone:
US passengers a year have a flight delayed or cancelled — roughly 1 in 5 flights runs late. Meetings, connections and whole trips, gone.
AirHelp 2024 · US DOT 2024rebooks you — only onto its own next open seat, not the fastest way home. A rival carrier isn’t even offered unless the airline has nothing for 24 hours.
US DOT rebooking rules, 2024just to reach an agent on a normal day. In a real meltdown, holds run for hours and your rebooked seat can be a day away.
Netomi 2022 · Dec 2022 meltdownThe worst part isn’t the delay. It’s losing control.
When your flight dies, you’re put in a queue, rebooked on someone else’s priority, and told to wait — by the same airline that just failed you. 89% of travelers now expect to fight their own way out of a disruption. MustBoard hands that control back: you already hold a confirmed seat on another flight before anything goes wrong.
You’re not in anyone’s queue.
One tap and you’re walking to a gate on a seat that is already yours — while everyone else is still on hold. No call center, no “maybe,” no refreshing the app. The seat was reserved the day you booked, not scrambled for at the gate.
Even when there’s no Plan A left.
A storm grounds the whole airport? MustBoard rebooks you the instant disruption is detected — ahead of the bulk re-accommodation the airline runs on its priority, not yours. Being first and automatic beats being passenger 1,800 on someone else’s list. If no seat anywhere can be honored, your option is simply refunded.
89%: Hopper / Fortune, 2026. AirHelp surveys: ~4 in 10 passengers say the airline’s care fell short in a disruption; roughly 1 in 6 get neither a refund nor an alternative flight.
Three taps, in the app you already have open.
MustBoard rides inside the booking flow you already use — priced dynamically, cheap while seats are open, settled in your pocket.
Add your Plan B
One tap on the booking you’re already making reserves the last seat on a cross-airline backup — for less than a coffee.
CHECKOUTRelax
If your flight leaves on time, the hold releases — your seat goes straight back to the airline to sell — and you’re charged next to nothing. You only pay when you’re actually protected.
STATUSI must board
Cancelled or badly delayed? One tap issues a boarding pass on your backup carrier — you’re moving while the queue is still forming.
RESCUEEveryone wins on the same empty seat.
The elegance of MustBoard: the traveler’s peace of mind and the airline’s new revenue come from the exact same inventory — a seat that was going to fly empty anyway.
No second seat is wasted — the hold reconciles itself.
Your backup is a conditional hold on a real seat, not a seat pulled off the market. The instant your original flight is confirmed, the hold releases and the airline is free to sell that seat again — right up to the gate — so you only hold it while you might actually need it. It sits inside the ~2.5M seats a day that were already flying empty: the airline earns your option fee either way, and on the trips that fail, that same empty seat becomes the one that saves the journey.
Travelers
- Peace of mind for less than airport coffee
- A real seat, across airlines, held in advance
- No queues, no call-center holds
- Carry-on only — switch in seconds
Airlines
- New revenue on seats that fly empty
- A paid home for distressed, stranded flyers
- Carry-on switch — ground-ops impact near zero
- Plug-and-play NDC / GDS integration
Investors
- Pure-software, data-driven margins
- Dynamic pricing caps the loss ratio
- A defensible cross-airline inventory network
- Clear acquisition paths: OTA, GDS, alliance
A new line on a ~$150B ancillary pool.
MustBoard monetizes the one thing airlines can’t resell — the empty seat — and shares the upside with the carriers that supply it.
Industry figures: IATA (2024 load factor 83.5%), CarTrawler / IdeaWorksCompany (2024 ancillary ~$148B), US travel surveys. Attach-rate and margin scenarios are illustrative, not forecasts.
The seat is already yours.
Cross-airline rebooking already exists — Hopper, Freebird, even some airlines do it. But they all go looking for a seat the moment things break, with no promise one is still there. MustBoard is the only one that holds a real seat for you in advance.
A real seat on another flight, locked before you ever leave home. Cross-airline and one-tap like the best of them — but because the seat is already yours, it’s there when everyone else’s last-minute search comes up empty.
Disruption Assistance rebooks you on any airline — or refunds you — but only after a day-of delay or cancellation. It shops for a seat when things break; none may be left.
Pioneered app rebooking; acquired by Capital One in 2020 and folded into Capital One Travel. Still a new seat bought after disruption — not one held in advance.
Your own carrier, same route, day-of, for a fee. Standby isn’t guaranteed at all — and nothing crosses to another airline when yours is grounded.
AirHelp and trip insurance refund a ruined trip. Useful — but a payout doesn’t put you on the next plane. MustBoard keeps you moving.
From waiting list to global network.
Prove the demand
Landing page and waiting list — validate that travelers want a guaranteed Plan B they control.
Alpha integration
First airline integration and the risk pool secured for live option pricing.
Live pilot
A pilot on a busy, disruption-prone route — real options sold to real travelers.
Scale the network
Expand city-pairs, add checked-bag support (IATA Baggage XML), SOC2, then roll out across airline groups.
Never miss a board call again.
MustBoard is an early concept from The Adjacent Possible. If guaranteed, cross-airline flight protection is a problem you know — as a traveler, an airline, or a backer — we’d love to talk.
Or write to [email protected]