Hate getting stuck next to crying babies on airplanes? Or the elderly woman who just won’t shut up? Or maybe you’re looking for membership in the Mile High Club.

Enter Flight Club (www.flight-club.org), the brainchild of Medill alumnus Joe Murphy. An online community for air travelers, the club allows members to set up meetings at airports or on flights for some stimulating conversation … or other types of stimulation.

“Flight Club isn’t technically a Mile High Club organization, but I’m sure some of our members joined for that particular reason,” said Murphy, the club’s founder and president. “We’re not all about getting action — we’re more about meeting new people and helping to match up people with similar interests on flights.”

But it was the slogan, “We put the lay in layover,” that caught J. J. Johnson’s eye. The ad prompted Johnson to visit the Web site out of curiosity, he said.

“The slogan doesn’t really explain the scope of the group, but it piques your interest and gets people in the door,” said 26-year-old Johnson, who works at a multi-media firm.

Flight Club has been up and running since last November and currently is 500 members strong, Murphy said. So far the club has targeted Chicago, but there are always plans to expand, he said.

Signing up is free and registered members can create a personal profile and post their travel itinerary to see if any other members have similar plans. Members are matched by flight numbers or airport destinations and then decide based on the match’s profile, whether they would be interested in meeting before, during or after a flight.

Murphy, a 26-year-old freelance graphic designer, said he dreamt up the idea for the club while having a conversation with a friend at a bar a couple of years ago.

“The premise came out of a discussion about how it’s so difficult to join the Mile High Club,” he said. “And who doesn’t get a kick out of having sex on an airplane? We wanted to use the Internet to make it easier. The goals for the club just kind of expanded from there.”

Although Murphy, Medill ’99, said Flight Club can be used as a dating service, a lot of members said its appeal lies in being able to find someone interesting to talk to during a flight.

“I travel a lot and sometimes you get stuck with some duds you don’t really want to talk to, but you can’t avoid it,” said Kate Meyer, a 27-year-old Flight Club member.

Meyer, who works in sales, said she has only been registered for a couple of weeks, so she hasn’t met anyone through the Web site yet, but plans to for an upcoming trip to New York.

“The last time I had a nine-hour flight, I ended up sitting next to this woman in her 70s who had worked in a leper colony and we ended up talking about leprosy for nine hours,” Meyer said. “It was informative, sure, but at the same time, you’re like ‘You know what? We can talk about something else now.’ Flight Club is just a good way to meet folks and avoid talking about leprosy.”

In addition to preventing uncomfortable conversations, Murphy said the club can reduce members’ chances of “sitting next to a horribly obese and stinking guy or a mom with two screaming babies in her arms.”

Johnson said he joined because he wanted to see what types of people would be members. “I figured they would be a little more open, a little more adventurous,” he said. “I thought the club would breed some weirdos and weirdos are usually fun people. You’re always going to find weirdos if you look in the right spot.”

Jason Bobbitt, owner of an artist management and events production company, said he was lucky enough to hit it off with a female Flight Club member on a flight to Washington, D.C. Bobbitt, 27, said she showed him around the city and they still keep in touch via e-mail.

“It seemed like a quirky thing to try out,” he said. “I just said, ‘I gotta try this out and see what happens.’ And it turned out to be really cool.”

According to Meyer, Flight Club works because it functions in a highly controlled environment.

“You can do it in any capacity or take it to whatever level you want,” she said. “You can check out people’s profiles, so you’re in ultimate control of what goes on. You can meet, call or e-mail them beforehand if you want. You can meet up with someone just to chat or with the intention of taking it to the next level, and it’s totally up to you.”

Johnson said the club is a natural extension of Internet dating services.

“People like getting to know other people before meeting,” he said. “It helps eliminate the awkwardness of the situation. So if you can check people out before spending hours with them on a plane and there’s a potential for a relationship, so much the better. It’s something proactive we can do to make both flying and dating friendlier and not such a tension-filled experience.”

Although Flight Club has been growing gradually with the recent publicity it has received, Murphy said it needs a membership of at least 10,000 to be successful.

“With only 500 people and tons of flights out there, the odds of members actually getting a match are pretty slim,” he said. “But we’ll get there as our membership increases. Right now, Flight Club is still a baby and there are still a few things on my to do list that need to be done before this bird takes flight, but it’s definitely got global potential.”