Chris Helgren / Reuters

An Irish Coast Guard helicopter evacuates an ill passenger from the Titanic Memorial Cruise ship MS Balmoral on April 10 in the Atlantic Ocean off the coast of Ireland.

It's more rough waters for a cruise ship retracing the Titanic's doomed voyage 100 years ago this month.

One day after the MS Balmoral arrived late for planned festivities on Ireland's coast, the ship was forced to turn back Tuesday due to a medical emergency on board.

Rachael Jackson, public relations manager for Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, which operates the Balmoral, told msnbc.com that a passenger had fallen ill.

"The ship is turning around and heading approximately 20 nautical miles east to bring it nearer to the coast and within reach of a helicopter," the cruise line said in a statement. "Fred. Olsen and Titanic Memorial Cruises are working with the Irish Coastguard to co-ordinate the relevant arrangements, and making sure that all agencies involved are being kept informed." 

Miles Morgan, Managing Director of Miles Morgan Travel which chartered the journey, told Reuters that "the passenger's condition is not thought to be life-threatening."

The ship, which departed Southampton, England, on Sunday, is currently traveling to New York. After a brief port call in Cobh on Ireland's south coast, the Balmoral sailed again late Monday night.

The ship is carrying 1,309 passengers on a 12-night cruise. Among them are relatives of those who lost their lives, relatives of survivors and historians.

The Balmoral's itinerary includes a memorial service at the spot where the Titanic hit an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, in international waters in the North Atlantic. More than 1,500 people aboard perished.

Related: Titanic's wealthiest passenger built NYC hotel

Also on Tuesday, the cruise ship Journey, carrying 440 passengers, left a New York City pier for Halifax, Nova Scotia.

Titanic Memorial Cruise, which arranged the cruises on both the Balmoral and the Journey, says the passengers will visit a cemetery where 150 victims of the Titanic are buried. The ship also will feature lectures about life on board the doomed ocean liner and will hold a memorial service at sea.

Ticket prices dropped in recent weeks from about $5,000 per person to $1,000 per person. 

Meanwhile, the Balmoral continued to be plagued by bad weather on Tuesday afternoon, forcing the cancellation of a floor show due to safety concerns for the performers. 

The memorial cruise has been five years in the making and organizers have tried to make it as authentic to the era as possible. 

Related: Who gets Titanic's treasures? Stay tuned

Passengers from 28 countries, who have paid between around 2,600 pounds ($4,100) and 8,000 pounds each, are being offered dishes served on the Titanic and on-board lectures about the famous ship. 

The Balmoral was set to resume its voyage once the passenger was evacuated.

Like the Balmoral, the Titanic also experienced several delays, Jeff Jensen of Living Titanic Lectures told msnbc.com. After the Titanic's sister ship, the Olympic, collided with a ship in New York's harbor in 1911, workers were pulled off the Titanic to make repairs, which postponed the Titanic's maiden voyage by three to four months.

“Even the morning it left, there was a two-hour delay,” Jensen said, referring to an incident in which the force of the Titanic's engines snapped the mooring lines of the liner New York in Southampton’s harbor, resulting in a near collision between the two ships.

While at sea, the Titanic's radio broke down on the day before the ship's fateful collision with an iceberg, Jensen said. As operators tried to catch up on a communications backlog, they neglected to deliver ice warnings to the captain. “Right up until the day of the disaster, they were still feeling the effects of some of the delays.”

Despite the current holdups aboard the Balmoral, Jensen said he hopes the ship will soon be able to get back on course and stay true to its its focus: "to remember and honor the Titanic."

Information from the Associated Press and Reuters was included in this report.

More on Overhead Bin

• Titanic cruise delayed due to strong winds
• Cruise ships commemorate Titanic's voyage
• Events mark 100th anniversary of Titanic's sinking 
• Ghostly new images of the Titanic revealed 
• Full Titanic wreck site mapped for the first time

Chris Helgren / Reuters

Tormod Gaasbakk, left, and Anne Isabel Udbye of Trondheim, Norway, sit in a hot tub on a Titanic Memorial Cruise aboard the MS Balmoral as it navigates high winds April 9 on its sailing to Cobh.

It's been a stormy beginning for a cruise ship retracing the maiden voyage of the doomed Titanic.

The MS Balmoral, with 1,309 passengers aboard, was delayed on its first day at sea due to strong winds, the Guardian reports. The ship set sail Sunday from Southampton — as the Titanic did on its maiden voyage 100 years ago — on a 12-night cruise commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's sinking.

After being slowed by strong winds, the Balmoral reached Cobh on Ireland's southern coast late Monday, the BBC reports.

The ship originally had been due to arrive in Cobh at 2:30 p.m. local time, according to the Guardian, forcing a civic reception to be postponed for several hours. The Balmoral arrived shortly before 6 p.m. and was greeted by thousands of well-wishers, Rachael Jackson, public relations manager for Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, which operates the Balmoral, told msnbc.com.

The town of Cobh, formerly known as Queenstown, was the Titanic's last port of call before it crossed the Atlantic almost a century ago. The ship will follow the same route as the Titanic, though since it is a smaller ship, the Balmoral had to leave Southampton two days earlier than the Titanic.

The parent company of Fred. Olsen Cruise Lines, Harland and Wolff, built the Titanic in Belfast. It has been chartered for the event by Miles Morgan Travel, which specializes in tailor-made holidays.

Slideshow: Titanic Belfast

David Moir / Reuters

The Titanic Belfast Experience is a new visitor attraction location in Belfast's Titanic Quarter, on the original site of the Harland and Wolff shipyard -  birthplace of RMS Titanic.

Launch slideshow

Rachel O'Reilly, a spokeswoman for Miles Morgan Travel, told the Guardian that the ship was running late. "But I have spoken to Miles Morgan himself, who is on board, and he tells me the ship will categorically not be delayed leaving Cobh this evening."

Alastair Grant / AP

Mary Beth Crocker Dearing and her husband, Tom Dearing, from Newport, Ky., pose for the media in period costume as they wait to board the MS Balmoral cruise ship April 8 in Southampton, England.

The organizers are trying to recreate the onboard experience — minus the disaster — including the food and a live band playing music from that era, in a tribute to Titanic's musicians who reportedly played their instruments until the ship sank.

People from 28 countries have booked passage, organizers said, including relatives of some of the more than 1,500 people who died when the Titanic collided with an iceberg and sank on April 15, 1912, in international waters in the North Atlantic. Other passengers include relatives of the around 700 survivors, along with authors and historians.

The tickets varied in cost from 2,799 pounds ($4,445) to 5,995 pounds ($9,520).

Over the course of the voyage, passengers will attend lectures by Titanic experts such as Philip Littlejohn, grandson of a Titanic survivor. Littlejohn said he is sure his grandfather would be proud to know his story would be shared with passengers on the Titanic Memorial Cruise.

"It will be an emotional moment when we are over the wreck site, where I dived in 2001 and where my grandfather left Titanic rowing Lifeboat 13," he said.

While on board, passengers also will dine on meals based around dishes served in April 1912, with a formal dinner on April 13 made up entirely of dishes served aboard the Titanic.

Cruise organizers have set up a special memorial service on April 14 to start at 11:40 p.m. to mark the moment Titanic hit the iceberg, and later at the exact moment when the ship sank.

The cruise is among an abundance of commemorations and memorials to the reputedly unsinkable ship that have sprung up to coincide with the 100th anniversary of the Titanic's doomed voyage.

Information from the Associated Press was included in this report.

More on Overhead Bin

• Cruise ships commemorate Titanic's voyage
• Events mark 100th anniversary of Titanic's sinking 
• Ghostly new images of the Titanic revealed 
• Full Titanic wreck site mapped for the first time

Could there be something to that ugly American stereotype?

A new LivingSocial survey conducted among more than 5,600 respondents in five countries by Mandala Research finds that Americans self-rate themselves as the world’s worst tourists.

That assessment was shared by Canadians and Australians, while the Irish rated their British neighbors as the worst, and the British identified Germans as being the most boorish.

Following Americans (20 percent), 15 percent of U.S. respondents said the Chinese were the worst tourists, followed by the French (14 percent), Japanese (12 percent) and Russians (11 percent).

In addition to bestowing that dubious distinction upon their fellow Americans, four out of 10 U.S. respondents admit to having stolen or accidentally packed items other than the sample toiletries from hotels, with towels (28 percent) listed as one of the most frequently pilfered items. 

The results of the online survey, conducted in the U.S. in February in the top 20 media markets and released Friday, has a margin of error of 1.5 percent.

Despite a common misperception that Americans don’t go abroad, the results show that we actually do get around , said Maire Griffin, director of communications for LivingSocial.

“We found that 78 percent of Americans have visited at least one other foreign country, and 36 percent have traveled to four or more foreign destinations,” Griffin told msnbc.com.

But Americans may not be such bad tourists after all, just more forthright about our flaws, said Michael Brein, a guidebook writer and self-billed travel psychologist.

“We tend to see being frank, open, honest — spilling our guts — more of a virtue than others may see it,” Brein said.

In contrast, citizens from some other countries might view those traits as a weakness, said Brein, who has a doctorate degree in social psychology. “Therefore, as a culture, we may be more self-deprecating,” he said.

For many years, America was the big kid on the block and was more socially and culturally isolated from other people around the world, Brein said. But in an increasingly globalized culture, he believes Americans are doing their part to blend in.

Of course, Brein stresses, it depends upon the individual.

“We’re a huge nation with all kinds of people traveling,” he said. “I have met many kinds of Americans who do not fit that [ugly American] stereotype at all.”

Griffin said that some of Americans’ favorite travel activities — such as taking photos, eating in new restaurants and meeting new people — lend to learning more about other cultures.

“That adventurous spirit and making new friends leads us into a place we can be better tourists,” she said.

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Joy Jernigan is a senior travel editor for msnbc.com. Follow her onTwitter.

It was about 3 a.m. on a British Airways transcontinental flight when passengers heard an announcement that the plane was about to crash into the sea, The Telegraph reports.

But the automated message was a mistake, as crew members quickly reassured passengers.

"It was about 3 a.m. An alarm sounded and we were told we were about to land in the sea. I thought we were going to die," one passenger onboard told The Telegraph.  “My wife was crying and passengers were screaming. Then they played an announcement telling us to just ignore the warnings."

The Friday night incident occurred as Flight 206 was over the Atlantic Ocean enroute from Miami to London's Heathrow Airport.

A British Airways spokesperson told the newspaper: "The cabin crew canceled the announcement immediately and sought to reassure customers that the flight was operating normally. We apologize to customers for causing them undue concern."

In August 2010, passengers on another British Airways flight from London's Heathrow Airport to Hong Kong also were mistakenly warned they were about to crash. The error was blamed on a crew member who hit an incorrect button.

"Who knew they had that kind of prerecorded announcement ready to go onboard the aircraft?" NBC's Brian Williams reported at the time.

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David Stephens / Lindblad Expeditions

This rare leucistic Chinstrap penguin spotted in Antarctica on Monday lacks the standard black-and-white coloring of most penguins.

Yes, we know, we already posted today's photo of the day. But we liked this shot so much that we wanted to share it with you.

David Stephens, a naturalist aboard Lindblad Expeditions' National Geographic Explorer ship, photographed this rare white Chinstrap penguin on Monday on Antarctica's Aitcho Islands.

"At the water’s edge stood a leucistic Chinstrap," Stephens wrote in the ship's daily expedition report. "This bird was whitish, but not quite an albino. Instead, it had pigmented eyes and a washed-out version of a Chinstrap’s normal pattern. Many wondered about this unusual bird’s chances of success. While odd coloration may make fishing a bit more difficult, leucistic birds are regularly found breeding normally."

A leucistic bird has reduced pigmention, unlike a bird with albinism, which is a lack of skin pigment. The standard black-and-white coloring found on penguins serves as camouflage that aids the bird in fishing, so it's unusual to find a penguin without it.

“It is a fairly rare phenomenon,” said Dyan deNapoli, a penguin expert and author of "The Great Penguin Rescue," who added that the rate of leucism in Chinstrap penguins is about 1 in 146,000. "When I was in Antarctica, I never saw one, and I saw a lot of penguins."

Lindblad Expeditions is an expedition travel company in alliance with National Geographic. Its flagship, the National Geographic Explorer, accommodates 148 guest on voyages to the two polar regions and various nations. Each ship in the fleet carries National Geographic-certified photography instructors, who offer tips to passengers. Voyages focus on the wildlife, nature and culture.

The National Geographic Explorer is currently in the middle of a 14-day voyage to Antarctica.

"Expedition photography is a big component of our expeditions," said Patty Disken-Cahill, spokeswoman for Lindblad Expeditions. "The photography that comes out of our ships is pretty spectacular."

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Members of the U.S. military flying on official orders while in uniform may soon see faster security screening while traveling through the nation's airports.

The U.S. House of Representatives today voted 404 to 0 to approve H.R. 1801, also known as the ‘‘Risk-Based Security Screening for Members of The Armed Forces Act," which will now be sent to the Senate. If passed by the Senate and signed into law by President Barack Obama, the Transportation Security Administration within six months will be required to implement expedited security screening for members of the U.S. military and any family members traveling with them.

“With all the contention and political gridlock we’ve witnessed over the past several months, what’s most important is that we come together to agree where we can,” said Rep. Chip Cravaack, R-Minn., in a statement. “In respect to our men and women in uniform and in the best interest of our national security, this bipartisan initiative is the least we could do for our military personnel and their families traveling our nation’s airports while serving our country." 

Rep. Laura Richardson, D-Calif., a member of the Committee on Homeland Security on which Cravaack also serves, urged support of the bill from the House floor. "It’s needed, it’s common sense and it’s legislation with bipartisan support,” she said.

The legislation is a step toward a more risk-based, intelligence-driven security screening system, rather than a  one-size-fits-all approach. The TSA is currently testing a "PreCheck" program for travelers who provide personal information in exchange for the possibility of faster screening at airports in Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit and Miami, with plans to expand to airports in Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Minneapolis-St. Paul.  

TSA spokesman Greg Soule told msnbc.com that the agency already expedites screening for wounded veterans and allows service members in uniform with proper ID to keep their shoes or boots on while passing through security checkpoints.

The TSA also is testing a military ID card-reading program at Monterey Peninsula Airport, Soule said. The pilot program is designed to test the technology necessary to verify the status of U.S. service members and could pave the way for troops to be included in TSA's PreCheck expedited screening program.

“While this program would not guarantee expedited screening — we must retain a certain element of randomness to prevent terrorists from gaming the system — the testing of this concept holds the potential to significantly change the travel experience for members of the U.S. Armed Forces in the future,” Soule said.

Brandon Macsata, executive director for the Association for Airline Passenger Rights, said he supports the legislation.

"We contend that like pilots who have already undergone extensive security screenings and [are] put in charge of the aircraft's overall safety and security, men and women serving in our armed services should be afford the same expedited screening," Macsata  told msnbc.com. "U.S. military traveling on official orders are executing their sworn duty to defend the country, and as such they should not be delayed with long airport security screenings."

However, Erica Pena-Vest, founder and travel editor for GuidetoMilitaryTravel.com, told msnbc.com that while she thinks members of Congress have their heart in the right place, she's never heard any active-duty member of the military complain about having to go through airport security, just like any other American. “Most military people don’t like to be singled out,” she said, adding that only the U.S. Army travels in uniform.

“I think as a society we can think of other ways to honor our military," said Pena-Vest, who is married to an aviator in the U.S. Navy. "I don’t necessarily think that helping them expedite the security screening process is necessarily the answer."

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Joy Jernigan is a senior travel editor for msnbc.com. Follow her on Twitter.

GroundLink.com

"The ground transportation category has largely been ignored," said Charles Fraas, CEO for GroundLink, a global car service.

When air travelers touch down at an unfamiliar airport, they have a few options for the next leg of their journey.

Rent a car. Take a taxi. Step onto a shuttle. Board a bus or a light-rail train.

Or hire a private car service.

While online travel agencies such as Hotwire, Orbitz or Travelocity make it easy for travelers to book a rental car when they make flight and hotel reservations, customers who prefer not to drive have largely been left to their own devices once they're on the ground.

"The ground transportation category has largely been ignored," said Charles Fraas, CEO for GroundLink, a global car service. "For years, it has really never met the consumer’s needs."

The industry is widely fragmented with numerous local suppliers, Fraas said. That's made it difficult for travelers to find broad, geographic coverage and reliable service, he added, and there's a wide discrepancy in pricing. “We’re really challenging the travel industry to think broader.”

GroundLink lets customers book a car via phone, online or through a mobile app and offers 12 classes of service, from sedans and sport-utility vehicles to stretch limos and party buses. Customers can see the price of their car before they book and view their driver's location.

GroundLink currently is available in 5,000 cities and 110 countries. “Many of these countries, you can actually book a car with us with one-hour notice,” said S. Daniel Leon, general manager of mobile for GroundLink.

Limos.com

Limos.com lets travelers see results that include price comparisons and customer reviews.

“Many places in New York, you can get a car with us in five minutes,” Leon said, adding that the company plans to expand to more U.S. cities in 2012.

Another option for travelers is Limos.com, an online marketplace for private car service. CEO T.J. Clark said his company's mission is to make it as easy to book a car service as it is to book a hotel or flight online.

“What is so surprising is that less than 5 percent of the bookings in this category are being done online,” Clark said.

Limos.com has aggregated 2,000 local suppliers from around the globe and entered them in a single, common interface that lets customers input, for example, the number of passengers and where they are going, and see instant results that include price comparisons, star ratings and customer reviews.

Limos.com will be live with five of the 10 largest airlines, two of the four largest hotel chains and three of the top six online travel agencies in early 2012, Clark said.

“Car service is a great service,” Clark said. “It’s reliable, safe and it can be affordable.”

Clem Bason, president of Hotwire Group, told msnbc.com that until about six months ago it was difficult to compare prices for ground transportation options. He thinks limos.com and GroundLink can help fill in that information gap. “It’s clearly meeting a need,” he said.

Bob Lewis, director of ground transportation for Sabre Travel Network, the world's largest global distribution system, said corporate travel agents often are able to book private cars for their clients but he sees significant opportunity for growth in the leisure-travel market.

"I’m not sure that a cab is always the most comfortable choice,” Lewis said.

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Joy Jernigan is a senior travel editor for msnbc.com. Follow her on Twitter.

Gtrot provides travelers with personalized results by destination on things to do and places to see based on their friends' activity on Facebook or Foursquare.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- The travel industry is getting social.

About one-third of the 32 companies at this year’s Travel Innovation Summit at the PhoCusWright conference, an annual meeting of travel industry professionals, demonstrated products or services that prominently incorporate social media, whether users login to a travel site through Facebook or peruse restaurant recommendations from within their social network.

Websites or apps such as gtrot, FlyMuch, myTab, Jetpac, JetZet and Trippy join a growing field that already includes early innovators such as Gogobot and heavyweights such as TripAdvisor, both of which are already well-integrated with Facebook.

Travelers are more likely to trust recommendations from family and friends, said Dan Rose, vice president of partnerships and platform marketing for Facebook, just as they are more likely to trust advice from friends on which music to listen to or which movie to watch.

Facebook integration is also leading to more-engaged travelers. More than 57 million people have had their trip-planning experience personalized through Facebook, Rose said. And Gogobot users who login via Facebook are 40 percent more likely to write a review.

“We’re moving from the information web to the social web,” said Rose. “From the wisdom of crowds to the wisdom of friends.”

For example, gtrot, this year's winner in the social media category, provides travelers with personalized results by destination on things to do and places to see based on their friends' activity on Facebook or Foursquare.

Travel advice shouldn't be dependent on how well-traveled your friends are, Zach Smith, co-founder of gtrot, told msnbc.com. Instead, gtrot aggregates travel recommendations from friends’ social network updates to provide more meaningful results.

"You don't have to wait for friends to give you advice," Smith told msnbc.com. "It's already here and personalized." 

Currently, gtrot is in beta and only accessible via invite code, but Smith says the website should be accessible to all by January.

“I think a lot of startups really want to leverage their momentum in social,” said Carroll Rheem, director of research for PhoCusWright.

Because Facebook is the dominant social media platform, she said, “now everyone’s putting Facebook out onto their site.”

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LivingSocial Instant Escapes will offer steep discounts for last-minute travel packages.

First came LivingSocial Escapes, which offers customers discount vacation packages.

Now comes LivingSocial Instant Escapes, launched Thursday, which offers customers last-minute travel deals up to 55 percent off.

Doug Miller, senior vice president for LivingSocial’s new business initiatives, told msnbc.com that he’s seen a lot of interest from customers in last-minute travel. While most LivingSocial Escapes packages can be booked several months out, Instant Escapes deals are aimed at travelers who don’t have plans for the upcoming weekend.  “Our focus is on creating demand,” he said.

Customers can find these last-minute deals on the current LivingSocial Escapes website or mobile app or sign up to receive weekly e-mails. New deals will be posted on Wednesdays, focusing on destinations within driving distance and are good for either that Thursday, Friday or Saturday night. Most deals are one-night stays, Miller said.

The first Instant Escapes deals include:

• $139 per night at the Larkspur Hotel in San Francisco, which also includes a $15 credit to the on-site Bar 1915 and a $75 credit to rent a luxury car; 
• $265 per night for a room at The Hudson Hotel in the Hell’s Kitchen area of New York City, as well as free WiFi, late check-out and continental breakfast for two; and
• $84 per night at Washington, D.C.’s Hotel Madison with a complimentary room upgrade and late check-out.

Since launching a year ago this month, LivingSocial Escapes has sold nearly 600,000 room nights at more than 800 different properties around the world. It was quickly followed by Groupon Getaways, which launched over the summer.

Carroll Rheem, director of research for PhoCusWright, said the challenge for deal sites is to drive incremental bookings, not undercut the price for a customer who was already planning a trip. She sees last-minute escapes as a niche market.

“If you’re kind of bored for the weekend, that’s a very different experience than ‘I know I was going to take a trip,’” she said.

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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Travelers face no shortage of challenges, from finding the right hotel to making the most of their vacation to knowing which restaurant recommendation to trust.

On Tuesday, 32 companies looking to make the travel experience better presented their products at the Travel Innovation Summit at this year’s PhoCusWright conference before their peers in the travel industry, a circle of critics and a panel of judges.

Among this year's winners, announced Wednesday:

• GroundLink: a global, private car service that can be booked online or via mobile.
• Gtrot: a website that provides travelers with targeted content such as deals or things to do in a specific city, based on their friend's social media activity through sites such as Facebook or Foursquare.
• Evature: Eva, its Expert Virtual Agent, is designed to understand travel requests submitted in natural language, also known as free text.
• Hipmunk: offers a flight and hotel search that now integrates with a traveler's calendar and features a heatmap for cities throughout the world based on, for example, the density of shopping or nightlife in a particular neighborhood.
• ReviewPro: a customer intelligence tool that hotels can use to profit from the social web and manage their online reputation.

The judges also gave runner-up nods to two companies: Tru, a global mobile carrier, and TripLingo, a language-learning app that includes, among other things, a Slang Slider that helps travelers find the best translation.

“Travel is still very open to innovation,” Gregg Brockway, co-founder of TripIt and one of this year’s judges, told msnbc.com “I think we saw some companies that are answering really interesting problems.”

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HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- For any international traveler who's ever been surprised by a whopping cell phone bill upon their return home, global mobile carrier Tru has a solution.

“Our innovation is aimed at one goal: to serve the communication needs of the international traveler,” said Gary Cohen, senior vice president and general manager for the Americas for Truphone.

Tru's approach is called "least cost roaming," which helps companies save on roaming charges abroad by using local numbers. Tru offers multiple local numbers on one SIM card, allowing customers and contacts to reach one another -- without paying high charges for international calls, texting or uploading data. 

Too often, travelers abroad turn off their devices, which harms productivity, or bite the bullet and pay exorbitant roaming charges, said Cohen. He estimates that with Tru, companies can save 30 to 90 percent on roaming charges.

Tru’s service currently works in more than 200 countries, including the United Kingdom, and will be available in the United States in 2012.  

Rod Cuthbert, founder and chairman emeritus for Viator Inc., and one of the members of the critics circle at the PhoCusWright conference, said he uses the service and loves it.

“Your corporate strategy to me makes sense,” said Sophie Forest, managing partner for the venture capital company Brightspark Ventures, who is also one of this year's critics.  However, she pointed out that Wi-Fi is everywhere these days, so Tru's solution might make more sense for the business traveler than the leisure traveler.

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Joy Jernigan is a senior travel editor for msnbc.com and is reporting from The PhoCusWright Conference 2011. Follow her on Twitter.

HOLLYWOOD, Fla. -- Chris Lopinto wants air travelers to never get stuck in a middle seat again.

"Being in the middle seat is kind of like gambling," said Lopinto, co-founder and president for ExpertFlyer.com. “It’s next to impossible to get out of them on your own without some help."

Airlines today are averaging an 85 percent load factor, Lopinto said, which means roughly 66 percent of passengers get an aisle or window and 19 percent (since middle seats are the last to be filled) are stuck in the middle. “There are way too many unhappy travelers.”

To solve the problem, ExpertFlyer.com has created seat alerts. On its website, travelers can see a seat map for their flight and request the seat they want, whether an aisle, window or two seats together. “If you actually want to sit next to the person you’re traveling with,” Lopinto said.

Travelers can create one seat alert at a time for free. If the seat requested becomes available, travelers are notified via e-mail. Additional alerts are 99 cents.

ExpertFlyer also incorporates maps and seat reviews from TripAdvisor's SeatGuru.

Lopinto presented his product Tuesday before a critics circle, a panel of judges and an audience of his peers during the Travel Innovation Summit at this year's PhoCusWright conference, an annual meeting of travel industry professionals. Lopinto saiid ExpertFlyer has a 72 percent success rate in getting people to the seat they want.

But Jim Hornthal, chairman of trip-planning company Triporati and one this year's critics, noted that many airlines are now charging premiums for the best seat assignments. And there's no guarantee that you will get the seat you want. “I’m paying you a dollar for the hope that I get moved,” Hornthal said.

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Joy Jernigan is a senior travel editor for msnbc.com and is reporting from The PhoCusWright Conference 2011. Follow her on Twitter.