How to Set Up Shared Rides for a Sales Kickoff

Sales kickoffs are the worst offenders for ground transport waste. You've got 50–200 salespeople flying in from everywhere, often on different airlines with different arrival times, scattered across multiple terminals.

The traditional approach: send a spreadsheet asking everyone for their flight details, manually sort arrivals into groups, pray no one's flight gets delayed, then give up and tell everyone to just grab an Uber.

SeatMax replaces all of that with automation.

Log into SeatMax and click "Create Event." Enter:

- Event name — e.g., "Q3 Sales Kickoff 2026" - Destination — Start typing the venue address. SeatMax auto-suggests airports within driving distance. - Allowed airports — Pick which airports travelers might fly into. For Denver, that's just DEN. For New York, you'd pick JFK, EWR, and LGA. - Incoming dates — The dates travelers will be arriving - Outgoing dates — The dates travelers will be departing - Vehicle preference — UberX, UberXL, or Optimized (smart mix of both — recommended) - Max wait time — How long a traveler should wait for others in their group (default: 30 minutes)

You have three ways to add travelers:

CSV Import — Upload a spreadsheet or paste from clipboard. SeatMax auto-maps columns (name, email, airline, flight number, date). Works with any format — no template required, though we provide one.

AI Import — Got messy data? Paste text from an email, PDF, or unstructured spreadsheet. SeatMax's AI parser (powered by Claude) extracts traveler details and flight information automatically.

Manual entry — Add travelers one at a time with the inline form. SeatMax validates flight numbers against real airline data in real time.

After import, SeatMax verifies every flight number against the AeroDataBox API. Invalid flights are flagged for review — you'll see exactly which flights couldn't be found and can fix them before the event.

Once travelers are added, SeatMax runs the grouping engine automatically. You'll see:

- Vehicle assignments — Each vehicle shows its riders, pickup zone, estimated cost, and assigned Captain - Savings breakdown — Baseline cost (everyone takes a solo ride) vs. grouped cost, with exact savings - Uber estimates — Real-time pricing from the Uber API for every airport-to-venue route

You can re-run grouping at any time — after adding more travelers, changing the wait window, or when flights are updated.

Send each traveler a magic link via email. They click it, see their event and ride assignment, and can update their own flight details if anything changes. No app download, no password.

For organizations using Slack, connect your workspace with one click. SeatMax DMs each Rider their vehicle assignment, Captain name, and pickup zone — all without leaving Slack.