SMS Opt-In & Consent Flow

Overview

91 Dispatcher is a flight safety application for general aviation pilots. Pilots can add emergency contacts (family members, partners, flight instructors) who receive SMS notifications about their flights — specifically takeoff, landing, overdue, and diversion alerts.

No marketing messages are ever sent. All SMS communication is transactional and directly related to flight safety notifications.

How Contacts Are Enrolled

Step 1: Pilot Adds a Contact

A registered, authenticated pilot navigates to the Contacts page and clicks Add Contact. The form collects:

Name — the contact's first name
Relationship — e.g. Spouse, Parent, CFI
Email — optional, for email notifications
Phone (SMS) — optional, for SMS notifications

At least one of email or phone is required. A usage policy notice is displayed above the form:

> *"Contacts you add here will receive flight safety notifications only — takeoff, landing, overdue, and diversion alerts. Email contacts verify with a code you enter here. Phone contacts will receive an SMS asking them to reply YES to opt in — they must consent directly. Misuse of this feature for unsolicited messages violates our Terms of Service."*

Step 2: Opt-In Request Sent to Contact

After the pilot saves the contact, the phone number is not active — it is marked as "Pending." The pilot clicks Send Opt-In next to the phone number.

A single opt-in request message is sent to the contact's phone via SMS:

> *"[Pilot Name] added you as an emergency contact on 91 Dispatcher for flight safety alerts (takeoff, landing, overdue, diversion). Reply YES to opt in. Reply STOP to decline. Msg & data rates may apply. ~3 msgs/flight."*

The pilot's UI shows "Awaiting reply" with an option to resend the opt-in request.

Step 3: Contact Opts In by Replying YES

The contact must reply YES (or Y, OPTIN, OPT-IN, START) to the SMS to confirm their consent. This reply is processed by the 91 Dispatcher inbound message handler, which:

Looks up the contact's phone number in the database
Marks the phone as verified/opted-in
Sends a confirmation reply: *"You're now opted in to flight safety alerts from 91 Dispatcher for [Pilot Name]. You'll receive takeoff, landing, and overdue notifications. Reply STOP at any time to unsubscribe."*

The contact initiates their own opt-in. The pilot cannot opt someone in on their behalf. Contacts who do not reply YES never receive any flight notification messages.

Step 4: Flight Notifications

Once opted in, the contact receives SMS notifications only when the pilot's aircraft departs or lands. Typical messages:

Takeoff: "Hello Sarah, Aircraft N413ES (flown by Gennaro) just took off from KGTU heading to KAUS. Keep an eye out for further notifications!"
Landing: "Hello Sarah, Aircraft N413ES (flown by Gennaro) just landed at KAUS. You'll receive no further notifications about this flight."

Maximum 3 messages per flight (takeoff + landing + optional overdue/diversion).

Step 5: Opt-Out

The contact can reply STOP (or UNSUBSCRIBE, CANCEL, QUIT, END) at any time to unsubscribe from all future messages. The system:

Marks the phone as unverified/opted-out in the database
Confirms: *"You've been unsubscribed from 91 Dispatcher flight alerts. You will no longer receive SMS notifications. Reply YES to re-subscribe."*

Twilio also handles STOP at the carrier level for additional compliance.

Consent Flow Summary

|---|---|---|---|

| 1 | Pilot adds contact name + phone number | Pilot (in app) | — |

Key compliance points:

The contact (message recipient) explicitly opts in by replying YES
The pilot cannot complete the opt-in on the contact's behalf
No messages are sent to contacts who have not replied YES
No marketing, promotional, or non-flight-related messages are ever sent
STOP is honored immediately and works at both the application and carrier level
Re-subscription is available by replying YES after a STOP