Originally Posted by
MSPeconomist
After anything beyond the first polite request, I would quite firmly tell the FA that I booked this seat for reasons that are none of his/her business and that I consider it highly inappropriate to be asked again. Then I would report the incident to DL. FAs should not be pressuring elites to switch seats against their will and absolutely should never make a snide comment about the matter either to the passenger or to another passenger.
However, having said this, I wonder whether a really nasty FA could kick someone off the flight over refusing to switch seats or if they could order someone to change from an assigned seat. Would this be an IDB? I'm guessing officially no, but you would still be kicked off for refusing to cooperate/follow orders of crew, even though there would be an apology later and the FA would get in trouble.
Your second paragraph explains my reason for not doing the first. I was once on an almost empty Saab going to Tri-Cities from, I believe, MEM. It may have been the return flight, not that it matters. There were only four or five passengers, so rather than sit next to the other large adult gentleman, as the door was closing, I moved to an empty row. The FA didn't like this and told me to go back to my seat. Long story short, she did tell the pilot that she did not feel comfortable with me on the plane. We were delayed while the pilot came back, spoke with me and determined that the FA was nuts. The pilot apologized to me, allowed me to change seats and we were on our way after wasting fifteen minutes.
Lesson learned - I politely nod and agree with the FA, take down her name and ask for a manager as soon as the flight ends to make sure I have the correct information for my later complaint to DL.