PTravel, I agree with almost everything you say on this thread. A passenger is assigned a seat before they get on the plane, and once they have that boarding pass they have every right to feel entitled to sit in their assigned seat. The wants and needs of other passengers are the responsibility of the airline.

As you point out, organised passengers who care where they sit make many efforts to select their seat online, even in the face of irrops / equip changes. But I'm not sure that we can automatically assume that those who don't do so are disorganised or don't care where they sit. Online seat selection is relatively new when compared to the average age of a passenger, so I reckon there is a reasonable chance that there are quite a few infrequent flyers out there who don't even know they can do it (although none of these people are on FT I'd presume ) Or at least, they haven't done it enough times that it is an easy-to-remember habit.

Of course, none of the above makes any difference to the fact that they are not entitled to demand a swap, but I think it is worth considering that their reason for not being seated together might be ignorance, not laziness.

As an aside, I am surprise that there is not a legal requirement that airlines insist that passengers do not swap seats, for "security" purposes. Of course, there would be no valid reason for such a rule, but that hasn't really been a factor in determining security policy so far