Put yourself in someone else's shoes
Good to see people are thinking from both perspectives and commenting accordingly. I did raise an eyebrow at a few comments though. Perhaps the customer was telling the truth? He may well have been agitated, obnoxious or even rude. I'm condoning poor behaviour, I can relate to the circumstances. I recall one flight in particular where I got very agitated with staff, I felt they didn't show any empathy to my situation. In fact, they made no effort to care at all - it was the worst service I've ever had from that airline, I fly with them regularly. On reflection, perhaps my agitated behaviour didn't help the situation either.
My experiences with flying - I am 6ft 9 (skinny), most of my height is in my legs, there are a number of planes where i cannot fit into a regular seat unless I wedge my knees into the seat in front (uncomfortable for me and unbearable for the person in front as they have a hard lump in their lower back for the entire flight) or splay my knees either side of the seat in front (which means encroaching into the space of people either side, or into the aisle). Either option is unpleasant, but I can manage it on a 1 or 2 hour flight, 3 or 4 hours max if i really focus and move a round of lot. Anything longer and I start going nuts. Airline staff have tripped over my feet and bumped my knees on plenty of occasions, though I was never asked to leave the plane thankfully. I have also had food carts rammed into my knees, often without apology. It's not my fault I cannot fit into the seats.
I'm not sure some people appreciate how uncomfortable it is living in a world built for one size fits all, when you don't fit into the one size category. I cannot diet or exercise to adjust my size - height is totally out of my control. All I can do is keep fit to minimise the discomfort of constantly sitting in unergonomic furniture (back, knees and ankles). If you are between 5 and 6ft tall, most things in this world fit you. Imagine if everything was built to accommodate 4 to 5ft tall people? How comfortable would you be on a plane? Would you happily purchase two tickets so you could place your legs to the side? (Which I do on occasions when the plane isn't full and helpful airline staff have managed the seating to accommodate me - but you still change position every 20 minutes or so because it isn't comfortable) Could you afford to do that? Should you have to?
I understand the economic theory, the more seats on a plane the cheaper the flight for the customer (or the bigger the profit for the airline - depends on your outlook). I believe in customer service as well. Personally I resent airlines that sell their exit row seats for an additional charge. It means they don't have to care about seating people who don't fit in regular seats.
Why shouldn't exit rows be reserved for people who need them? What happened to looking out for each other? When an old person gets on a bus I still give them my seat even though I'm in my forties and there are younger people around me. And even though I am uncomfortable on some buses because the roof is too low. Or should I adopt the mentality, too bad, I bought my ticket - they should have got on earlier.
If I had an exit row seat on a plane and I saw a person taller than me wedged into a regular seat - I'd swap because it is the right thing to do.
And my last point? If the person was disabled or injured (broken leg) would they have been kicked off? or would that have caused outrage? I know height is not a disability but it is a liability, especially when the physical environment is not accommodating. Worth thinking about.