Originally Posted by visitor

I had a similar situation some time ago. E90, I was sitting in 3A, briefcase in overhead bin over row 2. Just before take-off, I take out my briefcase for a second to pull out some papers, fellow in 2A jumps up and jams his bag where my briefcase had been. I didn't realize what he had done until I turned around to put my bag back. I was gobsmacked, and politely asked him to remove it. He refused, and as I escalated my demands, he told me to 'chill out' and 'relax' and similar stuff. This didn't go over too well with me, and I was about to dump his bag on his lap when the flight attendant intervened in a very neutral manner and asked me to give him my bag. I wasn't too keen to do this but did. He took my bag and placed it somewhere (I think) in Y. I was pretty ticked but bit my tongue as now the argument would have been with the FA. Flight takes off, I'm still steaming. FA gets up, calmly removes the other guy's bag from J, goes back to Y, swaps it with mine, brings mine back, puts it where it had been, walks off. Not a word. On landing, buddy is stuck trying to swim against the tide to get his bag.

Should I have ignored the FA and dumped bag on his lap? Outside of an airplane, yes, in a heartbeat. On an airplane, I'm glad I showed restraint, and the FA was clearly grateful that the situation did not escalate out of control.