+1
Particularly when it means I'm switching to a much less desirable seat.
It's a known risk if you take a seat in a bulkhead, but I got bumped a few months ago, either at the lounge or the gate. I had a bulkhead window (3-3-3) configuration. Two hours earlier on connecting flight checkin, my seat assignment was intact. Time to board and *beep* - I've been bumped from E+ to a middle E- seat somewhere in row 40!
Fortunately, I boarded at the beginning of my group and
fortunately the GA got my original seat back. (Apparently this is not all that easy once you've been scanned to board).
It turned out that a middle-aged husband-wife had adjacent aisle bulkhead seats in the same row. They wanted to sit in a bulkhead row with the middle seat empty. That is apparently why I had gotten reassigned!
I didn't immediately realize what was going on. Whispered conversations between the couple and an FA while boarding proceeds and I'm reading, although I did keep hearing 'But he's my
husband!'. The poor FA finally asked me if I was happy in my window seat -yes. Would I prefer an aisle? - no. Would I like a middle exit row seat with more leg room? - no. OK, and I resume my reading.
This continued for some time between the couple and the FA, with the husband offering to take a free upgrade to first so his wife didn't have to sit next to anyone.
In the end, she sat on one side of the aisle, he sat on the other, the seat between us remained empty.
This was absolutely the craziest 'family/husband-wife need to sit together' situation I have ever encountered. Together...but not too close together...