Originally Posted by
Tchiowa
While I doubt the airline would pursue it that far, the OP could be criminally charged with Theft of Service. Your sentence above should be corrected to say "If they had a problem and noticed it, it would've been made known". Stealing and getting away with it is still stealing.
I understand your point of view, I just don't agree with it. Calling it stealing implies that the airline had a direct loss because of it. The flight commenced they weren't going to make money on that seat. I guess this is one of these grey areas that people aren't going to see eye to eye on.