Originally Posted by
SeattleRedBear
Depending on several factors (his seat, ability to communicate, amount of carryon), I might offer to trade seats with him so he could continue chatting with his friend without disturbing me. But I'm that guy who is always willing to accommodate as long as I'm not too inconvenienced.
That's probably what he was hoping for. She's lucky she didn't find he'd plopped down in her seat when she came back from talking to the FAs. OTOH, they might have felt moved to do something about it if he had.
The tactical newspaper suggestion is a good one, as well as just standing up and blocking him. With the stand-and-block, you can throw in some yawning and stretching for both the appearance of innocence and to block any left/right shifts by the offending party.