Originally Posted by jphripjah

Last month I flew from Denver to Frankfurt in Lufthansa. 747-400. Stuck in economy class unfortunately.


Plane takes off, and out of the corner of my eye I see the older couple having a conversation and they keep looking over at the empty buffer, 51F, that separates me from them. Then they get up, the guy steps out , and the woman slides all the way over into 51F next to me, so that they can have an extra seat between them. Come on. And she had really bad perfume on, and I was really miffed by this turns of events, but I figured there was nothing I could do.

So I just sat there for ten hours, while they actually alternated between who sat next to me in the DMZ of 51F, occasionally the guy would sit next to me while the woman tried to "recline" across 51D and 51E.

In their defense, when the one sitting next to me had to get up to go the bathroom, they didn't ask me to get up, they slid out the other way across their luxurious 3 seat paradise.

Here are my questions:

1. Was there behavior within the bounds of acceptable airplane etiquette, or does etiquette dictate leaving the buffer between you and stranger?

2. Should I have done anything differently other than sit there and stew for ten hours? If I had place a bag there first would I then have had "rights" to the seat for the whole flight? What about just a coat or a book?