Originally Posted by
darthbimmer
My wife and I often book an aisle-window combination in rows that are 3 seats across. If we luck out, the middle stays empty and we enjoy a bit of extra room. If the middle is occupied then sometimes we offer our middle seat neighbor a swap to the window-- but at least half the time we stay in our aisle/window arrangement. Some people wonder, "How could you not sit together?" The answer is that we're together plenty already; we can manage a few hours slightly separated. Plus, we tend to use our time on the flight as quiet time anyway. When we do talk, we're considerate not to bother the middle seat passenger too much. ...Not to imply that doing otherwise would justify the sort of behavior seen in the video above.
We had a funny scene unfold in first a few years back where someone tried to poach my son's seat (I stood my ground, he was too young to be seated away from me at the time) and it spilled over to a wife refusing to sit next to her husband. She was blunt about preferring to sit away from him. My hubby sat next to the shunned husband and they hit it off and chatted the entire flight. (they had common business interests)