I continue to enjoy this thead, and will continue to clarify my version of the events as I see appropriate to facilitate this discussion.

In my original post, I did in fact claim that the FA was "right." By this, I meant only that the FA did tell the passenger that the flight was full, implying that the passenger should sit in his assigned seat. The passenger, thus, either (a) did not hear the FA, (b) did not understand the FA, or did not understand that the FA was saying that if the flight is full, you must sit in your assigned seat, or (c) chose to ignore the FA. In the case of (a) or (b), presumably a non-jerk passenger would have asked again, or asked for a clarification. But this guy was a jerk, so regardless of whether it was a case of (a), (b) or (c), I think the FA was, to that extent, "right."

I think the FA was "wrong" in that, given that the passenger was a jerk, the FA was in the better position to defuse the situation. The initial comment by the passenger, although uncalled for, easily could have been ignored. So what if the passenger mistakenly believes that the FA had somehow indicated he could sit in 1A; the fact of the matter is that he was on his feet and seemingly on the way back to his rightful seat.

But the FA did not defuse the situation, and once it did escalate, I can understand why the FA would be uncomfortable holed up in an EMB, where the FA is the only one in any position of authority unless the captain or first officer comes out from behind their baracade, with this guy and the rest of the passengers. After all, as we constantly are reminded, the FA's primary responsibility is the safety of the passengers, and I could see how he might feel unable to properly perform that responsibility if he's constantly distracted by a war of words with some jerk passenger.

I draw from this the following conclusions: although I would have reached a different conclusion if I had the authority to do so (i.e., I wouldn't have ejected the guy), I can see why the FA did so; however, a better trained FA could have prevented the situation ever getting to the point it got to.

On the point of assigned seats, I will admit that I on occasion have sat in the wrong seat. Sometimes it's a mistake (and yet I continue to make fun of those who walk onto a plane staring at their boarding pass and having no clue how the letter-number combination printed on the boarding pass could possibly correspond to one particular seat on the aircraft). Other times it's because I want a different seat. In the latter case, I do so only after I believe that all of the passengers have boarded. However, sometimes I'm wrong, as a result of which a passenger will be forced to approach me and say something to the effect of, "Excuse me, I think you're in my seat," in which case I promptly will remove myself without mouthing off to anyone (other than to apologize to the rightful occupant). Should I be ejected for sitting in the wrong seat, either accidentally or intentionally? I think that's pretty extreme. Should I be ejected if the FA had told me that s/he thinks the seat is already assigned? Again, I don't see why that's so terrible. So to the extent I have sympathy for the FA on my flight, it's only because the ejected passenger had no ability to exercise any self control and continued to be a jerk. I certainly do not believe that he committed an ejectable offense merely be sitting in 1A, even after the FA suggested to him that he should not.

By the way, the plane never did fill up. I didn't see exactly how many vacant seats there were, but there were a number of them. If the jerk hadn't been a jerk, he could have moved to a better seat after the plane had been boarded. I, too, like to sit in 1A. If I want it really badly even when it's not assigned to me, I'll wait to board the plane until it appears that all others have boarded. If I get on the plane and 1A is vacant, I'll go ahead and sit in it. If a latecomer arrives with a boarding pass, I'll move to another seat. No harm, no foul.