No, it's not. You don't get to decide what is and is not reasonable. How is my situation addressed in your sweeping dismissal? I have a fairly significant hearing impairment. It is exacerbated when I am in situations with steady-state background noise. My hearing aids tend to amplify that noise alongside any voices I might be trying to hear. My impairment is primarily a "speech recognition" impairment, so it takes a great deal of concentration for me to understand someone who is speaking to me under ideal conditions. Under less than ideal conditions, it is all I can do to communicate with someone that I know well, like my wife. If I have never spoken to someone before, don't know their speech patterns, don't recognize their accent, I may not be able to have a conversation with them at all.

So, on an airplane, nothing personal - but I don't want to talk to you. I will struggle through the necessary interactions, like trying to figure out which meal choice I want (which is much easier if I can just point to something on a menu), but I don't want to pretend to be polite while you tell me your life story. If you put your butt in my seat before I get there, you are *forcing* me to have a conversation with you, forcing me to negotiate for something that was never yours in the first place.

So I don't care if what you are offering is "better" (in your opinion). I was satisfied with my seat choice before I ever got on the plane. You don't have the right to put me in an uncomfortable position. All I want is you out of my seat. My next two steps are double-checking my seat assignment and pressing the call button.