Originally Posted by Grog

Call me crazy but if you're truly asking someone and not just informing them of your intended actions, you should allow them the right to say no and accept it, if they do. Otherwise, why ask? Being polite is not meant to be a graceful dishonesty, it's a way in which we honor and respect others. (I wish I remembered who said that to credit them...) Next time, if it's truly in the way and not optimally positioned, you just move it very gently without falsely asking people and then blatantly disregarding them after they've actually taken the time to answer you.

I say this as someone who sides with you 100% on the issue itself. People should generally be willing to allow movement unless there's an underlying fragility/placement issue with the contents--and sometimes there is. Example: If I've positioned my folded jacket and coat on top of my bag which is well-seated against bin sidewall, consuming all of the vertical space in the bin as well, there's really no reason anyone else should need to touch it, let alone re-position it.

I fear I wouldn't have let you get away with cursing at me AND moving my bag after I've answered the very question that you posed to me. Neither one of us would've probably flown on that flight.