Originally Posted by
pcoll
Recently had experience where passenger in middle seat aggressively maintained ownership of both armrests. In the aisle seat, I had to lean into aisle most of the flight as his elbows and upper arms were in my "space". Since my seat control is in right hand arm rest, I have always thought I should have access to that armrest. What are current thoughts on this?
I was recently seated on the right side an MD-88 where there are two seats. I had the aisle seat. A very large person was by the window. He had his right shoulder against the wall, and his left shoulder was way over into my seat. I had to sit sideways out into the aisle. The armrest wasn't even a consideration for me. It was a very uncomfortable flight!
I thought that airlines had guidelines about this... He did fit into the seat with both armrests down, and I don't believe he even used a seat belt extender. But he was very wide! And because he was by the window, the only place for him to overflow was into my seat. He should have either bought two coach seats or traveled in first class (or reimbursed me for the portion of my seat he used!)
This was a different case since there was no option to "share" the armrest, but in general I haven't found it to be a problem. Sometimes I'll share the armrest (front/back) with my seatmate, sometimes one of us will be using it then the other, and I have already been on a flight where the armrest was up the entire time.
I don't think there is really an etiquette for sharing the armrest, as it varies case by case. There is also no set rules for deboarding. As soon as the seat belt sign comes off (or before in some countries!), people get out into the aisle. One would think that those in the aisle will march off first as soon as the doors are open. But, in real life, people generally wait until the row in front of them is empty before going, even though it would be simple to charge ahead.