On a recent flight, I had a guy sit next to me while everyone was boarding. He appeared to be nervous and we struck up a conversation and he said that he didn't fly very often and was a little scared.

Just before the door closes, a guy walks up to our row and tells Scared Guy that he is in HIS seat and demands to see his boarding pass. The FA comes over and Demand Guy tells the FA that Scared Guy was in his seat and Scared Guy needs to be reassigned since Demand Guy is Elite. The FA gets Scared Guy and just before they both walk away, Demand Guy tells the FA to move his bag from the overhead so he could put his bag there.

I thought the FA was going to say something to Demand Guy (basically, tell him where to get off) but she just smiled, opened the overhead, got Scared Guy's bag and starting walking Scared Guy towards the front of the aircraft. We were in Row 8 and I watched as the FA escorted Scared Guy right into F then watched Demand Guy's reaction.

Demand Guy was livid! He stopped another FA and asked why he wasn't moved to the seat in F since he was Gold and the FA smiled and told him that she heard him say this was the seat he wanted and walked away.

Needless to say Demand Guy was grumpy the entire flight and threatened to write CO, etc.

My question is does an Elite get priority over a non-elite in these situations? I have a feeling the situation is rare (don't see people assigned the same seat often and when they are, the person who does not have a seat is moved to another coach seat). I think the FA moved the non-Elite because Demand Guy was being such an @$$ about the seat assignments.