Originally Posted by dilanesp

1. If they don't want to sit in the middle seat, the way they should manifest that is by staying in their assigned seats. Saying "I don't want to but I will give up this seat I glommed onto and prevented another paying customer from getting" isn't a real consumer preference. It's a rationalization. Especially since:

2. The airline OFFERS an option if you really want 2 people in a 3 seat aisle. You can pay for an EXTRASEAT. What the preference really is, is "I want to trick the airline into giving me something for free that I don't want to pay for". And the airline really doesn't want to reward THAT preference.

3. It's not a courtesy to some passenger that was kept out of that aisle or window seat because it was blocked on the seatmap. That passenger is having his or her seat taken from him or her.

Being "courteous" with something that doesn't belong to a person is not real "courtesy". It's something else.