Originally Posted by greenery
What type of privacy or personal space should an airplane passenger have while sitting in the aisle seat? On a recent flight, I was minding my own business in an aisle seat when a man walked down and started a very long conversation with the women who was sitting in the other aisle seat next to me.
The man talked and talked and talked and kept rubbing up against me. He spoke in loud tones and basically invaded my space. Finally, I got tired of it and asked him very nicely if he would return to his seat. He was bothering me and invading my space. He ignored my request and continued his loud conversation. I asked him again but was again ignored. Finally I went to the Flight Attendant and she told me the man could stand there until the Seat Belt sign was activated in a few hours as long as he moved away for people that wanted to pass.
Rejected by the Flight Attendant, I returned to my seat and had to put up with the loud man standing in the aisle inches for me for another hour. Finally he returned to his seat. What would you do?
I sympathize with you. I would also have found that experience annoying (especially if I was trying to rest or read) and I probably would have taken similar action to what you took. I might have tried a slightly different tack, like "I wonder if you could talk a little more softly?" or "I wonder if you might be able to talk back near the galley?" or whatever. Asking him to return to his seat, however nicely, may have antagonized him. But of course, he may have been impervious to any kind of approach.
The conditions in which a group of strangers are thrown together for the duration of a flight surely dictate a certain sensitivity to the needs of one's fellow passengers. I don't know to what extent psychologists have studied how normal human beings are affected by these somewhat abnormal conditions, but I have to believe that many or most of us operate at less than our optimal tolerances when confined to the inside of an aircraft for long periods in close proximity to many other people.