Interesting topic. I will generally move provided I get an aisle/window seat as I am pretty tall and therefore value my space (Always travel at the back and try for window seats on night flights).

I was really annoyed to hear that on her recent AMS-UIO flight to see me that my elderly mum was asked to move by passengers wanting to sit together... She ended up next to a Korean family who again asked her to move from the window to a middle seat so they could sit together and bless her, she refused. People like to take advantage!

Thankfully the chap she moved for in the first place had the good grace to reject the premium champagne meal I'd ordered for her once it came to her seat!

I've had the occasional disgruntled seat poacher sitting next to me, trying to make me sorry I insisted on sitting in my own seat.

Man-spreading into my space? I cross one leg over the other (ankle on opposite knee, keeping the sole of my shoe lined up with my seat space. Never had a crabby poacher-wannabe dedicated enough to encroachment to push his bare or trousered knee against the dirty sole of my shoe for long.

I've had the same sort of person try to dominate the arm rest (and more), making firm bodily contact. That's OK, too. I can bob and bounce to my favorite oldies. I don't know how long I could keep it up because no one has ever maintained contact with my jiggling, bouncing arm/shoulder long enough to wear me out.

I'll concede the armrest to the person in the middle seat, but I like your shoe-sole solution for the other problem.

+1

I do feel for the guy in the middle so he can have the armrest, but I don't like invasion of my other personal space.

Disgruntled seat requestors/poachers should be aware that passive aggressive frequent trips to the lav can result in carry on bags under the seat being stomped and/or filled with various staining liquids.

On the other hand, so can the under-seat bags of the rightful owner of the seat. Be careful out there!

I wonder if the fare class, say full fare economy vs deep discount economy, plays a role in a flight attendant's willingness to side with discretion over policy and engage forcefully in a seat swap.

No way the FAs have the time or the motivation to dig up the manifest and match it to fare paid, at least not on any of the US based carriers.

I can accept a certain amount of invasion of my space by a middle seat passenger, as much as I hate it, just because it's so hard to sit in such a confined space. But if someone gets too elbowey I will wedge my laptop or some thick flight mags against the armrest and hold it in place with my arm to create a little wall.

While that does happen and is highly inappropriate, women have an equal amount and more creative intrusion rituals. From legs on the cushion, to seating sideways, or clinging to a seat .. I feel that I have experience the gamut of irresponsible territorial marking by this day.

I was on a Lufthansa flight back from Frankfurt to San Francisco in Y and a Mother and her baby wanted my bulkhead window and she began to fight and I let the flight attendant handle that one. The flight attendant said that I did not want a crying baby next to me and this was my seat. The Mother was put in her place and then moved and said to me I am a bad person.

So I told the Mother get your baby and yourself off this flight if you think I am a bad person. The Flight attendant told her in a firm manner M'am either you take your assigned seat or you will not be allowed to fly this is an order. So she decided to get off the plane.

The Flight attendant apologized and took extra good care of me bringing me chaampers from First Class and always coming by to fill up my libations and brought me an extra cheese platter from FC.

You gave another pax an order that included telling them to get off the plane? That's a bit of an overstep, no?

Doesn't sound like an order to me. He was called a "bad person" and he reacted. My $0.02.

YEG-YYZ-DCA

In Economy, first row after "first" a woman approaches me (I seat in the aisle, she is on the aisle on the other side of the row).

"Can you switch with my husband? he seats at the last row."
I declined and went to sleep.

On the 2nd leg, YYZ-DCA: I am the last one to board the plane, that women from the first leg, is in front of me. I am booked at Economy, approaching my seat, on the 2-seats next to me, seating the 2 kids of that women, she was assigned to seat in "First" apparently, but was looking to switch with someone so she can seat next to her kids. I accepted and went to seat 1A. Karma, is confirmed a beach.

But the person was bombarding me and even the Flight Attendant was getting a bit angry. The woman was the seat poacher and it was my seat and she wanted me to move to the center aisle but I wanted my window bulkhead as this is what I said. The seats in the center had the bassinet so it would not make a difference where she sat.

I did not say it in a rude tone I was more like a matter of fact if she thought I was a bad person for not giving up my seat and yes I stood my ground that perhaps she should not be flying in my presence.

If a particular seat is so important to someone that they will get off the plane if they can't have it, then pay up or do whatever is necessary to secure that seat in advance.