Skinny female seatmate raises armrest
 

What would you do? I'm a late-middle-aged man. I was in a middle seat. A young woman sat in the aisle seat and immediately started chatting. I soon knew she was a college senior being flown to grad-school interviews at the universities' expense. I happen to be conversant in a field close to hers, so we could have an intelligent conversation.

After a while, she got absorbed in her work and I started watching a video. At some point I fumbled a bit with the armrest to find the "recline" button. She noticed me fumbling and, very cluelessly, proceeded to raise the armrest. I'm small, she was small, so I didn't have to do anything to avoid touching her. I thought it was kind of charmingly naive on her part, but now I'm wondering whether I should have found a way to point out that she might not want to do that when seated next to an older man she didn't know.

Any thoughts?

In this day and age, I would have insisted on putting the arm rest back down to avoid any allegations of harassment.

Not sure I would have even thought about it. But anyway, particularly with today's tiny Y armrests, I don't think it provides any real defense against someone groping, molesting, or assaulting the person next to them.

Ah, yeah why didn't you get her number??

I would have done nothing. I don't feel I need to police random strangers.

Out of interest, how do you handle a subway seats without armrests or do you refuse to ride on them?.

PS-the most common complaint is fat female lifts armrest as cannot fit in her seat.

My marital status aside, being almost three times her age kind of suggested that would not be a good idea. :)

Young women sitting on a subway seat have no option. Raising the armrest on an airplane could be interpreted as an invitation. I liked her, so in retrospect it seems like it might have been kind to point that out.

That's why I included "skinny" in the title.

probably not on a DL flight, therefore no napkin that encouraged doing so :p

I'm 100% sure she had no idea her action could be seen as flirting. She was quite obviously not socially aware. That's why I thought she might have benefited from a friendly word of advice.

College senior = over 18 years of age. Small frame = a logistical plus.

Did the aircraft data display show a flight altitude greater than 5,280 feet? :D

I feel you are overthinking things.

What you should have done is taken out your business card, written your personal phone number on the backside, and handed it to her. Then... see what Fate has in store :-)

You must earn more than I do, as you have free cash to send to friendly young women. I was suggesting more of a friends with benefits type situation.