What Would Emily Post Say?

Quote source:  "A Flying Etiquette"

Photo credit:  Library of Congress via Wikipedia

That was then.  This is now.

Airplane Seat Swapping Turns Rough-and-Tumble. (The New York Times, 4/13/2015)

Tom Nickerson has learned just how aggressive the commandeering of seats can be. When he boarded a small commuter jet, he saw a woman in his spot — a window seat with no aisle seat next to it. “I just tell her that I think she’s in my seat, and she basically says, ‘Yup,’ ” Mr. Nickerson recalled. “She wanted to be on the single-seat side and so did I, obviously.”

Mr. Nickerson held firm, but as it turned out, the flight crew needed to shuffle around passengers to balance the weight distribution, and he found himself seated next to the woman, who seemed determined to make her displeasure known.

When an elbow first landed in his ribs, Mr. Nickerson figured his seatmate was still adjusting. But by the third — or maybe the fourth — jab, he had a hunch that the woman next to him was sending him a message.