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I've had it happen to me twice in the last year. One wasn't even a refusal, instead a simple dismissive hand waving gesture. I didn't relent and eventually got my seat, but had to have flight attendants intervene.

It's kind of astonishing to experience, to be honest. To witness someone committing to a thought process that is completely unfathomable to you.

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I've had that happen to me a couple of times too. One of the most entertaining times was when someone refused to move from my window seat was because they wanted to "look out from the window". After I showed her my ticket stub, she just looked at me blankly. Then I explained to her that she is sitting in the wrong seat to which she replied that she doesn't understand.

I did relent because the flight attendant asked me nicely if I mind just taking the middle seat. It was the first time I got a window seat that wasn't over the wing!

These responses are enough anecdata[1] to convince me that this is a real thing.

I would guess that it is probably gradual adaptation to flight attendants not wanting to properly step in and deal with enforcing the rules, thereby empowering the most obnoxious/rude/sociopathic passenger to "win".

Now I kind of hope it happens to me sometime... sounds like a vaguely interesting problem to deal with.

[1]: the best kind of data!!

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