Ohhh Heather... yet another reason I could NEVER be an F/A, and respect the hell out of people who ARE. My very first international flight, I sat in the VERY back of coach (where I prefer because of my own neuroses :)) and there were two free seats behind me. I asked the very nice F/A if I might have one of those, since sitting way in the back tends to calm my fear of flying. She said they were reserved for two F/As (four all total, two on either of the last row of windows in the cabin) who had to fly out pretty much as soon as we hit the ground.As with your incident, some folks started causing a spoiled-child fuss whenever the two F/As arrived on my side of the plane. The F/A I had spoken to (a very kindly, almost grandmotherly woman in her midfifties) explained, as if to a very small child, what the seats were reserved for. She didn't take this tone with me, and I can only assume it's because I asked politely instead of standing up DURING taxiing to start problems.

Personally, I'd have given the offender(s) on your flight a lecture-lesson in basic damn courtesy- and how to use the online seat choice function that's available on pretty much every airline out there today! I never fail to get ta seat I enjoy when I fly (which is as far back as possible, never in the middle on a large flight) because I ALWAYS choose my seats immediately after the purchase of the ticket, and then go one step further to call and confirm with the airlines that those seats ARE under my name. It's a little trouble that goes a long way, and prevents me from looking like an ass on a flight when my "preferred" seating arrangement (what a joke for someone like me who flies maybe once or twice a year) isn't available.

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