Breaking the Cultural Norm

So the back cabin of the plane was virtually empty. So I asked and they moved me to an empty row. Along comes an Asian couple who somehow got assigned the two empty seats in my row. It took a couple of minutes to convince them to move to an empty row. When the flight attendant came by they profusely apologized and said I forced them to move.  The flight attendant was very sweet, pick any empty row and make yourself comfortable.