Recently I sat in the middle seat on a cross county flight, between my husband who had the aisle seat and a stranger who had the widow seat. Several times during the flight the channel on the television I was watching unexpectedly changed. After the second time, I realized the channel changed because the stranger next to me had put his arm on the armrest where the television controls were located.

The third time the channel changed I told the person sitting next to me what had occurred and he profusely apologized. It happened twice more after that, which again led to prolific apologies. Which leads me to the question that came to me at that time; what is the use of armrests when you’re sitting in a row, especially when you’re sitting next to a stranger? He had a single armrest on his left and shared an armrest with me on his right.  To my right was an armrest I shared with my husband.

If you’re sitting in an airplane or in a theater what is the armrest etiquette? Who gets which armrest?