Oh, man, the seat trading. I know exactly what that was about: for a certain dickhead subset of Hasids, a man can’t end up sitting next to a strange woman on a flight, lest he lose control of his male urges or something; so instead he walks the aisle pestering everyone else, chanting “switch? switch?” and delaying takeoff until he finds a taker.*
That’s not to excuse Lufthansa, because they lumped all the Hasids on the flight in with what was likely a handful of arseholes (though probably a greater number than the one or two who usually disrupt flights in this manner).
[* The time I was approached, I cheerfully told the devout fellow he could have my seat if he upgraded me to an available business class one. Apparently his piety only went so far and he moved on, continuing to ignore the flight attendant’s requests to sit down.]
