Should a Passenger Give Up His Seat for a Couple on Their Honeymoon?

I found an interesting but unfortunately a typical situation on the AITA site regarding a man who was flying from Melbourne to Dubai and paid for a premium economy seat for the 14 hour flight.

The person in the seat next to him had been upgraded and asked if the man would switch seats with his wife who was in the back of the plane. This husband also highlighted that he and his wife had just gotten married and were on their honeymoon. The man refused and after prodding by the newlywed on whether there was anything they could to change the man's mind, the man said he would switch seats with the wife if he paid the difference in airfare (approximately $1,000 AUS). The husband refused and called this man an asshole for not switching for free.

For the first time that I can remember, the comments to this posting were consistent in saying that the man was right for now switching with this newlywed couple. I could not agree more that the man was under no obligation to switch seats to someone he does not know and is clearly inferior to the seat that he paid a premium price for. A newlywed couple should stay together, either upgraded or not. It is not the obligation of any other passenger to offer a $1,000 benefit to you.

As more and more people request seat changes on airlines, I have created a general rule on changing seats. I will gladly change seats with someone when the new seat is either an equal or superior trade. So an aisle for aisle in coach or a move up in class. Don't ask for me to change from an aisle seat in row 8 to a middle seat in row 32. That is just plain rude. I do make an exception to this rule for a short flight so I would take a window seat instead of an aisle in a worse position (I do try to avoid an middle seat at almost all costs).