Middle plane seat- which armrest is yours?

[Meadowbreeze]

Just a light-hearted question.
You're sitting on the middle row of a short haul flight. There are 4 arm rests in total. One to the far left by the window, two in the middle and one to the far right by the aisle. Which arm rest or rests are yours?
I say middle gets both arm rests as the window person leans to the window one, aisle person leans to the aisle one and middle has to be stuck, well, in the middle. If middle doesn't get both, the aisle or window will get two, which just isn't fair as those seats are superior and they can lean in to their sides for privacy. These rules are obviously out the window if you're sitting with friends or family, in which case, war ensues.

That seems reasonable.

The ones you bag first with your jabby elbows. Always works for me, like a domino effect!

The two blokes I was sitting between recently decided that I required no armrests at all.

I read recently that the middle seat does in fact get both arm rests because they don't have a side or something... no idea where I saw it though!

middle gets both

window gets window rest and the bit of extra shoulder space the window provides. aisle gets aisle rest and the extra space the aisle provides. The least that can happen is middle seat gets both armrests.

Either both, or the one nearest the window if the aisle person keeps getting bashed by people walking past.

Unless you are the twat next to me who refused to use headphones, and decided he could put his leg into my leg space, and use both armrests. Then I will claim everything I can.

@AmandaHoldensLips This happened to me on the first leg of this flight and it's what started this discussion. I apparently didn't need an armrest or leg space as the manspreading was so bad I looked like I was sitting in between two lounging cats with their legs and arms spread.
The return journey I sat in between two lovely guys who seemed to happily give me the two arm rests.

These rules are obviously out the window if you're sitting with friends or family, in which case, war ensues.

Have to disagree with this. If there is more than one seat up for grabs, its NEVER me that has to sit in the middle seat 😁Arm rest rules therefore irrelevant.

Otherwise, I don't think there is any rule - everyone out for themselves! The difficulty is if you "claim" the arm rests, you then have to maintain it for the whole flight in case your seat neighbour takes advantage when you move!

@Africa2go hahaha I need your boundaries. I actually offered my aisle seat to my teenage sister as she got the middle seat I ended up in.
It's so funny you mention the claim. Once I got both my armrests I felt like I couldn't lift my arms up in case the armrests got snatched 😂

Both, but shared. That is to say, you can use both, but not all of both. It's possible for both sides to share an armrest - one rests their elbow further forward and one further backward.

I don't quite agree that the aisle seat gets the aisle armrest. Trying to sit like that just gets people walking past brushing against you and your shoulder, which is uncomfortable or even painful. This is exacerbated when you're on an airline where they keep walking up and down themselves (Ryanair! constantly trying to sell you something). So on that argument, everyone should be using the armrest closer to the window on their side.

@Precipice I agree with you actually, I just mean on principle the middle gets the armrests and like any reasonable human, you share. The flight back for me was great because it seemed like there was an unspoken mutual respect. The guys had the end of the armrests and I had the front bit. It makes a big difference when this is the case. Out of curiosity I looked at the middle seats when walking the aisle and the amount of middle people squished with no arm rest at all was quite shocking.