A traveler wants to know what to do when the only available seats at the airport gate are taken up by coats; A reader prefers being called by a nickname, but one person just won’t use it.

I would be happy to give up the seat at that time; I just want to sit down for a few minutes. GENTLE READER: It is perfectly polite to say exactly that. If you are up for it, Miss Manners thinks it would also be fun to just stand there,

I travel frequently, and I have noticed that airports are reducing the number of seats at the gates. I will arrive at the gate more than an hour before boarding, only to find all the seats already taken -- except for the three holding someone’s coats and pillows,