Flew with my two buddies one of which worked for the airline. We were flying “standby” when that was still a thing (90’s). We flew the red eye from Denver to Vancouver Canada through a thunderstorm on a plane that was practically empty. Lightning actually hit the plane, I had no idea it happened until a stewardess told my airline buddy. On the way back we were at the airport in Seattle and were about to get bumped (again standby) when they gave us first class seats

Gonna watch Shrek 1, 2 and 3 on the in-flight entertainment screens

A trick I heard is if you’re on an airline with assigned seats that you get to pick, select non-contiguous seats with one in between, and either the one in between won’t sell because who wants the middle seat between strangers, or you’ll get someone you can kindly offer to trade seats with

nice butt stain on that seat

Had this happen to me in the middle row, on an 8 hour flight. I put the armrests up and had myself a long, bumpy bed… Sort of.
It was actually not very comfortable, however on principle I slept that way regardless.