Sometimes I'm up for a chat, sometimes not. Depends.

Once I was on a train and this chatty old lady sat next to me. I was in a more intellectual reading phase of my life, and I was reading Wittgenstein's Blue & Brown books, thinking I would ignore her. The lady told a fascinating story of a one-armed piano teacher with the same name, who would beat her when she was a child. I realized later out it was the philosopher's brother (!). She also told me the story of living in a bohemian apartment in NYC back in the 30s or 40s, and a piano that was being hauled on a crane into the 3rd floor (as I recall, it was for 'Lead Belly', who was living there), and how it crashed to the sidewalk. She had a lot of amazing stories about bygone NY life.

You never know who you might get. So I'm always open to it. If they live in the town I'm flying to, I sometimes get restaurant recommendations, etc.