There’s something to be
said for truth in advertising, and United Airlines is facing the music over an alleged glitch.
The airline markets window seats that have no windows. Passengers don’t
know about it until after they get on the plane and sit down. Social media posts about the horrid seats have filled feeds over the years.
Even celebrities have taken to social media
to complain. CBS Morning co-host Gayle King posted earlier this year about a business-class seat (photo above) that did not have a window on her 9.5-hour flight from Maui to New York City, according to Live And Let’s Fly.
King’s post read: “When is a window seat not a
window seat? C’mon @united! The flight attendant agreed it was NOT a window seat. He said he had never seen anything like this and while
there was nothing he could do (full flight), he suggested I complain. This is me complaining…”
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A federal judge has rejected United Airlines’ bid to dismiss a
class-action lawsuit by passengers who claim they paid extra money to sit in window seats, only to discover their seats had no actual windows. The lawsuit, which covers more than one million
passengers, seeks millions of dollars in damages.
Last November, United Airlines moved to have the lawsuit dismissed with prejudice on the grounds that the claims alleged in the
case were barred by the Airline Deregulation Act.
“U.S. district judge James Donato in San Francisco rejected United’s defense that ‘window’ referred
to the location of a seat relative to the cabin wall and aisle, and the carrier also contended it never contractually promised that seats in the window position would have views outside,” according to The Guardian. “Passengers filed proposed class actions against United and
Delta Air Lines in August after finding themselves seated next to walls on Boeing 737, Boeing 757 and Airbus A321 planes. They said the carriers failed to clearly disclose the
missing windows during the booking process.”
One of the plaintiffs, Aviva Copaken says she had paid United $169.99 in additional fees to secure a window seat because she
suffers from claustrophobia, which is relieved by looking out of the window of the airplane.
“She had used the United Airlines mobile app to select her preferred seat for an
additional fee and selected what was marked as a ‘window seat’ on the online seat map,”according to PYOK.
“What she didn’t know, however, was that the seat she had chosen didn’t have a window due to the alignment of the seats along the fuselage of the aircraft.”
The lawsuit alleges that United continues to deceive passengers by clearly marking windowless seats as "window seats” in its online seat maps.
“Among
the reasons plaintiffs gave for seeking window seats were anxiety about flying, susceptibility to motion sickness, the desire to keep young travelers entertained, and an interest in natural light or
the scenery outside,” according to Quartz.
Central to the ruling was U.S. District Judge
James Donato's rejection of United's position that “window” was purely a locational descriptor within the cabin, carrying no obligation to furnish passengers with an actual view to the
outside.
“Donato pointed to United's own ticketing materials — including boarding passes and reservation screens — as explicit commitments that paying customers
would receive window seats,” according to Quartz.
Donato also rejected United's argument that federal law preempted the passengers' claims, according to Reuters.
The lawsuit against Delta
is also still pending in the U.S. District Court in Brooklyn, New York.