Airlines Delta and United Faced in Legal Battle Over Selling St datasets Passenger 'Window Seats' Devoid of Actual Windows
In a recent development, passengers have taken legal action against Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, alleging that the airlines have been misleading customers by not flagging windowless seats during the booking process.
The class actions were filed in San Francisco federal court (United) and Brooklyn, New York federal court (Delta). The lawsuits, led by Nicholas Meyer of Brooklyn for Delta and Marc Brenman of San Francisco and Aviva Copaken of Los Angeles for United, seek millions of dollars of damages for over 1 million passengers at each carrier.
The complaints allege that some planes used by Delta and United lack windows in seats due to the placement of air conditioning ducts, electrical conduits, or other components. As a result, passengers who purchased window seats were instead placed next to a blank wall without a window.
If passengers had known that the seats they were purchasing were windowless, they would not have selected them or paid extra, according to the lawsuits. Passengers can use websites such as SeatGuru to find information about specific seats, including those lacking windows. However, Delta and United do not flag these windowless seats during the booking process, unlike some rivals such as Alaska Airlines and American Airlines.
Carter Greenbaum, the lawyer who filed the two lawsuits, argues that a company cannot misrepresent the nature of the products it sells and then rely on third-party reviews to claim that customers should have known it was lying. Aviva Copaken, one of the leaders of the United lawsuit, claims that United refunded fees for her windowless seats on two flights, but not a third.
Passengers buy window seats for various reasons, including addressing fear of flying, motion sickness, keeping a child occupied, getting extra light, or watching the world go by. The lawsuits claim that passengers were charged tens or occasionally hundreds of dollars for these windowless seats.
Ancillary revenue from seat selection, baggage fees, cabin upgrades, airport lounges, and other services helps carriers like Delta and United generate more cash while keeping base fares lower. Neither Delta nor United immediately responded to requests for comment.
Carter Greenbaum states that the ability to find information from third-party websites does not excuse Delta and United's conduct. The cases for the Delta and United lawsuits are Meyer v Delta Air Lines Inc, U.S. District Court, Eastern District of New York, No. 25-04608, and Brenman et al v United Airlines Inc, U.S. District Court, Northern District of San Francisco, No. 25-06995.
