Aisle seats? You get that extra space on one side and you don’t have to clamber over anyone to get to the bathroom. Middle seats? The advantage is… basically nothing, no one takes a middle position by choice (although you might survive a crash there). Ah, but window seats? You get a beautiful view of the beautiful sky above and below. Unless you don’t, because the window seat doesn’t have an actual window and you just paid a little extra to stare at the interior wall of the plane for a few hours.
Now, class action lawsuits are being filed against United Airlines (one word, as appropriate) and Delta Air Lines (two words for some reason) for false promises. If you buy a window seat, the lawsuits say, you should get a window! Especially if that ticket goes for a higher price. For reference, American Airlines, Alaska Airlines, and Ryanair all inform passengers about the absence of windows on certain window seats before purchasing a seat, such as Business insider points out. United and Delta do not.
You may be surprised to hear that United disagrees with the lawsuit. The airline is asking to dismiss the lawsuit on the grounds that “the use of the word ‘window’ in reference to a particular seat cannot reasonably be construed as a promise that the seat will have an outside window.” That actually seems quite reasonable to me, but I am not a lawyer. The claim is that the term “window seat” only refers to the position against the interior wall (i.e. it is not a center or aisle seat).
Implications and exclusions
The judge has plenty of time to consider United’s dismissal request: the trial starts on June 7, 2027. The wheels of justice apparently choose the nice route here. Of course, to actually see the scenery, you’ll need a window seat. You can buy a ticket for it right now, window optional.
#Paying #window #seat #guarantees #window #airlines #fine #Jalopnik