{"id":3492,"date":"2026-07-08T09:10:38","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:10:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3492"},"modified":"2026-07-08T09:10:38","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T09:10:38","slug":"united-airlines-to-face-lawsuit-over-window-seats-that-dont-have-windows","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/?p=3492","title":{"rendered":"United Airlines to face lawsuit over \u2018window seats\u2019 that don\u2019t have windows"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Brace for turbulence.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">United Airlines\u00a0must face a class-action lawsuit after a federal judge rejected the airline&#8217;s\u00a0attempt to dismiss\u00a0claims from passengers who say they paid extra for &#8220;window seats&#8221; that had\u00a0no actual windows.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The lawsuit, which also names\u00a0Delta Air Lines, alleges the airlines misled customers by failing to disclose during booking that some window seats on Boeing 737s, 757s and Airbus A321s are located beside blank cabin walls instead of windows. Judge James Donato in\u00a0San Francisco\u00a0rejected Chicago-based United&#8217;s argument that &#8220;window seat&#8221; refers only to a seat&#8217;s position, not a guaranteed outside view.<\/p>\n<div class=\"max-md:faux-bleed mb-4 bg-accent\/2 pb-5 md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<div class=\"py-2 text-center text-xs uppercase\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Donato rejected United&#8217;s argument that federal law blocked the passengers&#8217; claims, saying the airline&#8217;s own ticketing terms, boarding passes and reservation screens promised window seats to customers who paid for them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">United declined to comment on the suit when contacted by\u00a0<em>The Independent<\/em>, but did say:<em>\u00a0<\/em>&#8220;As part of our regular review of\u00a0united.com\u00a0and the United App to enhance the customer experience, in 2025 we added more detail to our seat selection process, so customers can have more information about what to expect when they choose a seat.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"relative mb-4\">\n<div class=\"relative\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"rounded-lg\" src=\"https:\/\/s.yimg.com\/lo\/mysterio\/api\/f15d6c642f69d655c578e81aa9f6a1522608b10044ee72da4085aec6a7da7f61\/lightyear_networkapi\/resizefill_w960;quality_80;format_webp\/https:%2F%2Fmedia.zenfs.com%2Fen%2Fthe_independent_635%2Ffac9e2acb6aa0111736c5de23f330477\" alt=\"A federal judge on Monday allowed a lawsuit to move forward against United Airlines over passengers who paid extra for window seats that had no actual windows (Getty)\" width=\"960\" height=\"640\" data-nimg=\"1\" \/><button class=\"group absolute bottom-0 size-full\" aria-label=\"View larger image\" data-ylk=\"elm:expand;itc:1;sec:image-lightbox;slk:lightbox-open;\" data-rapid_p=\"13\" data-y-link-id=\"17msuth1s26x9t16bto4\" data-v9y=\"1\"><\/button><\/div><figcaption class=\"relative text-sm mt-1 pr-2.5\">\n<div>A federal judge on Monday allowed a lawsuit to move forward against United Airlines over passengers who paid extra for window seats that had no actual windows (Getty)<\/div>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">A Delta spokesperson said the airline declines to comment on pending litigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The passengers filed proposed class-action lawsuits in August, suing United Airlines in federal court in San Francisco and Delta Air Lines in federal court in\u00a0Brooklyn, New York.<\/p>\n<div class=\"max-md:faux-bleed mb-4 bg-accent\/2 pb-5 md:invisible md:mb-0 md:h-0 md:overflow-hidden md:pb-0\">\n<div class=\"py-2 text-center text-xs uppercase\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"flex w-full flex-nowrap justify-center\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">Delta is also working to get the pending lawsuit dismissed.<\/p>\n<div class=\"mb-4\"><\/div>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">In November, attorney Carter Greenbaum, at the time representing plaintiffs against United and Delta, told\u00a0<em>Reuters<\/em>\u00a0that United&#8217;s position was &#8220;contrary to the reasonable expectations of countless passengers who unknowingly paid extra money for windowless window seats. Consumers deserve better than empty promises and United&#8217;s word games.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">United argued in court documents at the time that it never promised &#8220;window&#8221; seats would come with an outside view, despite identifying them as window seats on booking screens and boarding passes.<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">&#8220;The word &#8216;window&#8217; identifies the position of the\u00a0seat\u2014i.e., next to the wall of the main body of the aircraft,&#8221; United said, according to\u00a0<em>Reuters<\/em>. &#8220;The use of the word &#8216;window&#8217; in reference to a particular seat cannot reasonably be interpreted as a promise that the seat will have an exterior window view.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"mb-4 text-lg md:leading-8 break-words\">The lawsuits seek millions in damages on behalf of more than 1 million passengers, with plaintiffs citing reasons such as reducing anxiety, easing motion sickness and enjoying views.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Brace for turbulence. United Airlines\u00a0must face a class-action lawsuit after a federal judge rejected the airline&#8217;s\u00a0attempt to dismiss\u00a0claims<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":3493,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[99,7,48],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-airline","category-news","category-us"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3492"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3494,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3492\/revisions\/3494"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.cedritech.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}