Two lawsuits filed Tuesday accuse Delta Air Lines and United Airlines of knowingly charging passengers extra for window seats that were not next to a window.
The class action suits were filed against Delta in federal court in New York and against United in federal court in San Francisco, and accuse each carrier of selling more than one million window seats that were, in fact, windowless.
“We’re seeking to hold United and Delta accountable for charging customers premiums for products that they didn’t deliver, and misrepresenting the nature of the products that they did deliver,” Carter Greenbaum, an attorney whose law firm, Greenbaum Olbrantz LLP, filed the suits, said in an interview. “They sold customers window seats and ended up seating them next to a wall.”
Delta declined to comment. United did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The suits claim that some of the airlines’ Boeing 737, Boeing 757 and Airbus A321 aircraft were built with at least one “window seat” that is adjacent to a wall, not a window, generally because of the placement of air conditioning ducts or electrical components. Other carriers, such as American Airlines and Alaska Airlines, operate similar aircraft types but disclose during the seat selection process if a seat does not include a window.
“United and Delta could easily implement the same disclosures,” Mr. Greenbaum said.
The suits say United and Delta “affirmatively” describe “every wall-adjacent seat as a ‘window’ seat,” even when they know certain seats do not include a window. Delta passengers may be charged more than $70 to select a window seat compared with a basic economy fare, and United passengers may pay more than $50 to select a window seat in basic economy on domestic flights, or $100 on international flights, according to the suits.
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The post Their Window Seats Lacked Windows, So Delta and United Passengers Sued appeared first on New York Times.
