Airlines Sued for Advertising Window Seats That Are Windowless

You purchase your flight ticket to Orlando for a trip to Disney World with United Airlines. After looking through the seat chart, you decide to pick a window seat even though it’s slightly more expensive because you enjoy watching the plane take off and soar through the air. But as you board the plane, instead of a window seat, the wall is completely bare. Despite paying extra for a window seat, you spend the flight at a windowless seat.

United Airlines and Delta Air Lines have allegedly misled customers by selling “window seats” that

 do not actually have windows. In fact, passengers in those windowless “window seats” might pay a fee to reserve a window seat that, in fact, does not feature a window. The law firm Greenbaum Olbrantz intends to file a lawsuit for violating passenger rights and false advertising. The lawsuit is likely to be filed as a class action in California.  

Alaska Airlines explained on its website in 2019 that “Every aircraft in Alaska’s Boeing fleet has a seat or two, on the left side forward of the wing, with either partial access to a window or no window at all. “That’s the spot where Boeing places the air conditioning riser ducts from the belly – where the air conditioners are located – to the cabin ceiling, where the air distribution ducts are. The vertical ducts are located behind the passenger compartment sidewall panels, and they prevent the installation of a window in one row on the left side. This is standard on all Boeing 737 aircraft, not just ours.”

What is False Advertising?

False advertising applies to any promotions or advertising that misrepresent the nature, quality, characteristics, or origin of commercial activities, goods, and/or services. A business that knowingly releases an ad that contains misleading, deceptive, or untrue statements in order to sell its product can be liable for injuries or damages from false advertising. 

Some common forms of false advertising include, but are not limited to, the following:

Using deceptive images, such as making food or product items look bigger than they actually are;
Advertising a certain price but leaving out hidden fees;
Holding a “going out of business” sale to raise prices;
Applying bait and switch tactics, such as advertising one product but substituting a different product

The allegations against United Airlines and Delta Air Lines would amount to a bait-and-switch. The airlines are allegedly selling window seats to passengers and charging them extra for those seats, when in fact the seats do not have a window at all. This wouldn’t be an issue if the airlines didn’t allegedly advertise these seats as window seats or charge extra for them. Although this might seem like a trivial issue, one of the purposes of a class action is to gather otherwise small claims to correct potential grievances, no matter how small they may appear at first glance.

Do I Need the Help of a Class Action Attorney?

If you have been a victim of false advertising and could potentially have a class action lawsuit, a skilled class action attorney can assist you. A class action lawyer can review the facts of your case, go over your rights and options, and represent you in court.