Two class action lawsuits have been filed against Delta Airlines and United Airlines, as both are accused of failing to flag window seats with obstructed views
Both Delta and United Airlines have been sued by passengers who claimed they paid extra to sit in window seats, which turned out to have no view of a window.
Proposed class actions were filed against United in San Francisco federal court and against Delta in Brooklyn, New York federal court. Both are seeking millions of dollars of damages for more than 1 million passengers at each carrier.
According to the complaints, some Boeing 737, Boeing 757 and Airbus A321 planes have seats that would normally contain windows, but lack them because of the placement of air conditioning ducts, electrical conduits or other components.
Passengers said that both airlines failed to flag these seats during the booking process, despite charging tens of occasionally hundreds of dollars for them. Rivals such as Alaska Airlines and American Airlines have flagged these type of seats.
The lawsuits state that people specifically book window seats for reasons, some of which include addressing the fear of flying, motion sickness, getting extra light, or occupying a child.
Had plaintiffs and the class members known that the seats they were purchasing (were) windowless, they would not have selected them – much less have paid extra, the United complaint said. The Delta complaint contained similar language.
According to CNN, Neither Delta nor United immediately responded to requests for comment.
Revenue collected from things like seat selection, baggage fees, cabin upgrades, airport lounges and other services, help airlines generate more cash when they fly while keeping base fares lower.
While sites like Seatguru can help passengers identify the advantages and disadvantages of certain seats on board, Carter Greenbaum, a lawyer whose firm filed the two lawsuits, said the ability to find information from third party websites doesnt excuse anything.
A company cant misrepresent the nature of the products it sells and then rely on third party reviews to say a customer should have known that it was lying, he said in an email, according to CNN.
News of the lawsuits comes a few days after a United Airlines pilot refused to fly the already-boarded plane, after a passenger attempted to smoke marijuana in the airplane bathroom.
The pilot told all on board, I have 30 years left of my career at United, Im not willing to risk getting drug tested when I get to Houston.
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