Robert Silk
Windowless window seats. The very term is comedic. Unless, that is, you're the passenger stuck in one, staring at a blank white wall, when you thought you'd be able to see the clouds and landscape below you.
I've had this experience before, sitting in the window seat position on the inside of my row but with no window. It sure made my flight less pleasant.
But United evidently views this issue very differently. At least that's the brazen position the airline has taken in response to a class-action suit brought by passengers who've paid seat selection fees for seats labeled by the airline in digital merchandising displays as "window" even though they're windowless.
"The word 'window' is not a promise that a seat will have an exterior window view," reads the motion for dismissal United filed last month.
New York-based law firm Greenbaum Olbrantz, which is spearheading the United class action, has also brought a similar action against Delta, whose own motion to dismiss had not yet been posted to the public docket as of this writing.
United and Delta aren't to blame for having seats without a window in what are normally window positions. Many aircraft have one or more seats like that. Frequently, that's because manufacturers have installed machinery in those locations.
The problem is they have not been transparent with customers about the locations of these seats on digital seat maps. Other airlines, including American and Alaska, have made a practice of denoting such seats on merchandising displays.
United, despite the crass argument it has made in court, tacitly acknowledged its culpability when it began disclosing locations of windowless window seats after the complaint against it was filed in August.
To be fair, for many flyers, having a window seat is about more than just the window. It also means they won't be in a dreaded middle seat, and they can lean their head against the wall if they like.
Armed with full knowledge, I'd choose an aisle seat before a window seat without a window but would still prefer it to a middle seat, depending, of course, on how much extra I'd have to pay. A plaintiff in the United suit said they'd paid upcharges of $45.99 to $169.99 for windowless window seats.
In each suit, the plaintiffs estimate that the airline has likely collected ancillary seat-selection upcharges on more than a million windowless window seats over time.
Whatever the actual figures are, it's still a small subset of United and Delta customers. And in many other ways, each carrier has upped its customer offering in recent years. That's most profoundly the case in premium cabins, but economy customers have also won out in some respects. That includes bigger overhead bins, better in-flight entertainment options and, increasingly, free in-flight WiFi. By successfully differentiating their products, Delta and United have become the clear U.S. airline industry leaders in terms of profit.
The problem is, many travelers still find airlines easy to dislike, a feeling that has been fueled over the years by arrogant customer-service practices, such as overbooking flights. (Remember David Dao, anybody?)
When United argues that by merchandising a seat as a window one it isn't guaranteeing a window, the airline perpetuates such views and undermines itself.