United Airlines will face a proposed class action over claims it charged passengers extra for window seats that didn’t actually have a window, after a US federal judge denied the airline’s bid to have the case dismissed.
The ruling, handed down on 6 July by District Court Judge James Donato in California’s Northern District, allows passengers to continue pursuing claims that United breached its contract by selling so-called “windowless window seats”.
The lawsuit, filed last August by New York law firm Greenbaum Olbrantz, alleges United’s booking system identified certain seats as window seats and charged passengers accordingly, despite some of those seats lacking an exterior window because of aircraft design.
In his decision, as reported by US Travel Weekly, Donato found that United’s reservation system represented the seats as window seats and that passengers’ tickets explicitly stated they had purchased a window seat.
The plaintiffs argue the airline failed to clearly identify affected seats on its digital seat maps, despite having the technical capability to do so. The lawsuit claims passengers who paid a premium for the seats did not receive the product they believed they were purchasing.
Following the legal action, United updated its online and app-based seat maps to indicate where exterior seats do not have a window.
The airline declined to comment directly on the judge’s ruling but confirmed the booking interface had since been enhanced.
“As part of our regular review of United.com and 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,” the airline said.
United had argued the case should be dismissed because its contract of carriage contains no promise that every seat positioned beside the aircraft wall would provide a window view. The carrier also maintained the claims were pre-empted by the US Airline Deregulation Act, which limits legal challenges relating to airline pricing and services.
However, Donato rejected those arguments, finding the dispute centred on whether United had failed to deliver what customers had specifically purchased under the terms of their booking.
The legal battle could have broader implications for airline seat merchandising, particularly as carriers continue to generate growing ancillary revenue through paid seat selection.
Greenbaum Olbrantz is also pursuing a similar class action against Delta Air Lines, with a discovery hearing in that case scheduled for 14 July.
