Delta Air Lines and United Airlines are facing major class action lawsuits after passengers discovered they were paying premium prices for window seats that had no actual windows. According to CNN, the lawsuits, filed in federal courts in New York and San Francisco, claim both airlines have been charging extra fees for seats positioned next to blank walls instead of providing the promised view outside the aircraft. Two separate class action cases were filed on August 19, 2025, seeking millions of dollars in damages for more than 1 million passengers at each carrier. The Delta lawsuit is led by Nicholas Meyer from Brooklyn, who paid for a window seat on August 5, 2025, from LaGuardia to California but found himself next to a blank wall for the entire four-and-a-half hour flight. The United case involves plaintiffs Marc Brenman from San Francisco and Aviva Copaken from Los Angeles, with Copaken purchasing three window seats ranging from $45.99 to $169.99, all of which lacked windows. For frustrated passengers who have been dealing with this issue for years, the math isn’t mathing when it comes to paying extra fees for services they never received. The problem stems from aircraft design, where some Boeing 737, Boeing 757, and Airbus A321 planes have seats that would normally contain windows but lack them due to the placement of air conditioning ducts, electrical conduits, or other interior components. Airlines continue marketing these seats as “window seats” without proper disclosure to customers during the booking process. Airlines knew about the problem but stayed quiet The lawsuits reveal that Delta and United were aware of the windowless seat issue but failed to inform customers during booking, unlike competitors such as Alaska Airlines and American Airlines who flag these seats for passengers. According to the complaints, people buy window seats for various reasons including addressing fear of flying or motion sickness, keeping children occupied, getting extra light, or simply watching the world go by from 30,000 feet. United Airlines was sued today in a class action for selling "window seats" that don't have windows. pic.twitter.com/C2pr04ygcK— Rob Freund (@RobertFreundLaw) August 20, 2025 Carter Greenbaum, the lawyer whose firm filed both lawsuits, told Reuters that airlines cannot rely on third-party websites to excuse their conduct. “A company can’t 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. This comes as class action lawsuits continue to make headlines across various industries for deceptive practices. The legal complaints state that if passengers had known the seats were windowless, they would never have selected them, let alone paid extra fees. Airlines charge significant amounts for seat selection, with basic economy travelers sometimes needing to spend over $40 to upgrade their ticket tier and then another $30 or more to select a specific window seat. For international flights, these fees can exceed $100, making the deception particularly costly for affected passengers. Similar to other airline passenger disputes that have gained attention on social media, this issue has sparked widespread outrage among travelers who feel cheated by the airlines’ practices. The cases are officially listed as Meyer v Delta Air Lines Inc in the Eastern District of New York and Brenman et al v United Airlines Inc in the Northern District of San Francisco. Both airlines declined to comment on the ongoing litigation, citing their policies of not discussing active legal cases.