TRUTH IN FLYING?

You ever get the sense the airlines are lying to you?

Sure, the government shutdown wasn’t their fault. But are they always honest — in this instance and others — when flyers face delays?

How often has a promised 20-minute delay morphed into an hour?  And then another hour?  And maybe even a cancellation?

Because these most recent delays were beyond their control (they can blame Congress), airlines were not required to do much… aside from apologize.  Some did offer meal vouchers and hotel rooms, but for the most part travelers were on their own as schedules and staff were juggled.

Overall, the federal shutdown is estimated to have cost airlines, hotels, and car-rental companies about $1 billion a week.  And that’s not even counting the cost to travelers for their time and expenses.

But when the airlines say, “We apologize for the delay, but it’s not our fault,” there are some things they can and do control, especially as they drive for maximum revenue on every flight… like paid-for seat assignments, one of the so called “junk fees”.

A US Senate report says one airline alone, United, raked in $1.3 billion just for letting passengers pick their seats… more than the $1.2 billion their earned for handling checked bags.

Assigned seats ease the boarding process and give fliers what they want… aisle access, that comfy middle seat or, my favorite, the window seat.  I want to see where I’m flying and I’ll pay to get it.

So imagine the outrage of passengers on several airlines who paid $15 - $30 for a window seat and found it had no window!

A Window Seat with NO Window?

United and Delta airlines are now facing a class action suit potentially affecting more than a million passengers who were affected, paying for window seats with no windows.  It’s just the way the aircraft were built and the seats were laid out, so the airlines knew before offering those seat reservations.

If they knew the ‘window seats’ had no windows, why not warn passengers before they click?

(I encountered the same problem on Amtrak on its new NextGen Acela, choosing a window seat in advance only to board the new train and find a bulkhead and no window.) 

What’s the airline’s defense?  Well, they say that just because it’s called a window seat doesn’t mean you get a window… that the seat name refers more to its placement nearest the fuselage vs the aisle.

In its defense, United’s attorneys literally said “The use of the word ‘window’ in reference to a particular seat cannot reasonably be interpreted as a promise that the seat will have an exterior window view.”

Really. That’s what they said.

All of which reminds me of former bosses at Metro-North in the bad old pre-COVID days of over-crowded, standing-room-only trains.  When one passenger suggested a refund for not getting a seat he was told, “You’re paying for transportation.  We never promised you a seat.”

Such customer service!