Key facts
- US District Judge Ramon Reyes in Brooklyn rejected Delta's bid to dismiss the window-seat lawsuit.
- Reyes found a reasonable dispute over whether Delta's contract of carriage required window seats for paying passengers.
- Delta said the need to substitute planes with different seating arrangements absolved it from guaranteeing seat assignments.
- The proposed class actions were filed in August 2025 over seats next to walls on Boeing 737, 757 and Airbus A321 planes.
- A federal judge in San Francisco rejected United Airlines' bid to dismiss a similar lawsuit in July.
- Lawyer Casey Olbrantz said the ruling showed passengers can hold airlines accountable despite federal deregulation.
A federal judge rejected Delta Air Lines' request to dismiss a lawsuit by passengers who said they paid extra to sit in window seats and were seated next to windowless blank walls, Reuters reported on November 5, 2026.
US District Judge Ramon Reyes in Brooklyn ruled on Wednesday that there was a reasonable dispute over whether Delta's contract of carriage required the carrier to provide window seats to passengers who paid for them. The contract says Delta "does not offer tickets or contracts to customers that guarantee particular seats." Reyes did not decide the lawsuit's merits.
The proposed class actions were filed in August 2025 by passengers who found themselves seated next to walls on Boeing 737, Boeing 757 and Airbus A321 planes. According to the plaintiffs, passengers typically buy window seats to address fear of flying and motion sickness, keep children occupied, get more light, or take in the view, and the absence of windows was not disclosed during booking. Aircraft walls sometimes align with operating components such as air conditioning ducts.
In seeking dismissal of the Brooklyn case, Atlanta-based Delta said the inherent nature of airline operations, including the periodic need to substitute planes with different seating arrangements, absolved it from guaranteeing seat assignments. Delta declined to comment on Thursday, saying it does not discuss pending litigation.
Casey Olbrantz, a lawyer for the four Delta plaintiffs, called the decision "a significant precedent in establishing that, despite federal deregulation, passengers can still hold airlines accountable when they don't get what they paid for." In July, a federal judge in San Francisco rejected United Airlines' bid to dismiss a similar lawsuit. Both lawsuits seek millions of dollars in damages, for more than 1 million passengers per carrier.