No Windows, No Space, No Shame: How American and British Airways Are Undermining Passenger Safety
Sold a window seat with no window? An aisle seat that blocks the aisle? Read this now.
American Airlines and British Airways, it’s official: we are done — and also, you probably owe some Americans some money. And there are a couple of reasons for this: the generally appalling food often served on international flights is actually not one of them.
As has been reported elsewhere, class action lawsuits have been filed against United Airlines and Delta Air Lines in U.S. federal courts by passengers who paid extra to reserve “window” seats yet were placed in seats next to blank cabin walls with no windows. This is misleading and deceptive because consumers reasonably expect a window if they pay for a window seat, and many would not have paid extra if they knew the seat had no actual window.
The complaints target seats on common aircraft types such as Boeing 737, Boeing 757, and Airbus A321, where structural features (like air-conditioning ducts or electrical conduits) can mean no window fits in certain locations.
United Airlines has contested the claims on patently ridiculous grounds, asking a judge to dismiss its case on the basis that the term “window seat” simply indicates a seat next to the aircraft wall and doesn’t legally guarantee an actual window view. That’s a risible defense. Delta so far hasn’t said too much publicly – maybe because they’re busy looking for ways to cheapen the Delta One experience as much as possible?
Anyway, it is this column’s contention that American Airlines and its codeshare partner, British Airways, should be added to the lawsuits against United and Delta before the case goes to trial, likely next year. The reasons? Firstly, British Airways has also sold window seats that are actually next to blank cabin walls with no windows, and how do I know? Because some time ago this correspondent bought said window ticket, on a flight from Athens to London, only to find himself up against a wall, literally. For someone with claustrophobia, that is really not good. Cue the addition of emotional distress to the legit claims of deceptive business practice described in the class actions.
Worse, according to our information, British Airways does not generally explicitly disclose on its own booking tools when a “window seat” has no actual window next to it. By contrast, American does — but that does not absolve either airline of liability, because customers booking travel on American Airlines in the United States are also sold tickets on the airline’s partner, BA. So, for example, if you book a trip from New York to Athens on British Airways on the American Airlines website, it is inevitable that your connecting flight from London to Athens will be on a British Airways plane. It is then highly likely that you might pay for a window seat on a British Airways Airbus A321 with no actual window, but, snap! Your paper boarding pass issued at JFK or any American airport will indicate American Airlines, even for the BA flight. As proof of this, we recently flew from Phoenix to London (don’t do it) on British Airways, but boarding passes read, American.
Codeshares mean convenience, but also shared responsibility. We don’t profess to know much about the culture of consumer protection in the United Kingdom, but in the United States, look out: you play games with passengers’ rights, you better be ready to pay the price. Even if takes waiting for your day in court to make your (feeble) case.
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Now, the astute traveler will note that we used the word “reason” in the plural above. The reason is this. British Airways is in our view selling tickets for seats that jeopardize passenger comfort and safety.
This may sound a bit Trumpian, but it is widely known that next to economy seats on most American planes these days, the ones on most European carriers frankly suck. Leave it to people who came up with the fake word “Airbus” to describe a machine that flies to dream up the most uncomfortable airplane seats, often Smurf-sized and hard-bottomed.
The British seem uniquely capable of taking a beautiful bird like the A350 and frankly fucking it up, at least on the inside. On aforementioned flight from Phoenix’s nasty, overcrowded airport to London’s Heathrow, this correspondent had an aisle seat way in the back – the last row, actually.
It should be said that the service on board was good, and the flight attendants provided friendly, professional service in cramped and difficult conditions, on a full, long-haul night flight.
But about those cramps…having a leg injury didn’t help matters, being stuck in one of those sadistically tiny seats, but it’s not just the size that matters. It’s also the positioning: you’ve got a bank of three seats on either side of the plane, plus three or four in the middle. The problem with the aisle seats is that the upper part of the plastic frame of the seat actually protrudes into, or rather over, the very narrow aisle.
This is a hazard. Because it means that every time someone shuffles past on their way to the lavatory, they bump into your seat, whether they intended to or not. It means that the loaded trolleys pushed by the flight attendants are almost guaranteed to collide with some part of your body at least once during a ten-hour flight. The gravitational likelihood of this combined with it actually happening at frequent intervals — though you never know exactly when, especially in the dark — compounds the stress and misery of sitting in such a terrible seat.
And guess what it does if you, say, are traveling with a preexisting orthopedic condition or injury? You don’t have to guess: it makes it worse.
It is also my contention that the narrowness of the aisle on the British Airways A350 — again, sold as an American Airlines flight — compromises both passenger and crew comfort and safety. How many people have already hurt their feet or gotten inadvertently whacked by a flight attendant’s elbow as they dart through the cabin at 35,000 feet? How many more risk it? And I’m sorry but “Oh, I’m so sorry about that sir,” doesn’t cut it.
My guess is that the FAA has rules about things like minimum width of aisles on commercial airliners. I am also guessing that American and BA are in compliance there. However, if so, the rules need to be revised, because empirical evidence shows that the narrow spaces are highly problematic.
The legality of the existence of those aisle-protruding seats on an American-marketed flight demands further scrutiny and relevant investigation. Don’t count on the greedy airlines to give a damn — but your representative in Congress, who probably has to get to work by plane sometimes, just might.
