The case can now proceed after a federal judge refused on Monday to dismiss the proposed class action lawsuit that accused United Airlines of charging extra for “window seats” without actual windows.
U.S. district judge James Donato found that the plaintiffs had a plausible claim United violated their contractual obligations when it sold seats labeled as window seats, even though they were located next to cabin walls instead of windows.
Donato stated that “these terms clearly establish United agreed to give a window seat to customers who had paid for it.” He added that United’s screens on the reservation system and boarding pass indicated that passengers purchased window seats. At this point, the claim for breach is not needed.
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United is accused of charging passengers more for window seats in aircraft such as Boeing 737s or Boeing 757s. Some seats were also missing adjacent windows due to aircraft design. The plaintiffs say that passengers pay a premium for window seats in order to take advantage of the views or alleviate anxiety or motion sickness.
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United said the case should be dismissed. They said that “window seats” refers to a seat’s position relative to an aisle, rather than guaranteeing a window. And they argued federal law overrides the claims. Donato has rejected these arguments for the time being.
United has declined to comment about the suit.
A United spokesperson said that in order to improve the experience of customers, we reviewed united.com, the United App, and our seating process. We added additional details to the seat selection procedure so the customer can be more informed about the options available.
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Plaintiffs are seeking to represent all passengers in the United States who have paid for seats with windows but received allegedly seats without them. This case is now being heard in the federal court.

According to Cox Automotive, the Iran War and high gas prices in the U.S. are driving up demand for pre-owned all-electric cars.
On Wednesday, the company reported that their Manheim Used Vehicle Value Index (which tracks used vehicle prices sold in its U.S. Wholesale Auctions) increased 12% compared to June 2025. This compares to a 1.7% rise for non-EVs during the same time period.
Manheim reports that wholesale EV pricing has increased each month in 2018. This led to a 11.5% increase in the average price to $30,400. Manheim reported that the average price of non-EVs has increased by less than 1 percent this year, reaching $19,125.
According to Cox Kelley Blue Book, the average price of a used EV in May was 37 083, or $37 083. Wholesale prices are usually followed by retail prices.
Manheim released a statement that said “EVs are still performing well, but prices of SUVs and Pickups have fallen compared to last year.”
Cox reported that used EVs sold to consumers in May reached 42,923 vehicles, an increase of 5.5% from the previous month, and 24.7% over the past year. The used EV share remained at 2.8%. Tesla is estimated to be the leader with sales of 15,353 models. This was followed by Hyundai, Chevrolet Ford, and BMW electric vehicles.
Jonathan Gregory, Senior Director of Cox Automotive said that gas prices will continue to be a factor in determining whether or not vehicle costs rise, despite an anticipated influx of electric vehicles (EVs) off-lease coming this year.
After automakers boosted their sales of electric vehicles three years ago with leasing deals, a growing number of used EVs will be available on the market by the end of this year.
The risk that we are watching in the second half of the year is the steep increase in the supply of EVs, especially. This could put pressure on specific segments, even if the overall market remains stable. “Gas is the pivot factor. If pump prices continue to fall, some of this EV demand may fade away as availability increases,” Gregory stated.
AAA reported that the average national gas price is $3.80 per gallon, up 21% in a year. These prices are down from their recent highs but the escalating conflict in Iran has caused oil prices on Wednesday to rise.
In contrast to the new electric vehicles, used EVs are in high demand. Many automakers have reported sharp declines in sales of new EVs.
The comparison between the two years is not easy. EV sales began to increase last year in the second quarter, ahead of the expectation that Trump would offer consumers $7500 as incentives to buy an EV.
In September, the incentives were ended and EVs accounted for 10% of vehicles that month. They then plummeted later in 2018.

Waymo, the company that makes driverless cars, will be rolling them out in four cities over the next few weeks. This is part of its expansion in America and builds on its advantage against domestic competitors Tesla and Zoox owned by Amazon.
The company announced Wednesday that Alphabet’s Robotaxi division would soon begin offering rides with full autonomy in San Diego as well as Las Vegas, Tampa and Denver. Alphabet’s robotaxi division will soon offer fully autonomous rides in San Diego, Las Vegas, Tampa, Florida and Denver.
Waymo has driverless vehicles in over 10 cities. The company announced its expansion plans for the first time last year. Tesla and Zoox, while both having a slow expansion into new cities, have a huge head start on the market. Zoox will launch its robotaxi services to some of the general public later this year in Austin, Texas and Miami. Tesla, meanwhile, is expanding beyond Austin to other areas of Texas and Miami.
According to documents filed with U.S. regulators for auto safety, Waymo had a domestic fleet of about 4,000 robotaxis, equipped with its fifth and sixth generation automated driving systems.
Waymo has announced its latest news as it faces challenges as more and more cars are put on the roads. Some of the company’s vehicles drove into flooded roads following severe weather events. During Fourth of July festivities, several vehicles were stuck for such a long time in San Francisco traffic that they lost their batteries. Another vehicle was seen driving directly into fireworks.
Waymo received $16 billion in funding from Alphabet, among others. After driving more than 20,000,000 autonomous trips, the company will launch service in London later this year. It aims to reach 1,000,000 weekly trips within the next year.
This report was contributed by Lora Kolodny, a CNBC reporter.

International Monetary Fund (IMF) warned that the global economy will slow down sharply by 2026, after war with Iran has disrupted the energy supply chain and caused a new bout of inflation.
These forecasts show the damage caused by Israel and the United States’ decision to attack Iran in this year. These attacks prompted Iranian retaliation against energy infrastructures in the region. This destabilized a global economy already ravaged by Russia’s conflict in Ukraine and the Covid-19 virus pandemic.
According to the latest update of I.M.F.’s World Economic Outlook, global output will fall from 3.5 to 3 percent by 2026. This is about a tenth slower than IMF’s projection for April of 3.1 per cent growth. It highlights the long-term nature of this conflict.
Forecasts are still subject to significant uncertainty. The attacks on the tankers that were trying to cross the Strait of Hormuz in the past week raised questions about the sustainability of the ceasefire agreement between Iran and the United States. On Tuesday, the United States withdrew a waiver of sanctions which would have permitted more Iranian oil on the global market.
At a NATO summit in Turkey, President Trump said on Wednesday: “I don’t think the truce is over.”
The shipping traffic in the Strait of Hormuz was blocked for several months. This led to higher energy costs and increased consumer prices across the globe. I.M.F. The I.M.F.
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DealBook, a newsletter published early on Wednesday, reported that Blue Origin, the rocket company founded Jeff Bezos by, raises private capital.
The publication claims that the company will raise $10 billion. This would result in a value of $130 billion. Coatue Management is expected to be the first with its $4 billion investment. Large institutional investors are expected to contribute another $4 billion. Bezos is also contributing $2 billion.
Blue Origin, founded in 2000, is aspiring to be a leader in the space industry. They are developing super heavy-lift rockets and lunar landers as well as plans for 2 megaconstellations. Blue Origin is aiming to be a competitor in similar areas as SpaceX, including launch, telecommunications and data centres from space.
Blue Origin, on the other hand, has been able to survive almost exclusively through Bezos’ generosity. Unlike SpaceX which started with a small investment by Elon Musk, then funded its operations via government contracts and private investments, as well as loans. Now, he invests several hundred billion dollars per year in the company, which has major operations located in Washington, Alabama and Florida.
Ars reported in March that Bezos was likely to take in outside investors soon in order for him to be able compete with SpaceX financially. Even though the figures reported by DealBook seem impressive, they are dwarfed in comparison to the $85 Billion that SpaceX has raised via its initial public offer process this year and its estimated valuation of $2 Trillion. Blue Origin needs a similar plan in order to compete against the stock options that SpaceX offers to its employees.
Pad explosion sets back plans
Multiple sources have told Ars this spring that Bezos participated in Blue Origin fundraising during the summer and spring months of 2018. These plans, however, were set temporarily back by the explosion of New Glenn’s rocket in Florida in late may, which destroyed its sole launch pad.
Bezos, along with Dave Limp the CEO of Blue Origin have been working quickly to clear the site for the rocket launch and start the process of rebuilding. Bezos said publicly that he intended to have the New Glenn launch rocket back in flight by the end of the year. Most industry observers believed this was unlikely and that a timeline closer to a year would be more realistic.
Blue Origin has taken a very urgent approach to recovering from the New Glenn catastrophe. This is not typical for the company, which has a turtle as its mascot, and has the motto “step by step, fiercely.” Bezos may have been in the middle closing deals, and wanted to demonstrate his commitment to get New Glenn airborne and to open up new revenue sources.
Increasing ambitions to generate revenue
New Glenn is at the core of company ambitions. It is aiming to bring humans and large cargo to the surface of the moon for NASA as well as a number of commercial firms. Commercial satellite launch clients also rely on it to compete with SpaceX’s Falcon and Starship Rockets.
Blue Origin recently unveiled two of its megacontellation projects. The TeraWave Internet constellation is a low-Earth-orbit constellation that provides high-speed internet connectivity to enterprise customers. Project Sunrise, on the other hand, will be a constellation with up to 51.600 satellites in Sun-synchronous orbits, at an altitude ranging between 500 and 1,800 kilometers.
All of these projects are ambitious and require hundreds to tens of billions in funding to reach fruition. Ars has reported that Bezos is tired of self-funding Blue Origin. In 2017, Bezos hired Bob Smith as the CEO of Blue Origin to grow it into a major space company, and become self-sufficient in government and commercial contracts. The individual programs had to be cash flow neutral. The effort was largely unsuccessful and Smith left in 2023.
Bezos is now looking for private equity to both limit his investments as well as to fund the additional growth required to make Blue Origin competitive with SpaceX.