Celebrity Journalist Gayle King posted on Instagram about her recent experience with United Airlines. She complained about the windowless first-class seat she got, even though it mentioned it was going to be a window seat. Her ticket read “18L Window Business Class.”
She posted the video to her 1.1 million followers, expecting sympathy, only to be slammed for her privilege. In the video, King showed her seat on the eight-hour flight from Maui, Hawaii, to New York, saying, “I always like the window seat, and I know the L series is window seats, so I sit down, I go, ‘oh great, okay, let’s look out the window.’ Oh, hm. There is no window.”
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She also pointed out that the seat in front of her has a window, but hers does not. King continued in her video saying, “United and I have very different ideas about a window. What’s a girl to do?”
Insta users were quick to slam King on her “first-world problems.” The CBS News anchor may not have expected so much negative feedback on her video. Many people pointed out how out of touch her complaint was. One follower commented under her video, “Imagine complaining that your first class lay flat seat has no window. Get a grip.”
Another one added, “Oh no. What are you ever going to do in business class? I would hate for you to suffer.” One of them gave her advice, “Gayle. There are times we just “Let Go” and thank God for our blessings.” Several followers called it a rich-people problem and what a blessing it must be to have such a problem.
CBS Mornings co host Gayle King has publicly criticised United Airlines after being assigned a business class seat marketed as a window that had no actual window.
King raised the issue after a 9.5 hour flight from Maui to New York on January 3, flying in Polaris business class… pic.twitter.com/OaSjmDydj8
— Flightdrama (@flightdrama) January 5, 2026
One user joked, “Spoiler: she survived the horrid ordeal. “Another Instagram user added, “This is what we are actually complaining about? What are you, a teenage girl?”
Amidst all the criticism, there were some people on King’s side. One of them wrote, “Airlines need to really start informing people of these types of seats and stop charging them like they’re regular window seats.” Another one hoped she would get a complimentary flight with a window.
United Airlines has been infamous for not offering windows despite it being mentioned in the tickets. They gave a clarification that a window seat refers to a location, and not the presence of a window.
