January 9, 2025
Southwest Airlines® Changes
Pam
Southwest Airlines® announced changes to its longheld boarding process of no assigned seating earlier this year. Here are some updates to that announcement. They unveiled their “Southwest. Even Better.” plan at their investors’ day in September 2024. Here are the basic changes they are making:
Assigned Seating
Assigned seating will begin in the second half of 2025 for flights operating in the first half of 2026. While many people have been fine with the unassigned seating, others (like me) prefer knowing where they will sit.
These seats will now be assigned. No more not knowing where you are sitting!
Premium Seating
Southwest Airlines® will begin offering premium seating, including extra legroom of up to 5″ more for about 1/3 of its seats on most airplanes. Of course, this will necessitate a redesigned cabin.
Bags Fly Free®
One of Southwest’s most loved features will continue as bags will still fly free. Expect being able to check up to two bags to continue to cost nothing. 🎉
Your suitcase can still fly for free!
Flight Credits Won’t Expire
I love this statement I found on the page:
“We’re making expiring flight credits a thing of the past. Now flight credits are just like Rapid Rewards® points: they don’t expire. Your flight credits are yours to keep.”
Even more compelling is that certain fares will now include transferable flight credits. I love this new perk so you can transfer them to someone else with a Rapid Reward account as long as the fare meets the proper criteria.
More Rewards
You can check out the following list that lists a lot of elite travel benefits. This includes:
- Selecting front standard seating at the time of booking.
- Choose extra legroom within 48 hours of departure at no additional costs, if available.
- Same-day changes with better seat options.
- The ability to select an available seat for your designated Companion.
- Tier Member seating benefits for both member and Companion.
Bottom Line
Southwest Airlines® changes seem largely favorable to me. Of course, we are talking to someone who didn’t fly them much. Will these new changes entice me to fly them more often? Possibly. What are your thoughts?
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Is there an additional cost to select seats like other airlines or does the most basic ticket also allow you to select seating? If it seat selection is not standard will they guarantee children are seated with care givers?
They will be giving us more information in the future – we can’t wait to learn more.
How will people with disabilities be boarded? Will they have to request seats for the front of the plane? I have’ nt seen anything about how people with disabilities will be boarded.
I don’t think they’ve put detailed information on those types of things yet. We’ll let you know more as we learn more.