Southwest Airlines will end open seating: What you need to know
Editor's Note
Southwest Airlines is ditching open seating, one of the hallmarks of its brand over the last half-century. The Dallas-based carrier is now moving forward with plans to add assigned seating, executives announced Thursday.
The carrier is also planning to add extra-legroom seats to its cabins for the first time.
As part of the shift, Southwest will revamp its unique boarding process. The current process sees customers line up along numbered posts based on a preassigned boarding group and number.
It's a major shift for the airline — one meant to entice more customers to fly Southwest and boost lagging financial results that have plagued the company of late.
"Although our unique open-seating model has been a part of Southwest Airlines since our inception, our thoughtful and extensive research makes it clear this is the right choice — at the right time — for our customers, our people and our shareholders," CEO Bob Jordan said in a statement announcing the news.
Here's what you need to know about the sweeping changes unveiled Thursday by Southwest.
Southwest open seating ending
More than 50 years after unveiling its open-seating concept — a concept well-known to passengers for most of its history — the carrier is doing away with its one-of-a-kind cabin seating setup.
Going forward, Southwest plans to assign seats to all passengers, as other airlines do.
The move will spell the end of one of Southwest's best-known quirks — one that's long been a strategy subject among Southwest loyalists hoping to find the best seat.
Why is Southwest adding assigned seats?
For months, Southwest executives have discussed the possibility of shifting to assigned seats.
In a statement Thursday, the carrier claimed 80% of its customers now prefer assigned seats, citing tens of thousands of consumers certified in extensive market research conducted over the better part of a year.
Leaders said that's a major shift from just several years ago, when similar studies showed the split at closer to half.
"Customer preferences shift over time … and their travel patterns and travel behaviors shift over time," Ryan Green, executive vice president for commercial transformation, told analysts on the company's second-quarter earnings call Thursday.
"Customers are just taking fewer short-haul trips today. They're flying longer," Green explained. "And when they fly longer, the importance of an assigned seat goes up."
Also, 86% of non-Southwest loyalists prefer assigned seats, executives said Thursday; open seating is among the top reasons, Southwest studies show, that some travelers choose not to fly with the carrier.
The changes, which include new extra-legroom seats, will introduce new revenue opportunities at a time when the carrier has, like a number of its competitors, experienced lagging profits.
How will Southwest's 'premium' seats work?
As part of its seating changes, Southwest will add a "premium seating" option, which will cost extra.
Don't expect a first-class cabin with spacious recliners and premium food. Rather, picture the extra legroom seats you find in the coach cabin of major carriers; these typically have the same seats (as Southwest is planning) but a bit more legroom and often a few other perks thrown in.
"It'll be different than the rest of the cabin, but it won't be a different seat and a curtain and meals and ovens," Jordan said. "We'll do this the 'Southwest way.'"
These extra-legroom seats will likely represent about a third of the seats on Southwest aircraft, executives said Thursday.
Specific cabin layouts are still in the works, but the airline promised new details at the company's investor day in September.
Potential elite status perk
It's a likely bet these new extra legroom seats could figure into the value proposition for Southwest Rapid Rewards A-List and/or A-List Preferred elite status.
The largest U.S. airlines offer some form of complimentary access to extra legroom seats as a perk of elite status. For instance, on American Airlines, AAdvantage Gold members can select Main Cabin Extra seats within 24 hours of takeoff, and Platinum members (and above) can select those seats at booking.
Could something similar be on the way for Southwest elite members?
"I think it's safe to assume that, just like our current A-List, A-List Preferred customers, there is a boarding benefit associated with their status level, I think it's safe to assume there will be seating benefits that are associated with it," Green said on Thursday's call.
Revenue opportunities
From the airline's perspective, the addition of extra-legroom seats is a way to boost revenue opportunities. More profitable U.S. airlines — namely Delta Air Lines and United Airlines — have cited a boom in premium demand as a key to recent success.
Even JetBlue leaders recently called the carrier's Mint cabin a "shining star," and a crucial piece of the airline's plans to return to profitability.
Southwest, of course, has largely missed out on any such opportunities with its egalitarian cabins and its few ways to boost ancillary revenue beyond hiking Early Bird check-in fees, as it did earlier this year.
But that will change in the not-too-distant future.
Boarding process evolving
Changing Southwest's signature open-seating policy will require a change to its boarding process.
Currently, the airline has a unique process in which every passenger is assigned a letter and number. Passengers line up along numbered posts and then walk, single-file, onto the jetbridge.
Executives acknowledged that the process will undoubtedly have to change with the arrival of assigned seats; however, they said they hope to keep the "calm and order" the process is known for.
"Our customers that we survey really like that. So there's a lot of focus on maintaining the boarding in a form that our customers love, but doing it in a manner that it pairs with assigned seating," Jordan said.
Eliminating a stress point
One stress point the airline expects to eliminate: the pressure to check in precisely at the 24-hour mark, when the check-in window opens. An on-time check-in is typically a key to getting a prime boarding position (itself a key to getting a prime seat) on Southwest.
Green said a whopping 50% of customers today check in within 30 seconds of the 24-hour window opening. Around three-quarters of passengers check in within the first hour.
"If you're a busy family and you don't hit the window right on the nose, that causes anxiety," Green argued. "This is a way to solve a lot of those friction points in the current open seating process."
When will Southwest's open seating end?
Southwest executives said Thursday they hope to begin selling assigned seats — including the extra-legroom seats — at some point in 2025.
Beyond that, the timeline remains a bit unclear, though the carrier expects to share far more about the plans at an investor day in September.
A new seat configuration would require certification from the Federal Aviation Administration, and then each Southwest jet would have to be retrofitted to the new cabin layout. Leaders said this would be a quick process on each aircraft, but with roughly 800 planes in the fleet, Jordan said, "That will take time."
Will bags still fly free on Southwest?
Southwest announced no plans to boost revenue further by charging for checked bags.
Each customer is allowed to bring two free checked bags (and free full-size carry-on bags on every ticket). This is another hallmark of the carrier's brand — and it's one of the top three reasons travelers choose to fly with the airline, Jordan said Thursday.
"It's not something that's under consideration right now," Jordan said Thursday. "It's a big part of what attracts people to Southwest Airlines."
Bottom line
It's a time of big change at Southwest.
For decades, passengers have picked their own seats and lined up through a unique numbered boarding process.
Both practices are set to end — or at least undergo a major shift — in the not-so-distant future.
These changes come as the airline has also announced another first: the launch of red-eye flights early next year.
Also in 2025, Southwest plans to begin taking delivery of new aircraft with its new seat types.
Related reading:
- Your complete guide to maximizing Southwest Rapid Rewards
- The best Southwest Airlines credit cards
- How to quickly earn the Southwest Companion Pass
- What is Southwest Airlines elite status worth?
- Maximize your airfare: The best credit cards for booking flights
- The best credit cards to reach elite status
- How to change or cancel a Southwest Airlines flight