Southwest Airlines is in the process of transforming its business model, under financial pressure from activist investors. The airline is changing just about everything, and has started charging for checked bags, adding basic economy, expiring travel credits, and more.
Continue reading: End Of An Era: New Southwest Airlines Assigned & Premium Seating Policy Live!
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
The REAL Aero (and not the fake Aero) speaks. Sadly, someone has been using your handle and making false flag comments. Some blogs require a log-in to comment. Perhaps, Ben might do the same to filter out such activity.
Great to see. Only ridden Southwest twice (1999 and 2013) and swore I'd never do it again, as the lack of assigned seating caused so many problems (a fist fight over seats resulting in arrest, delaying all of us, on the first flight; a kid taking my seat mid-flight and asking me to relocate to the back, on the other).
Now, may actually consider them again. Especially if their points ever become worth something with reputable longhaul carriers in the future.
Sat next to an Aussie on a bus back to the terminal today. Her first question was she heard that there was a US carrier that had open seating. She couldn't believe an airline would do that. She enjoyed the WN horror stories of people gaming the system.
Do Israelis get Group 0? Priority boarding was promised to us 3000 years ago. If Southwest did not do this, they are antisemites.
For premium customers, block the middle seat or install a proper domestic first class seat. Charge whatever price that makes financial sense.
I don’t know why this isn’t common/allowed other than it probably screws up demand forecasts if one passenger is essentially occupying two seats as it just fragments the market even more
Umm, or just install a legitimate 2-2 recliner domestic First for a few rows up front, like even Spirit has…
Ohio-native spends his time Down Under… feels like the premise of a made-for-TV movie.
The irony is that many of those ole folks and scammers probably aren’t even aware of the changes, so they’re gonna show up, think everything is like it was in the past, then become disappointed when they end up in the back of the aircraft in a middle seat. (‘But I want the front aisle!’) Too bad so sad.
Yes, Jack, we know. You, Aero, Eskimo, myself, and others. It’s not the end of the world. Try to enjoy what you still can. (And, no, I’m not creating an account either; I like relative anonymity.)
there WERE plenty of people who never liked the FORMER WN model and Elliott helped WN to see how much money they were leaving on the table.
AA just announced its earnings for 2025 and they were barely profitable for the year. B6 continues to lose money.
WN has significant opportunity to poach AA passengers while other carriers (who know which one) will continue to benefit from B6' inability to profitably operate.
The US airline industry is at an inflection point that has been pushed back because of covid.
For the first time in at least a decade, WN is in the position to compete to take passengers from other airlines.
and WN will announce even more initiatives to become more like the big 3.
Has Southwest or the FAA studied the potential impact of these changes on our healthcare system? Will it burden it or increase health insurance premiums for everybody?
Not sure why people are considering this to be a good thing, and who even consented to letting Southwest be destroyed by Private Equity like this? The airlines rake in billions of dollars from nickle and diming us yet they claim they can't make a profit. At the end of the day, in order to satisfy Wall Street's unreasonable desire of "always grow profit" when breaking even is not simply enough, they always screw over the customer first. I've said this many times over the years, but product always comes before profit!
As a small business owner I never put an investor's interest above those of my customers; in fact, I always adopt poison pill tactics to make sure what happened to Southwest can never happen to my business. Customer is always first!
It was bound to happen eventually, the race to the bottom as in every other industry. The last sentence of the quote says it all: "it will unlock new sources of revenue consistent with our laser focus on delivering improved financial performance.” Nothing about customers - it is all about revenue.
What made Southwest different wasn't just the boarding process (who remembers the numbered plastic cards they gave out at check-in?). It was that Herb said EMPLOYEES come first, because happy employees take better care of customers. Does any FA in the back on the big three look like they enjoy their job? Its a hostile work environment. If you treat your employees like crap, don't be surprised when they take it out on the customers. The SW team faces the same customer hassles, but somehow manages to be happy, kidding around, telling jokes and signing songs. For decades SW was the only airline to not penalize you $200 to change a flight. It took Covid to get the others to do that. And free bags. It was a no BS airline - you just bought a ticket and got on.
I'm sure the Companion Pass will be next on the block. We saved about $5,000 last year with ours. Maybe we'll get first class; I'd gladly pay an additional $50-100 per flight hour for more room.
Sigh...
Southwest completley blew it. What a joke. No two row business class section. All rhat money wasted on three per row for some exta legroom, but having someone stuck in the middle.
For premium customers, block the middle seat or install a proper domestic business class seat.
Charge whatever price that makes financial sense.
This is a huge upgrade, given how stupid and unpleasant their boarding process has self-evidently been for decades. Race to the top, led by the customer experience on United and Delta. Unfortunately, Southwest still has a bad product so comes in #4 and there's no reason to fly them, but the gap with American (#3) is narrowing.
Not sure why there needed to be two articles about this topic. SW is now just like all the other airlines. Seems that their main business will be from some of the points they fly to/from with no other suitable option or they go to/from some smaller airports.
We were very disappointed to find the legroom on 'preferred' seats was not any different than the legroom in a 'standard' seat. I have been flying SW for years specifically because the legroom was much better than its competitors without an upgrade. I flew the first day of the change and at 6'1" was much more uncomfortable. Now I guess the playing field is level and price will be the determining factor.