In September 2024, Southwest Airlines announced that it would introduce assigned and extra legroom seating, as one of the biggest changes to its business model in decades. In the meantime, the company has of course gone way more extreme than that, and plans to start charging for checked bags, introducing basic economy, and much more.
Anyway, when it comes to Southwest’s plans to introduce extra legroom seating, there’s an update, as aircraft will start to be reconfigured shortly. However, it’ll be quite some time before the airline actually starts charging extra for these seats, so that creates an interesting opportunity.
In this post:
Southwest aggressively retrofitting aircraft interiors
Southwest Airlines plans to starting selling tickets for extra legroom seating as of late September 2025, for flights as of Q1 2026. In preparation for that transition, the airline is starting to retrofit aircraft with new layouts.
The airline has now outlined how it plans to retrofit its entire fleet:
- Southwest plans to retrofit the cabins of every single aircraft between April 30 and the end of 2025, with the first reconfigured aircraft expected to enter service as of May 1
- Southwest plans to start by reconfiguring its 737-800s and 737 MAX 8s, and then after the summer of 2025, will start reconfiguring 737-700s
- Southwest is reconfiguring planes overnight at its maintenance bases in Atlanta (ATL), Denver (DEN), Houston (HOU), and Phoenix (PHX), and expects it can retrofit up to 150 aircraft per month
- Initially, there will be no visual indicators that some seats have extra legroom, though we’ll start to see those added after the summer of 2025
- While Southwest has announced new-style seats, those will only be installed on newly delivered aircraft for now; for many planes, it’s simply the spacing between existing seats that will be changed
For the time being, Southwest is continuing to use its current boarding process (though that will change eventually as well). So over the coming weeks and months, customers will potentially have opportunities to fly in extra legroom economy seating without actually paying anything extra, which is pretty cool.
How Southwest 737 cabin configurations are changing
Once Southwest Airlines reconfigures jets, how will the layouts change? There will be three seating types:
- Extra legroom seats will be those at the front of the cabin, with extra legroom, as well as at exit rows
- Preferred seats will be those right behind the seats with extra legroom, and in front of the exit rows
- Standard seats will be those behind the exit row
For example, below is a seat map that Southwest has provided of its updated 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 configuration.
The expectation is that Southwest’s extra legroom seats will have 34″ of pitch, while standard seats will have 31″ of pitch. Essentially, 737-800s and 737 MAX 8s will have legroom reduced by 1″ for standard seats, in order to be able to add more legroom for other seats.
Bottom line
Southwest Airlines is starting the process of reconfiguring its fleet, in order to offer extra legroom seating. All planes are expected to be reconfigured between April 30 and the end of 2025. However, the airline doesn’t plan on selling assigned seating until late September 2025, for flights as of the first quarter of 2026.
It’s worth being aware of this project, since you’ll start to notice some changes on Southwest aircraft. So as you board Southwest aircraft over the coming months under the current open seating concept, keep this in mind…
What do you make of Southwest’s project for reconfiguring 737s?
As Watson said below, a traditional domestic premium seat . . . assigned. Meaningful lounge access. Until then, it's not competitive.
If they're going full legacy model, they're going to need a proper premium cabin at some point.
and lounges
WN's generous 32 inch legroom in economy will be missed. It was good while it lasted.
Southwest is going to become a much more profitable airline.
Hatred of Elliott Management is 100% driven by "they hate us because they ain't us." This is especially true if the hater is Northeast US born and raised (where Elliott was founded and headquartered until their recent move to Florida).
The Northeast US, moreso than any other region of the country, runs on CREAM. Cash Rules Everything Around Me. Everybody who grows up here wants...
Southwest is going to become a much more profitable airline.
Hatred of Elliott Management is 100% driven by "they hate us because they ain't us." This is especially true if the hater is Northeast US born and raised (where Elliott was founded and headquartered until their recent move to Florida).
The Northeast US, moreso than any other region of the country, runs on CREAM. Cash Rules Everything Around Me. Everybody who grows up here wants to make money and everybody knows the way to do that is through high finance. High finance isn't rocket science and a genius level IQ is not required (save for those quant/algo positions at HFTs and the like, but even then, those autists make an order of magnitude or two less than the actual high flyers). What is required are two traits that are common and coachable. One is work ethic. The other is charisma. Both are necessary to reach a position where shittons of wealthy entities trust you to handle their shittons of money from which you can profit.
What I'm saying is if you grow up in the finance capital of the country, you know what it takes to make it and you have a real shot of making it as long as you work hard and are likable. In other words, if you're not a loser. You can be at Elliott or you can be at any number of funds, investing in and managing all kinds of assets, earning $20-200MM++ annually which is frankly what it takes to be comfortable in such an otherwise charmless part of the country.
But if you are a loser? Then you can't make it, and we all know what losers do. They hate. The median income in NYC is only about $70-80k which is extreme, complete, thoroughly sore loser territory. These losers find their purpose in life by hating on high finance which actually knows how to turn a profit.
All of this could have been avoided if:
- the FAs had made an announcement during the boarding process, “There are no reserved seats! Please take the first available seat nearest you. “
- Jesus Jetway and his Disciples had been boarded after group “B”.
All this grief because Gary Kell was too hardheaded to change and Bob Jordan didn’t have the gumption to stand up to him.