Citing “evolving customer preferences”, Southwest Airlines has announced they will begin offering assigned seating and seating upgrades on their flights. Additionally a number of new “redeye” flights will be added to the schedule to help them move planes around at night for more efficiency.
While the budget carrier has traded on their open seating model for the last 50 years, Southwest is making the move to become more competitive with other large carriers who have become direct price match competitors in the past couple decades.
I used to fly Southwest in the 1990s and early 2000s almost exclusively because of their low fares. The idea I had to engage in the Hunger Games to make it to the front of the lineup to get good seats seemed OK at the time given the savings. I got stuck in the middle seat between to the crying baby and the snoring guy once in a while but at least I was saving lots of dough.
A couple decades ago though carriers like America West, then US Air, then American Airlines began to compete in earnest with Southwest’s fares – making them essentially the same. When given the same price choice of knowing what seat I have before even leaving for the airport or the anxiety cattle call rush, I’ll fly American thank you very much.
Customers Have Spoken
Southwest says that some 80% of their current customers and 86% of potential customers prefer to make prearranged seat choices when booking their flights. Duh. In surveys they determined that their open seating was the number one reason customers left the airline for others. Again, duh.
Southwest also says they will begin offering a premium seating arrangement which offers more leg room among other amenities. No details are yet given as they are still working on plans, but they say up to one third of seating will be an upgraded increased leg room choice.
If you haven’t flown Southwest in a while such as myself, you might not know they’ve been modernizing and upgrading. We’re told that higher speed WiFi, larger overhead bins, remodeled cabins and some slick new RECARO seats have been making their way into the cabins.
Redeye Express
Lastly if you like to fly late and overnight they’ve begun to add new flights to their schedule starting in February 2025. Currently the redeye flights are limited to a few markets like Las Vegas, Baltimore, Orlando, Phoenix, Los Angeles and Nashville but more are in the plans next year.
The move allows the carrier to better stage their planes at these airports to provide a more efficient flight schedule from day to day. It means likely that the lowest fares and least packed planes will be late at night. At least you will be able to pick your seats.
A timeline hasn’t been given yet for the move away from open seating arrangements but we’re told to keep our eyes peeled when making reservations. I might just give them a chance again once I spend all my American Airlines frequent flyer miles.
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