Everything we know so far about Southwest’s new assigned-seating policy

In July, Southwest Airlines announced that it would be ditching its signature open-seating model for a more standard assigned-seating system—leading some to wonder whether Southwest is losing its most defining brand features. Today, the company shared more details about how the switch will impact ticket-buying, boarding, and the in-flight experience. 

On an investor relations call today, Southwest’s top executives discussed the company’s upcoming overhaul, which is intended to address declining profits and share prices. “Recent financial performance is not up to your or to my expectations,” CEO Bob Jordan said on the call, adding that Southwest “[owns] those challenges.” Changes to the airline will include more premium add-ons for better seats, the introduction of red-eye flights in early 2025, new cabin layouts for increased legroom, and, of course, an all-new assigned-seating system.

In today’s call with investors, Southwest’s executive vice president Ryan Green shared that, the new assigned-seats model will begin in practice in the first half of 2026 and that booking those flights will start in the second half of 2025. Here’s everything else we know about the new seating and other changes:

Bundled fare prices

Southwest is best known for its “bags-fly-free” policy, which allows passengers to fly with two free checked bags, as well as its somewhat unusual open-seating policy. According to a study conducted by the company, “bags-fly-free” is an important differentiator for the company that generates brand awareness, and eliminating it would “destroy value.”

On the other hand, 80% of Southwest customers, and 86% of potential customers, reported that they would prefer an assigned seat over open seating. In fact, Southwest’s lack of assigned seating was the top reason potential customers chose other airlines. While open seating initially served as a draw factor for Southwest as an underdog airline, it requires passenger cooperation to proceed efficiently—an element which, some experts theorize, is becoming more difficult to control over time.

Currently, Southwest’s open-boarding policy automatically assigns passengers to a boarding group and seat number based on how quickly they check in to their flight. For an extra fee, the airline allows passengers to upgrade their boarding position depending on availability, and preboarding is available for passengers with disabilities (though some claim that this option is frequently abused).

In the new seating system, when passengers purchase a Southwest ticket, they will be given the choice to select their seats as well as choose among a number of premium options, including extra legroom and business select class in a kind of “fare bundle.”

“Gone will be the days of setting alarm clocks 24 hours in advance of a flight to secure a good boarding position and a good seat,” Green says. 

The new system will eliminate some of the time pressure involved with open seating, with the trade-off being that the cabin will be segmented between standard and upgraded seats. 

“The fare bundles will have logical step-ups and attributes with commensurately higher prices along the way,” Green says. “When customers were presented with these new fare bundles in our test environment, they showed a clear desire to purchase a higher-priced fare bundle, which translates to increased revenue through higher yields.”

Maintaining “uniquely Southwest” boarding 

According to Green, Southwest is known for the “relative calmness” of its boarding process at the gate. With the existing open-seating system, passengers line up behind stanchions based on their boarding group (labeled A-C). 

To avoid changing that process too much, customers will now receive both a seat assignment and a boarding number after checking in. The boarding number will include a letter and number, similar to the current system. However, the new model will mean that those who paid for the highest fare bundles and most premium seats will enter the aircraft and store their baggage first. 

Airlines are generally laser-focused on their boarding process to increase efficiency, and Southwest is no different. Based on today’s presentation, the company used more than 8.5 million digitally simulated flights and 200 hours of live-boarding simulations to hone its new approach.

“We expect our future boarding process to feel very familiar and uniquely Southwest,” Green says.

New plane interiors

While researching the best approach for its upcoming overhaul, Southwest tested out several new cabin configurations to offer premium upgrades, including two-by-two rows or blocked middle seats. Ultimately, though, they landed on an extended legroom model. 

“The extended legroom option generated roughly the same amount of revenue as the two-by-two seating model, or a model where we blocked the middle seats, but was far less complex to implement, and the speed to market was much quicker,” Green says. 

Based on the company’s modeling, it expects about one-third of seats on every plane to include extra legroom. To make the switch, Southwest is trading in the seats on its 175-person Boeing 737-800 plane for a skinnier profile seat, and removing a row of seats from its fleet of Boeing 737-700 planes. Southwest is currently working to receive final certification on its new cabin layouts from the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA). The actual retrofitting is slated to begin in the first quarter of 2025. Alongside the new seats, Southwest also plans to implement larger overhead bins and double its Wi-Fi bandwidth per user. 

Green claims that the new assigned and premium seating options “will drive significant economic value for shareholders of roughly $1.5 billion of incremental EBIT in 2027.”