As you’ve probably heard, Southwest Airlines is getting ready to make some big changes. This includes moving to a reserved seating model sometime in the near-ish future. In other words, the carrier will start to look a bit more like the vast majority of its competitors — and I have some thoughts on that.
Look, I’ve never been a fan of Southwest’s open seating model. That’s mostly because, as I’ve said before, I can’t even go to a movie without an assigned seat these days so I’m certainly not going to get on an airplane without knowing where I’m sitting. On top of that, I absolutely despite the little Kindergarten-esque game you get to play with fellow passengers as you look to line up in order. Granted, paying for Early Bird check-in could mean nabbing a good seat, but prices for that perk have been on the rise. And, if you don’t pay for it, Lord help you if you check in more than 30 seconds after it opens.
All this is to say that I always found Southwest’s process to be a bit stressful. Yet, now that they’re looking to do away with it, I’m feeling somewhat nostalgic (even though it hasn’t even gone away yet). After all, on the past couple of flights I have taken with Southwest, this policy actually worked pretty well thanks to it being a light flight and us having Early Bird check-in.
So why is the airline making this change now? According to research cited by Southwest, a lot of people feel the way I do about their open seating policy. Their numbers show that 80% of Southwest customers as well as 86% of potential customers preferred assigned seats. I find those figures staggering! While I would have bet that there was a contingency of Southwest loyalists who secretly hated the boarding process but stuck with the airline for other reasons, I never would have expected 4 out of 5 Southwest flyers to be pining for seat assignments. Also interesting is that, when a customer has stopped flying Southwest and taken their business to a competing carrier, Southwest’s research found that open seating was blamed as the number one reason why.
Of course, making this change to the status quo in terms of seating does allow Southwest to emphasize some of its more popular features as a means of standing out from the pack. Namely, it looks as though the airline’s two complimentary checked bag policy will be sticking around. With most other major carriers raising checked bag fees and even introducing other gimmicks such as peak pricing, this perk truly is to Southwest as the $1.50 hotdog is to Costco. Plus, I also give Southwest a lot of credit (pun intended) for their booking policies, which make it easy to rebook if your fare drops and pocket the difference as a flight credit. Some other airlines have since done away with change fees, but Southwest was there first.
Ultimately, what makes me saddest of all is the fact that Southwest still doesn’t operate out of my local airport. Therefore, my musings on their operations are largely moot. Nevertheless, while I may have been hard on them in the past, I would consider myself a fan overall. In turn, I truly hope that this pivot works well for them and allows them to keep doing what’s made them (mostly) great.