Southwest Airlines Announces Date for Major Policy Change

Last summer, Southwest Airlines announced some surprising news. After years of open seating, the company was moving to assigned seats in the future.

Southwest did not reveal a timeline for the change, but now we know when it'll happen. According to CNBC, the airline is implementing assigned seating starting January 27, 2026. 

Customers can begin purchasing tickets with assigned seating on July 29, one week from tomorrow. 

Starting January 27, Southwest's boarding policy will consist of eight groups, per CNBC. The groups will be based on seat selection, status and other factors, with seat location determining boarding position.

The first two groups will feature top spenders and frequent flyers, while groups 3-through-8 will consist of "Choice” and “Basic” ticketholders depending on seat location. There will be two queues for passengers.

This news comes months after Southwest ended its decades-long "Bags Fly Free" policy and began charging for luggage and announced a host of new fare types. 

The former change caused a decent amount of blowback among longtime customers, but Southwest CEO Bob Jordan told the New York Times earlier this month he is hopeful about the positive impacts of assigned seating.

"Our employees are excited about the changes," Jordan said. "Because if you think about it, if in the open-seating world a family gets on and they can’t sit together, the flight attendant is having to police that in the cabin. Our open-seat boarding can cause a lot of pre-boards, and our agents are having to police that. You have people who paid for early boarding, and then we have more pre-boards than anybody else. So folks that paid for earlier boarding are going, 'Well, wait, why?'”

Southwest is hopeful that the new boarding and bag fee initiatives will net the company an additional $800 million of earnings before interest and taxes this year and $1.7 billion in 2026, according to CNBC.