Southwest Airlines Makes More Changes After Major Problems

Last month, Southwest Airlines officially ditched its longstanding open-seating policy as it embraced an assigned seating model. However, even though the airline had months to prepare for the change, it still ran into some major problems with the rollout, leading to continued changes.

After ending its "bags fly free" policy back in May of last year, Southwest had already been having problems with handling the surge in carry-on luggage. However, the recent change to assigned seating appears to have only made things worse, and it sounds like the airline is still trying to correct some issues.

Assigned Seating Sparks Major Problems

On Jan. 27, Southwest Airlines officially implemented an assigned seating model, ditching its longstanding open seating policy. However, things have not exactly gone smoothly for the airline.

The largest issue seemed to stem from Southwest's boarding group. Since passengers at the front of the plane do not necessarily board first and could board as late as boarding group 5 in some cases, some passengers have begun boarding the plane to find that the overhead bin space above their seat is already taken. As a result, they then have to go toward the back of the plane, place their carry-on in the overhead bin space, and then work against the crowd back through the aisle to their seats.

Gary Leff of View From the Wing called the entire process “far more chaotic than the other airlines” as he described the issues.

“So people would stop at their seat, see no bin space available, and have to head back in the aircraft to stow bags – only to return down the aisle to their seats. This was far more chaotic than other airlines,” Leff wrote.

This has all been exacerbated by Southwest’s decision to begin charging for checked bags, resulting in more carry-on luggage on aircraft that were not designed with enough overhead bin space.

Southwest Makes More Changes

In a statement last week, Southwest Airlines spokesperson Chris Perry said the company is aware of some of the complaints as it moves forward with “a series of early adjustments.”

“Since launch, we’ve been closely monitoring input and real-world behaviors to validate our assumptions and identify where we can refine the experience,” Perry said in a statement via the San Antonio Express News. “Those insights are now informing a series of early adjustments designed to smooth operations and reduce friction as Customers adapt to the new boarding and seating process.”

As part of those "early adjustments," Southwest seems to be changing up its boarding process.

Beginning on February 18, only passengers sitting in the first three rows and self-help emergency exit rows will be included in Group 1, while Group 2 will now consist of A-List Preferred passengers, Choice Extra fare passengers, and all the other extra legroom seat passengers.

“This is being done to help solve congestion in the jet bridge and bin space issues we saw this past week,” Southwest said in an internal memo, via Paddle Your Own Kanoo.

We'll have to see whether or not this solves the problem for Southwest.