Southwest Airlines has made the switch.
The last flight with the airline’s signature open seating, where passengers could choose any available seat once aboard, was a red-eye that departed Honolulu for Los Angeles on Monday night.
As of Tuesday, the Dallas-based airline has assigned seating.
This means that fliers can now choose a seat with extra leg room, a “preferred” seat near the front of the cabin or a standard seat. There are also new fare bundles along with tier and card-member perks. Find more information here.
The first two flights with assigned seating departed in tandem on Jan. 27: one traveling from San Juan, Puerto Rico, to Orlando, Florida, and the second from Manchester, New Hampshire, to Chicago.
Southwest announced plans for assigned and premium seating in July 2024. It was one of several new initiatives — which also included a redesign of the boarding model and the introduction of red-eye flights — the airline said were “designed to elevate the customer experience, improve financial performance and drive shareholder value.”
A Southwest spokesperson told Aloha State Daily in an email that assigned and premium seating was introduced “in response to customer demand for more options, including extra legroom seating, preferred seating and standard seating, along with a new group-based boarding process and elevated travel experience.”
The Associated Press reported Tuesday that airline’s “unusual” open seating process “began as a way to get passengers on planes quickly and thereby reduce the time that aircraft and crews spent on the ground not making money. It helped Southwest operate more efficiently and to squeeze a few more flights into the daily schedule; the system also was a key reason Southwest remained profitable every year until the coronavirus pandemic.”
The open seating process, though, had become "less democratic over time, however, as Southwest also had starting allowing passengers to pay extra for spots near the front of the line," the AP report notes.
Late last year, Southwest offered a look at the new gate experience and boarding process. You can read more about it here, but here are a few things that travelers should know:
- The numbered metal columns, or stanchions, used for boarding lines are no more. Instead, there will be two alternating boarding lanes with digital screen displays that show which group is boarding. There also will be separate pre-boarding and priority boarding areas for those who are allowed to and need to pre-board.
- It’s so long to boarding groups A,B and C, and hello to boarding groups 1 to 8, which prioritize customers into boarding groups based on seat location, the fare type purchased, tier status, and Rapid Rewards Credit Card benefits.
- Priority boarding can be purchased, when available, beginning 24 hours before departure.
- Newly designed boarding passes will show your seat assignment and boarding group.
Southwest expanded service to the Islands in 2019 now operates nearly 60 interisland flights daily and has nearly 90 flights per day that “touch Hawai‘i,” the airline noted in a December announcement.
Last month, Southwest announced plans to offer direct flights between Hilo and Las Vegas beginning Aug. 6.
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Stephanie Salmons can be reached at stephanie@alohastatedaily.com.
