The big news in travel is that Southwest Airlines has basically given up their unique “We are different!” corporate identity and become just another commodity airline that tries to look as cheap as possible upfront (only $200!) while adding multiple fees on the backend for all the things that used to be included (want to sit next to each other? checked bags? decent legroom? ok sure it’s really $500). As educated consumers, our job is to understand the changes to their value proposition and adjust accordingly. Here’s a list of the new Southwest realities:
- Basic Economy has arrived to Southwest. The cheapest fare tier is now called “Basic”, not “Wanna Get Away”. You can no longer make free changes; you only get a non-transferrable credit that expires after only 6 months. Earns only 2X points, down from 6X points (elite status-holders get a little more). They are stripping everything possible because Southwest believes that people just pick the lowest fare regardless of features when listed on a comparison site like Google Flights or Expedia.
- No more free bags. Starting 5/29, on most fares you’ll no longer get two free bags included and they’ll start charging you like everyone else. Business Select fares and A-List Preferred elites will get 2 free checked bags. A-List elites and co-branded credit cardholders will get 1 free checked bag.
- No more open seating. Must pay for seat choice. Southwest is moving to assigned seats as well, which means Basic fares will have to pay up to pick their seats or be stuck in the worst middle seats or in the back.
- No more reasonable legroom for everyone. Southwest used to be known for decent seat width and legroom in all its seats. Southwest is now adding “premium” extra-legroom seats if you pay extra $$$. This usually means the rest of Economy loses a few inches in return (right now it looks like seat pitch will go down to 31″ from 32″, similar to Basic Economy for other major airlines).
- Changes to Rapid Rewards points redemptions. When redeeming Rapid Rewards points for flights, it will not longer be directly linked to the current cash fare. Basically, they want to be able to charge whatever amount they want, and limit the number of award tickets available on certain flights.
I wouldn’t actually read this Southwest press release because it has so much PR-spin that it is quite trifficult to understand what they are actually doing, but this attached graphic is useful:
It’s almost funny because you can still look up their old talking points and interviews on why open seating is better, why keeping free checked bags is better, why the fact that Southwest treats everyone well is important, but now it’s just the exact opposite. Your unique brand was around for 50 years, but now you’ve traded it all for a temporary bump in share price.
Well, Southwest, if you want us to just judge you on price, that’s fine with me. Selling a commodity product is usually a tough business, though. Prediction: The next step is to be merged away with another major airline soon.
In the meantime, I’m not sure if this makes their co-branded credit card more desirable or not. The card has basically added a free checked bag benefit that can be valuable, and some of them offer seating choice perks, but if you were a loyal Southwest flier, these new changes may cause you to not fly them as much anymore and now try out other airlines.
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It’s sad how an investment group can come in and change the whole ethos of a company in the pursuit of profits.
FWIW, Southwest did clarify that the free bag benefits extend to everyone on a reservation. If you have the credit card, you and everyone else on the reservation get a free checked bag each (they refund you the costs after the flight). Same goes for Business and A List Preferred, the free bags extend to everyone (up to 8).
I agree, very sad… reminds a bit of Boeing.
Thanks for the clarification regarding bags. That does make the credit card more appealing (on a relative basis), I figure as long as I travel once a year in the airline, it’s probably going to be worth keeping.
Paying for the bag and then getting a refund after the flight seems like an odd routine. Plus, I am guessing the credit card companies will still charge their fees so it will end up costing SW
Blame it on the seat savers. When you have enough people so not happy with your open seating policy that they choose not to fly your airline you have to do something to appease other customers. So hopefully the ones who feel they are entitled go to Spirit. This is why we can’t have nice things.
I understand the move away from open seating, it was too hard to ask people to keep their manners and also unpleasant to make the employees be the police. I don’t believe that had to equate to Basic Economy, though. What if Southwest just let everyone pick an assigned seat at check-in based on their usual line system, either in app or at check-in kiosk? Then you wouldn’t have one person saving three rows of seats.
“trifficult”? Someone’s seen too many Bluey episodes…
😜 You mean that’s not a word? Biscuits!
Hey Jonathan and you all. Yes, thank you for clarifying on the free checked bag for everybody on the same reservation if you use a SWA card. I was ready to leave SWA for Alaska, but after looking at just some basic comparisons, still think we’ll stay w/ SWA. There’s no great answer.
Anyways, Jonathan, what’s the better SWA card from your post here?
https://www.mymoneyblog.com/southwest-companion-pass.html
Like other cards, does the SWA card give you an allotment for TSA screening ?
I was just looking at the SWA card list, and the Priority card has the $75 travel credit which would knock down the $150 to $75 for regular fliers, making it about the same as the Plus. But the Priority also has the “4 Upgraded Bookings” per year, which right now means A1-A15, which are the first 15 boarding slots. But if that means you get to pick an assigned seat ahead of time, or maybe even a premium legroom upgrade, then that would be a significant perk.
I don’t think any of the Southwest cards offer TSA PreCheck, if that was your question. Not a big deal for me, so many other cards have it. I have TSA PreCheck/Global Entry for all 5 members of our family and I think I even have a credit I haven’t been able to use yet.
Got it. Thanks for the response Jonathan!
I hated the old Southwest seating cattle calls. Even paying for priority seating resulted in garbage seats, as all the early-boarding options rendered ‘priority’ meaningless. I welcome firm seat assignments and will happily pay more for them.
Nothing in life is ‘free’ — those free checked bags meant higher travel costs for those without checked bags. Many of us subsidized travel for the bag checkers.
Hi John. We are an avid, SWA family. Although we don’t fly a lot, I have grown accustomed to their freebies. Yeah, I hear you, and can understand your perspective.
Open seating versus seat assignments isn’t a big thing to me, however, I do know that if we stick with just the economy/want to get away/most basic fair, you’ll end up getting a middle seat assignment. Told my wife that going forward, the base has to be want to get away plus. At least this way we could get 12 months to use flight credits. I’m just very disappointed that they are putting an expiration back on flight credits Synonymous with how things used to be a couple decades back when I used to fly them biweekly.
As far as subsidizing the ones who don’t have bags (or vice versa, depends on how u look at it) the thing is, SWA is not gonna lower their prices because now they are charging for checked bags. It’s across the board. If their lowering their seat prices and adding a bag charge, then we have something to talk about.
I think I’m gonna sign up for the SWA priority card moving fwd. I did some basic fair comparison on different routes that we will fly in more often in CA in the future and SWA versus Alaska is still no comparison. Better options and pricing still with SWA.
Long story short, just gotta begrudgingly accept SWA’s changes