{"id":546214,"date":"2026-01-27T06:23:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:23:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/546214\/"},"modified":"2026-01-27T06:23:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-27T06:23:10","slug":"southwest-airlines-launches-assigned-seating-tuesday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/546214\/","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Airlines launches assigned seating Tuesday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The next time you board a Southwest Airlines<\/a> flight, you\u2019ll know exactly where you\u2019re sitting. <\/p>\n

As of Tuesday, the Dallas-based carrier has assigned seating on all of its planes, similar to other major U.S. competitors like American Airlines<\/a>, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines. <\/p>\n

Southwest is based out of Love Field Airport<\/a>, where it operates 18 of the 20 gates. <\/p>\n

The switch to assigned seating, first announced in 2024<\/a>, is arguably the biggest change in company history since Southwest began flying more than 50 years ago. The move is part of a series of policy moves that Southwest announced amid an activist takeover in hopes of better financial performance. <\/p>\n

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\u201cIt\u2019s clear that the open seating model that served us well for so many years is no longer optimal for today\u2019s customer,\u201d Bob Jordan, Southwest CEO, told shareholders at the time<\/a>. \u201cI want to stress that this decision was not made lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n

The change was also made after Southwest conducted a survey of customers, which found that 80% preferred an assigned seat, in addition to 86% of customers also in favor of assigned seating. Southwest reported that when customers chose a different airline, assigned seating was the number one reason why, The News reported.<\/p>\n

The start of assigned seating also means customers will have to pay extra for Southwest\u2019s new extra legroom seats, which have been available for customers to test for free on retrofitted aircraft currently in service<\/a>. <\/p>\n

To pair with the new seating arrangement, Southwest will begin rolling out a new boarding process<\/a> that will seek to revolutionize how its moves passengers from the gate area, down the jet bridge and onboard the aircraft. <\/p>\n

The famous numbered metal stanchions that for decades defined Southwest Airlines<\/a>\u2019 unique boarding procedures are coming down at airports across the country. The columns, which helped travelers find their place in line during boarding, will be replaced by digital screen displays at gates where screens are already installed starting Tuesday, Southwest said<\/a>.<\/p>\n

There will be eight boarding groups, which will be determined by seat location, the type of fare purchased, tier status and Rapid Rewards Credit Card benefits. <\/p>\n

Starting Monday evening, gate areas will be reconfigured in a phased approach, the airline previously said. Removing the columns from all airports will take about 60 days. Columns that are not removed on Jan. 26 will have their numbers removed or covered so that they\u2019re not visible the following morning.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The next time you board a Southwest Airlines flight, you\u2019ll know exactly where you\u2019re sitting. As of Tuesday,…\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":546215,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5135],"tags":[10314,5229,1596,18466,18817,358,3187,67,586,132,5230,68,2969],"class_list":{"0":"post-546214","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-dallas","8":"tag-airlines","9":"tag-america","10":"tag-dallas","11":"tag-love-field","12":"tag-southwest-airlines","13":"tag-texas","14":"tag-tx","15":"tag-united-states","16":"tag-united-states-of-america","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-unitedstatesofamerica","19":"tag-us","20":"tag-usa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/115965631023024574","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546214","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=546214"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/546214\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/546215"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=546214"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=546214"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=546214"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}