03/08/2026
If you are a frequent traveler on Southwest and have not flown much since their new assigned seating system replaced their open seating system, you might want to understand better how it may impact your future flight experience on Southwest.
You now must select your seat online when purchasing your ticket, unless you have no status and purchase a basic fare. Some seats selctions are complimentary, with A-List status and higher fare selections. I have attached a few screenshots that help better explain. With no status and Basic fare, the airline will select your seat for you for free when booking your flight.
If you and your travel partner book a flight with SWA and pick your seats, since there are 3 seats together, you may be sitting in a very uncomfortable situation, while entire rows sit empty in front and behind you. Those seats may even be blocked off by SWA when passengers select their seats so that they have entirely empty rows, six seats across (3+3), while you sit packed shoulder to shoulder in full rows. The flight attendants strictly enforce these seats staying empty and urge you for future bookings to select the more expensive seats with more legroom OR suggest you buy a second seat the next time you fly if you are broad shouldered or a physical size that would make you uncomfortable if 3 of you were sitting together.
This may be old news for the frequent flyers, since this new system did start a month or two ago. It was very surprising to me today on my longer international flight.
It took a minute for the attendant to explain this all to me in a way that I clearly understood. It's not their fault. They are just doing what they are instructed to do by SWA, knowing there would be upset passengers that would push back. The attendant did allow me to finally move to a row with one other, that was not restricted and not a more expensive seat than what I was assigned. According to the internet, they have been instructed to make sure all passengers are in their assigned seat and not using another seat close by for bags or lap children or anything else. An unsold seat shall remain empty the duration of the flight according to what I am reading online.
As a Rapid Rewards member with a SWA credit card to help accumulate points and companion fly free pass for the 2026 year, included checked bags, free WIFI, and many direct flights to the destinations we frequent, it will be hard to pick another airline to give our loyalty. We will shop around, but ultimately hope that SWA comes to its senses. Complaints may not be enough to encourage them, since it really all comes down to profit and sustainability. If all the reward members that said they were ditching SWA actually did, then they may be more inclined to soften their enforcement of these policies designed to earn the airline more revenue.
