![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
canyonwalkerMonday night this week was the end of an airline industry era. Southwest Airlines launched its last flight operating with its Open Seating policy. For 54 years prior to 26 January 2026, Southwest was the only major US carrier to allow passengers to choose any open seat on the aircraft (within a few minor restrictions for safety) as they boarded.
The change was announced well in advance, in 2024. I wrote about it at the time. I was unimpressed. While some infrequent travelers believed the PR spin about how this would "be better for customers" and repeated word-of-mouth stories about how it would eliminate "the scrum at the gate" or "the problem with fake wheelchair users", I viewed it in the terms Southwest's investors, board of directors, and executives discussed it with each other: a ploy to extract more profit from customers.
As for those two semi-myths I mentioned....
So, with those two misconceptions out of the way, what's left for the rest of us? Aside from higher effective prices as Southwest becomes yet-another airline charging ancillary fees for everything beyond a basic ticket? (Remember: this change is about more profits, not better customer experience.)
For me, as a frequent flyer, it's a loss of a seating system that worked.
Southwest's no-assigned-seats policy worked great for me as a passenger who 1) routinely has to book travel with one week notice or less— because that's the typical reality of my business travel— and 2) has elite status.
Having elite status on other airlines doesn't work so well when booking one week out or less. Why? Because all the good seats are sold by then! For example, that happened when I had to fly to New York on a Monday (busy day for business travelers) last March. I booked Southwest instead, taking a connection in Denver instead of the time-savings of a nonstop flight, because their no-assigned-seats policy meant I could get a great seat as long as I had a low boarding number— which I always have, thanks to elite status.
Booking more than 1 week ahead doesn't necessarily solve the problem. When we flew to Rome in May we booked 6 weeks in advance and still found nothing but middle seats left. If Southwest flew to Europe I would've given serious consideration to flying them instead so we could get better seats.
But now that era is over. Soon, I am afraid, good seats will be just as elusive on Southwest as on United. Even for a traveler with elite status.
The change was announced well in advance, in 2024. I wrote about it at the time. I was unimpressed. While some infrequent travelers believed the PR spin about how this would "be better for customers" and repeated word-of-mouth stories about how it would eliminate "the scrum at the gate" or "the problem with fake wheelchair users", I viewed it in the terms Southwest's investors, board of directors, and executives discussed it with each other: a ploy to extract more profit from customers.
As for those two semi-myths I mentioned....
- "The scrum at the gates", sometimes also called "The Southwest cattle call" refers to passengers crowding in at the gate to board earlier to get better choice of seats. These criticisms miss two important things: One, this vision of the problem is from twenty years ago, before Southwest changed to individually assigned numbers for boarding. Two, all other airlines in the US have the problem of people crowding the gate area to be at the front of their group 1-2-3-4-etc. designations. Southwest was no worse than, and was actually generally better than, all other US airlines in this regard.
- "Fake wheelchair users" was arguably a legit problem, though how much of a problem is subject to individual interpretation. The situation was that Southwest, in compliance with federal law, had to allow passengers who claimed a physical handicap to board first so they could get seats that met their needs. Many people who used this privilege genuinely needed it. But some number of pre-boarders arguably were people gaming the system, claiming handicap— which Southwest was, by law, not allowed to question— to get better seats. The common "proof" cynics pointed to was how many people required wheelchairs to board a flight but walked off. These were sneeringly called "Jesus flights"— as if Jesus had healed the crippled in the air. The problem with this interpretation is that cynics are assuming anyone who needs a wheelchair some of the time but not all of the time is faking it. This is a deeply unfactual, and deeply insulting, misunderstanding of physical handicap.
So, with those two misconceptions out of the way, what's left for the rest of us? Aside from higher effective prices as Southwest becomes yet-another airline charging ancillary fees for everything beyond a basic ticket? (Remember: this change is about more profits, not better customer experience.)
For me, as a frequent flyer, it's a loss of a seating system that worked.
Southwest's no-assigned-seats policy worked great for me as a passenger who 1) routinely has to book travel with one week notice or less— because that's the typical reality of my business travel— and 2) has elite status.
Having elite status on other airlines doesn't work so well when booking one week out or less. Why? Because all the good seats are sold by then! For example, that happened when I had to fly to New York on a Monday (busy day for business travelers) last March. I booked Southwest instead, taking a connection in Denver instead of the time-savings of a nonstop flight, because their no-assigned-seats policy meant I could get a great seat as long as I had a low boarding number— which I always have, thanks to elite status.
Booking more than 1 week ahead doesn't necessarily solve the problem. When we flew to Rome in May we booked 6 weeks in advance and still found nothing but middle seats left. If Southwest flew to Europe I would've given serious consideration to flying them instead so we could get better seats.
But now that era is over. Soon, I am afraid, good seats will be just as elusive on Southwest as on United. Even for a traveler with elite status.
