I talked yesterday about Southwest’s broader plan coming out of its investor day, but today I want to talk about the most significant change, Southwest’s decision to assign all seats and add an extra legroom section. Before we start, I should say that there is a lot we know, but there are still things we don’t. In other words, I don’t have all the answers, but we do know a lot, enough that Southwest let us walk through an airplane with the new seats and cabin design so we could see what the future holds.
Let’s start with the new look and feel. If you like blue, you’re going to like what Southwest has planned.
The New Seat
The new Recaro seats are dark blue like the seats you see on Southwest today, but there is a new light blue accent on the headrests. And extra legroom seats have more of a light blue accent at the top of the seat itself. You can see this most clearly in row 16 on the 737-8 MAX where the window seat has extra legroom since there is no seat in front but the aisle and middle are regular seats.
There is more blue in the carpet design as well. Add in the cool blue mood lighting, and it’s just all so blue….
The seat itself has a device holder along with the USB charger that will charge your laptops. The tray table was designed with cupholders on both the left and right, so lefties aren’t ignored.
And in a nifty little add-on, the seatback pocket down below has water bottle holders built-in.
The broad idea is to have a lot of extra legroom seats, more than most airlines with the product. Let’s talk about each aircraft type individually, starting with the ones we didn’t see.
737-700
The old ladies of the fleet are going to remain the worst experience unless you’re a tall person. This aircraft will lose a row, dropping from 143 to 137 seats. It will then have 40 extra legroom seats with a whopping 36″ of pitch. Everything else will be at 31″.
The worst part of this plan is that the -700s will not get new seats. They will keep the same seats and just have them recovered in the new design. They will not get power.
If this feels like lipstick on a pig, it is. These airplanes will be gone by the end of the decade, so apparently Southwest thinks it’s ok to just let them limp along. If you’re tall, the extra legroom section is great. If you’re not, avoid this airplane.
737-7 MAX
Assuming that Boeing will some day get the -7 certified, this airplane will join Southwest’s fleet with 148 seats instead of the original plan for 150. Extra legroom seats will be at 34″ of pitch with the rest at 31″. These airplanes will have Southwest’s new Recaro seats with USB power that were revealed to us at the event. There’s no real reason to talk about this airplane yet, so let’s skip ahead.
737-8 MAX/737-800
These aircraft make up the bulk of Southwest’s fleet and will continue to have 175 seats onboard. Instead of having 32″ of seat pitch across the board, there will be 68 seats in the extra legroom sections with 34″ of pitch. The rest will drop to 31″ of pitch.
As of now, there are more than 120 aircraft that have Southwest’s newish Meridian seat that has power installed. Those will keep those seats but be recovered in the new design and moved around to create the extra legroom section. Once everything is approved by the FAA, new deliveries will get the new Recaro seats. There are apparently about 60 of these airplanes that still have the old seats. I believe these will be replaced with the new Recaro seats when the time comes, but some of those may end up being sold off anyway, so we’ll see.
Southwest had a brand-spanking new MAX in the hangar for us with the new seats onboard, but those will be ripped out and the regular seats will be installed so it can enter service.
I’d like to say the seats are comfortable including the oversized headrest, but I sat in them for 10 minutes. Until I can sit for a couple hours, it’s hard to say if they are really comfortable.
I can say that the legroom is good for me, even in the regular seats. But I am only 5’8″. Here’s how it looks as I apparently do my best Alfalfa impression.
The cabin is broken into four different areas. Here’s the real seat map which doesn’t differ all that much from the guess I mocked up two months ago:
The first five rows on each side make up 30 extra legroom seats. There is only a row 1 on the starboard side of the aircraft, so that means in row 6, the port side has extra legroom while the starboard side does not. Curious what that looks like? Wait no longer…
That next chunk of seats in front of the exit includes 45 regular seats which will fall into the “preferred” cabin, meaning you’ll pay extra to reserve these seats in advance.
How the exit rows fall is somewhat unclear to me. The six seats in row 14 appeared to have extra legroom, but they do not recline. The four seats in row 15 are the worst, being both regular seats and having no recline. I don’t know if that will be considered preferred or regular. Same goes for the four aisle/middle in row 16, although those do recline. The two windows in row 16 are the same unlimited legroom seats that exist today.
Behind those are another 30 extra legroom seats. Those are followed by the final 54 seats which are the regular seat section.
What’s the difference between regular and preferred? Nothing, except that preferred is further forward, and so Southwest thinks it can charge extra for those.
So how will this all work in practice? Let’s go through it.
How It Works
If you book a ticket at the lowest fare, which Southwest will still call Wanna Get Away, you will not get a seat assignment in advance. You have three choices if you buy that fare:
- Wait until check-in, and you will be assigned a seat. I do not know if you will be able to select or change your seat after it’s auto-assigned or not yet. But if the regular section is full, you might find yourself in preferred or extra legroom, I suppose.
- You can purchase a seat in the preferred section as an add-on.
- You can purchase a seat in the extra legroom section as an add-on.
You won’t have the option to buy a seat in the regular section as an add-on. That is held for those who book the higher fare categories.
Wanna Get Away+ will include a regular seat assignment. What if the regular seats are all taken? We don’t know yet what that means. Regardless, you can also buy up to preferred or extra legroom seat from that fare if you want, but it’s going to be important to look at the seat map before deciding what to buy.
As for Anytime and Business Select, we don’t know anything. They haven’t decided which attributes will be included in those fares, but you can assume that they will include increasingly more goodies the higher up you go.
We do know that if you are an A-List Preferred top tier member, you will be able to reserve extra legroom seats for free at time of booking. If you’re regular A-List, you can reserve those for free at check-in. I assume either one will be able to assign seats in preferred or regular cabins at time of booking on any fare. This makes A-List status far more beneficial and important than it is today.
As of now, we don’t know if the extra legroom section will include anything else like free drinks and all that, but it is possible. Stay tuned.
Meet the New Boarding, Same as the Old Boarding
There’s also news on the boarding front. Southwest is going to keep the boarding poles that it uses today.
As I see it, there are two good reasons for this. First, Southwest already has these poles, and it wouldn’t be cheap to reconfigure every gate area. Second, this allows Southwest to control the boarding process. It can assign people to different boarding groups and positions to make it easier to get people on the airplane at the right time. This will making boarding go more quickly, and it will get rid of the gate lice that plague other airlines.
So when is this all happening? It takes time to do something like this, but Southwest’s timeline is actually pretty fast considering what has to be done.
The Timeline
The airline is beginning the FAA certification process for the seats now and will be done in the first half of 2025. After that, the retrofit will happen fast with 50 to 100 aircraft per month being completed. It’ll be done by the end of 2025.
The technology plan also starts now, and that takes the longest of anything. There are apparently more than 60 systems that need to be updated, and the airline needs to do a lot of testing each step along the way. Tech will be fully completed by the end of 2025.
This will be a hard cutover. One day the airline will have a systemwide network of open seating. The next day, it will all be assigned. We don’t have exact dates yet, but they will start selling in the second half of 2025 for travel in the first half of 2026.
Until that time, get ready for some surprise and delight. Airplanes will have extra legroom long before they start flying with paid and assigned seating. That means anyone will be able to take those seats, so I imagine those A1-15 early boarding positions will be in high demand on the day of travel.
It’s hard to overstate just how big of a task this entire thing is. That being said, the plan seems possible — FAA approval-permitting — and well thought-through. I look forward to seeing this come together.
29 comments on “A Detailed Look at Southwest’s Assigned and Extra Legroom Seating Plan”
Early in the post “a lot of blue” was mentioned, but it didn’t hit home until I saw the side profile shots with Brett sitting in the seats… Wow. I suggest we call this new interior schema the “Blue Light Special”.
Southwest already has the carafes of steaming mediocre coffee, so it just needs some dirty aprons for the FAs to wear while serving hearty meals and the planes will really feel like diners. :-)
I’ll be interested to see if Southwest can actually meet its own timeline for this, given its historical challenges with tech. I’m sure Southwest will test things extenstively, so I wouldn’t be surprised to see the “hard switchover” date pushed back. Despite the tests behind the scenes, I dare say that many savvy fliers will try to avoid flying WN around the time of its cutover, given the heightened risk of systems meltdowns then.
Nah, the Blue Light Special was a K-mart thing. I can remember it when I was a kid.
Diners had Blue Plate Specials. I could maybe see “Blue Plane Special” here…
Ah, thanks for the correction. “Blue Plane Special” does have a nice ring to it.
What’s the revenue potential of assigned and premium seating vs early boarding upsells, especially given the loss of seats for the former? But perhaps more importantly, does the US have the demand for 200,000 more premium seats per day?
Don’t know if the demand is there for all those premium seats, but I wonder if Elliott even cares as all they see are dollar signs & care not about the customer. Fliers to them are an afterthought.
Eric C – Southwest’s math on that is on page 83 of the deck https://www.southwestairlinesinvestorrelations.com/~/media/Files/S/Southwest-IR/documents/20240926-luv-investor-day.pdf
Speaking of tech, there isnt a web site or app I use that takes longer to load on startup than Southwest web site and app Doesnt matter whether it is my phone, ipad, or computer
The assigned seating had to be done since southwest had no interest in limiting preborders or people trying to save seats
I am 5’10” and thought economy seating was solid. The padding not so good.
My other gripe would be the lack of service on longer flights. I am using flying about 2,000 miles so 4-5 hrs and only one drink service is bad considering how quickly you can get dehydrated flying.
Prior to 2024 I had not flown Southwest in years but with the companion pass and only real nonstop flights I have been flying them more often. Unfortunately getting a flight on time has been a rarity with waiting for arriving crews to be a common delay.
I just bring a water bottle on with me – a tiny cup of water doesn’t do much for me anyway.
UA has a row with the port side seats being regular pitch and the starboard seats in the same row being extra pitch on the Max -9s. This is due to the mid-cabin lav replacing row 7 on the port side and the rows being staggered from there until row 14 where the anomaly comes in. Starting at that row they get equaled.
Has any other airline done this boarding number + assigned seat thing? What about those boarding simulation studies? I am sure I am missing something. But it sounds very efficient at the first glance.
KLM did something like it on a few flights back in 2013.
“ Passengers get a boarding number at the gate. This number is based on their seat in the aircraft. When boarding begins, the numbers are displayed in a sequence on screens at the gate. The order in which the numbers are displayed ensures that passengers with a window seat board first, starting at the rear of the aircraft. They are followed by passengers seated in the midsection of the aircraft, after which the passengers with aisle seats are allowed to board. This ensures that passengers can wait their turn in the comfort of the lounge, instead of waiting in line and having to step over other passengers. As always, disabled passengers and parents with babies will be allowed to board first. SkyPriority passengers are given the lowest numbers and will go on board next.
At present, the new procedure will apply on three flights a day, to Berlin, Budapest and Helsinki. During the trial period, the procedure will be further optimised. KLM intends to expand this boarding procedure to other European and intercontinental flights during the course of the coming year.”
So basically, at WN it is 1999 and they are turning the page to how the industry has been running since 2000. Nothing impressive here. WN is going to taken private, broken up, and parceled out to the rest of the industry.
WN is going to taken private, broken up, and parceled out to the rest of the industry.
Are you making the same prediction for WN as others here have made for B6? Or have you watched “Wall Street” one too many times.
I loved Blue Star Airlines. Best bagels in the sky.
Yeah, def considering either cancelling my WN credit card after reading this: Dont like where they are going: they are turning into every other airline. Especially with the pay-“Preferred” seating at the front. Ugh. Ive got one trip currently booked on Southwest (in just about a month); I might just either cancel the card or else drop it all the way down to the no-annual-fee version (does Chase still offer that?) after that trip is done.
Count me among those who hopes the door doesn’t hit free-for-all boarding in the butt on the way out. I have loathed it from the first time I flew Southwest and never warmed to the idea. The extent to which people just ignore their assigned position and board whenever they want without so much as a peep from the ineffective, half-interested gate agents made what *could* have been an interesting alternative into a non-starter. Either strictly enforce it or get rid of it. I’m glad SW is finally doing one of the two.
When I was younger, I only cared about paying as little as possible and never took the bait for better seating, yadda yadda. But I’ve realized that flying is irritating enough and life is short. I don’t even think twice about opting up now, regardless of airline. A few extra bucks so I can stretch out my legs or get off faster or whatever is a nice perk—I’m glad Southwest will have something for me. So overall, I’m cautiously optimistic. But oh boy, I’m going to avoid SW during that transition period at the beginning of 2026. Think of the great unhorsed masses who aren’t going to know any of this is coming and are poorly enabled to handle even the slightest amount of change. Buckle up!
What’s sad is I didn’t really like the open seating policy but would prefer it over this. Not a fan of the “preferred” section. And also not a fan of WGA not being able to pick a seat (even in the back) without a fee. I wish they would only charged for the extra legroom seats. Those add value. But it feels like they are charging for what used to be free and I’m not a fan. Though I realize I’m saying that knowing they didn’t have assigned seats before. But it just doesn’t sit with me. It reminds me of pre-American US Airways. I hope they rethink this a tad. I doubt they will, but I can always hope.
Boarding position A25 for seat 24B at gate C23 … what could go wrong?
I’m curious about what happens to families who don’t pay for seats: will they be assigned seats together when possible? Some airlines, like European legacies, will usually seat you together at check-in (even though it’s not guaranteed); others, like some LCCs, specifically say they won’t. I wonder where Southwest will fall.
What happens with the unsold “extra-legrooms”?
Eduardo – Elites get it free, but if they don’t sell, they will have to just upgrade people if the flight is full.
Wouldn’t be surprised if the “wheel chair” people who are gaming the system for early boarding and seat selection discover a way to turn this into a free extra legroom seat.
Brett, can you talk about Family Boarding? One of SWA’s competitive advantages (for our household) is that we can board together after A60 and get seats next to the kids. If families book WGA (non-plus) fares under the new seating model, will they be stripped of their high likelihood of having seats next to each other? Or are families going to be basically blackmailed (by SWA) into paying for choose-a-seat so that kids and parents aren’t separated?
I wrote my lengthy comment below before I saw this one. My read is that your final point is right – families are essentially being pushed to buying up to WGA+, or buying a preferred seat add-on to a WGA fare. This basically aligns with the rest of the LCC industry, but it’s an unpleasant change that is going to make a lot of longtime Southwest customers upset.
So much concern about family seating, but this is a non-issue. The feds are working through rules on this anyway. I am sure that Southwest will guarantee families with young kids sit together. How they do it, I bet that hasn’t been fully fleshed out yet. But it’s not going to be a problem.
SW’s version of preferred seating is a lot fairer than other airlines where every seat that is not a middle seat becomes a “preferred” seat.
You breeders shouldn’t get special privileges until the United Arab Emirates recognizes equal marriage. And not even then.
Define “equal marriage”.
The new seat assignment sounds like it’s going to make Wanna Get Away fares non-viable for families. If all the WGA+ passengers get to select seats from an open seat map, then the remaining seats available at check-in are going to be fragmented, and Southwest won’t have any option other than to split up families in at least some cases.
I’m currently willing to pay a premium for Southwest in part because it provides reasonable certainty that I’ll be able to sit with my wife and 2 kids without buying a seat assignment as an add-on.
As an example, I checked prices for a one-way flight to Orlando in January. My airport has nonstops from Frontier, Spirit, and Southwest:
– On Frontier, to get assigned seats I would either need to add assigned seats for $29 each ($116 total), or buy the “Economy Bundle” for all 4 passengers for an extra $59 each ($236 total)
– On Spirit, I need to add assigned seats for $15 each ($60 total), or buy a “Go Savvy” fare for an extra $45 each ($180 total)
– On Southwest, I could add EarlyBird Check-In for $35 each ($140 total), but I don’t generally find that necessary. As long as I check in on time and am willing to sit in the back of the plane, I’ve had no problems getting seats that keep my family together by boarding during Family Boarding.
Southwest’s new system will be mostly aligned with the new “bundle” systems used by both Frontier and Spirit, with a “basic economy”-style base option that is almost guaranteed to result in splitting your group up. This decreases the value of Southwest a bit for me – I’ll still be willing to pay a premium for their better schedule and frequency, but in the future I’ll be comparing their Wanna Get Away+ options vs. the bundle options on other LCCs.
I think the transition might result in some negative customer experiences and bad PR – folks who are used to flying their family on Southwest are going to be quite upset if they suddenly find their family split up on the plane for the first time. Some ideas Southwest could apply to their implementation to minimize this:
– Don’t allow customers to choose non-contiguous seats during seat selection. In other words, don’t let people play the “book the window and aisle seat, and hope no one takes the middle seat” game. Concerts and movie theaters don’t let you do this, and airlines shouldn’t either.
– Have the system automatically block off the least-preferred seats for groups with kids 6 and younger (corresponding to current Family Boarding) that bought Wanna Get Away fares. This ensures that at check-in time the system will have a reasonable place to seat them, though if this behavior is guaranteed, then it decreases the incentive for them to upgrade to WGA+.
On the other hand, you could fairly say that this is all working as intended – they’re going to get me to pay a little extra on the flights that I do take, and maybe even sign up for a credit card.