Southwest’s oft-chaotic open-seating policy is finally coming to an end — and while some anxious flyers may rejoice in the move, experts say it’s a harbinger of worse to come for economy passengers.
Flights departing on or after Jan. 27, 2026, will now have seat assignments for passengers, and Southwest will introduce group-based boarding similar to other airlines.
Rather than getting a group letter and position number for boarding when checking in for the flight, then choosing a seat upon boarding, travelers will now receive a boarding group number between 1 and 8 that correlates with loyalty status or fare class.
Anton Radchenko, the founder and CEO of AirAdvisor, warned that we could be nearing the end of the budget air travel era.
“Flying costs more because airlines unbundle almost every part of the journey,” the aviation expert and consumer rights advocate explained to The Post.
Southwest has also historically had the same size seats across every plane, but the new transition has introduced Standard, Preferred and Extra Legroom options.
The seats available for booking will depend on the fare class selected. Basic, which is replacing Southwest’s Wanna Get Away option, will assign a Standard seat at check-in. Choice, replacing Wanna Get Away Plus, allows customers to choose a Standard seat at booking.
Choice Preferred, replacing Anytime, allows people to select an available Preferred or Standard seat at booking, while Choice Extra, replacing Business Select, also offers the choice of an Extra Legroom seat at booking.
Those who have a Southwest credit card or who hold Rapid Rewards elite status will get early access to seat selection, seat upgrades and preferred boarding.
With all its changes — such as ending its decades-old “bags fly free” policy and its pick-any-seat policy — Southwest no longer feels like the “budget-friendly” airline it has been for a long time.
“Flying becomes less accessible when passengers pay more at every step and face growing disruption risk at the same time,” Radchenko said. “For travelers without a financial cushion, a trip that looks affordable at booking can become too expensive to take.”
Features that might seem standard to come with a ticket often cost extra these days, such as checked luggage, added fees and upgrades, and in some cases, even carry-ons.
Plus, delays and cancellations are becoming more common, so there are added costs that usually fall on the passenger, like extra meals, hotel stays, rebooking and lost time in general.
Audrey Kohout, co-CEO of Luggage Forward and LugLess, said that Southwest’s open-seating policy change allows the industry to shift away from accessible air travel.
“Once the industry’s leader in simplicity and fairness, Southwest is now following the same playbook as everyone else – eliminating free perks and monetizing basic conveniences,” she said in a statement to The Post. “For the average traveler, flying continues to get both more expensive and more complicated.”
Kohout explained that now, the industry is seeing two polarizing tiers emerge — premium airlines focusing on business class and budget airlines “charging passengers at every turn,” leaving the middle ground of affordable, straightforward travel to “disappear.”
Radchenko argued that since airlines have shifted their focus to how they can squeeze out revenue from their passengers, it’s now up to the individual flyer to know what they’re getting themselves into.
“The golden age of aviation is over, and airlines now place a price on reliability and convenience, treating them as premium products rather than standard parts of air travel,” Radchenko said.
“The burden sits with passengers to plan, compare, and protect themselves. Knowledge of fare rules and passenger rights matters more than ever. Airlines aren’t going to offer help if it’s not demanded by passengers,” he added.
“It’s disheartening because travel should reward optimism, but aviation, unfortunately, rewards preparation.”
And while affordable travel still exists, regardless of so-called budget airlines changing their policies, it now comes with a lot of trade-offs that don’t necessarily measure up to the cost of airfare, such as fewer protections and less support if there happen to be any issues.
“Unfortunately, the truth is that lower-fares face slightly more delays than legacy airlines, so the headline price might remain low, but the true cost often emerges when a long delay — or even a cancellation – hits,” Radchenko admitted.
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