Southwest's New Rule Makes It Harder to Get the Seat You Want
Flying on Southwest Airlines can be a confusing experience for the uninitiated. While more airlines nowadays have implemented fees to choose your own seat, Southwest has been using so-called open seating for decades, assigning customers boarding groups when they check in instead of allowing them to pick a seat ahead of time.
With seats and boarding priority coming on a first-come, first-serve basis, the sooner you're able to check in during the 24-hour period before takeoff, the better. If you want to jump ahead in the line and have a better chance of scoring a spot in Boarding Group A, you can buy an EarlyBird check-in that allows you to reserve a boarding spot for your flight up to 36 hours before, usually giving you an A group position when you get your boarding pass.
But getting an EarlyBird check-in just got a little harder. The airline has started limiting the number of the special check-in spots that passengers can purchase. They're only available on select flights, routes, and times, and needless to say, they just became an even hotter commodity.
The change went into effect Aug. 15 and comes amid the low-cost airline's efforts to work on "product enhancements." The revamp of the popular policy is, interestingly enough, part of several companywide initiatives designed to modernize the customer experience and create a better journey from check-in to landing.
"This focus brings an opportunity to evolve our fare and ancillary products, while maintaining the value they bring to our customers," Southwest representative Dan Landson told The Washington Post.
As the top-rated airline for economy and basic economy tickets, Southwest has an important reputation to uphold. How the new EarlyBird policy affects loyal customer satisfaction remains to be seen.
