Southwest assigned seating live for 2026 travel

Last week, Southwest launched its assigned seating for flights beginning in late January 2026. At the time of writing, the schedule is open for booking through March 4, 2026, with assigned seating available on flights departing from the last week of January 2026. Assigned seats are at times surprisingly expensive, though Priority cardholders and Performance Business cardholders get complimentary standard or preferred seating.

Southwest now selling assigned seating for flights from 1/27/26 onward

Several days ago, as expected, Southwest began selling seat assignments for flights taking off from 1/27/26 onward. We now have a better idea as to pricing, and it isn’t cheap.

Basic fares now come with a free “standard” seat assigned at check-in. In other words, if you book a Basic fare, you won’t know where you’re sitting until check-in begins.

Alternatively, you can pony up for a Preferred or Extra Legroom seat during the booking flow.

The example above is a midweek, hour-long flight, and it’s just the first segment of a two-segment itinerary (from Albany (ALB) to Baltimore (BWI) — the second segment from BWI to Myrtle Beach (MYR) costs about the same amount for seats). As you can see, if you select a Basic fare on that example flight, selecting Preferred Seats in advance will cost you $25 or $28 per segment, with Extra Legroom running $42-$51.

Pricing varies though based on day of the week (and likely also will with demand), with seats costing about $5 more per segment on a Friday departure versus the midweek departure above.

And as you might expect, seats get more expensive on longer routes (and presumably routes with more demand). Here’s a look at seat pricing for a midweek February flight from Baltimore (BWI) to Los Angeles (LAX).

As you can see, Preferred seats range from $36 each to $41 and extra legroom seats increase to as much as $91 one-way. A family of four like mine would be looking at significant extra expense to select seats in advance, not to mention the cost of checking bags.

Choice and above fares come with seat selection

Keep in mind that Choice fares and above come with seat selection. Choice includes a standard seat selection at the time of booking, Choice Preferred includes a Preferred seat selection at the time of booking, and Choice Extra includes extra legroom and two free checked bags.

Unfortunately, you’re really going to have to do the math to decide which is best. For instance, in my Albany-to-Myrtle Beach example above, the cost of a Preferred Seat for the midweek departure was $25-$28 per segment ($50-$56 total since it was a two-segment itinerary). Extra legroom seats were $47-$51 (so about $100 for both segments). Choice Preferred, which includes the $50-$56 worth of Preferred seats, costs $95 more than the Basic fare. You might still find that useful for refundability, but it is not worth it for the seats alone.

Choice Extra in the example above includes about $100 in Extra Legroom seats and two free checked bags (Southwest is charging $35 per bag). That’s $170 in inclusions for about $145 more than the cost of a Basic fare. That might be a deal if you need both the extra legroom and both checked bags.

The flight example I showed to Los Angeles has a similar difference in cost between Choice and Choice Extra (there is no Basic available on this particular flight). The Choice Extra fare includes the extra legroom seats (worth $83-$91 in this case) and two free checked bags — about $150-$160 in potential value — for $110 more than the cost of the Choice fare.

I’m still not sure I’d find it worthwhile, but I could see where it might make sense, particularly given a longer flight like that. You’ll need to do the math to decide whether you’re saving enough (and obviously it’ll hinge on whether you need the checked bags).

That said, if you’ll fly Southwest more than once or twice, particularly with a family, the Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority credit card or the Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business credit card will likely make the most sense.

Southwest Priority and Performance Business cards are even more compelling than I’d expected

We knew that the Southwest Priority (consumer) and Performance Business credit card would include complimentary Standard or Preferred seating at booking, with Extra Legroom complimentary within 48 hours of departure. Those benefits are reflected during the booking process for cardholders (along with Group 5 boarding).

Now that we have a look at pricing, these cards look like an even better deal than I’d expected, particularly for those traveling with multiple passengers on a reservation. That’s because cardholder benefits extend to up to eight others traveling on the same reservation.

For instance, since my wife is a Priority cardholder, our whole family would enjoy either Standard or Preferred seats at booking, even on Basic fares.

On the example two-segment itinerary to Myrtle Beach shown above, my family of four would save more than $100 one-way in Preferred seat selection fees (and even more if that enabled us to book Basic instead of Choice). We would each also get a free checked bag. Since we travel as a family of four most often, that will typically cover our needs and save us at least $35 each way. We’d more than make up for the cost of the card with a single round trip given the current cost of assigned seats.

To be clear, I’m not thrilled about that. Since we’ve had at least one kid under 6 years old for the past 7.5 years (and would continue to for another year+), we’ve enjoyed family boarding after A group, which has gotten us the seats we wanted for free. Under the new model, we’ve got to keep a credit card with a $229 annual fee in order to get seats that we used to get for free (and we’ll have the option for fewer free checked bags). Still, given that the world in which family boarding and free checked bags is behind us, it doesn’t do me much good to gaze in the rear view mirror. Instead, moving forward, if I anticipate that we’ll fly Southwest for at least one round trip a year, we’ll probably keep the Priority card.

Keep in mind that the Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus and Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier cards as well as the Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business card all come with a seating benefit as well, although it is significantly weaker: they come with a free seat selection 48 hours in advance of departure rather than at the time of booking. If you’re going to fly Southwest very often and picking a seat is important to you, I think the Priority card probably makes more sense.

Bottom line

Southwest Airlines is selling seat selection for flights from January 27, 2026 onward. Unfortunately, it isn’t cheap to select a seat. If you’re going to be flying Southwest more than once or twice a year, you’ll almost certainly come out ahead with a Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority card for someone in your family.

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