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Southwest Airlines lost $231 million in Q1 2024 and the pressure has been steadily increasing for the one-time toast of Wall Street to make significant changes for more revenue.
Southwest flights have started to appear on online search engines like Google Flights and Kayak and, as the airline tries to squeeze out more incremental revenue, they’ve announced that assigned seats, premium class and red-eye flights are on the way.
Those changes created some very mixed responses from Southwest loyalists, many of whom had grown comfortable with the carrier’s long-held open-seating model and felt like the space that separated Southwest from any other domestic carrier was growing smaller by the minute.
Now, according to a survey that was sent to some Southwest customers, it seems like airline is considering making changes to possibly its most sacrosanct policy: two free checked bags for all customers.
What’s happened
- Southwest has sent surveys out to customers to feel out the response to it making changes to its checked bag policy. Possible changes include:
- Wanna Get Away fares going to one free checked bag, with the second bag costing $35
- Credit cardholders would still get two free bags for themselves and one companion.
- The survey also asked about different fare class combinations with lowered costs but less or no free checked bags.
Quick Thoughts
Airlines send these sorts of surveys out all the time, and it doesn’t necessarily mean that the changes that they ask about will come to fruition. They sometimes don’t.
That said, similar surveys preceded Southwest’s recent changes to their seating policy and, given the current revenue climate at the company, I’d be surprised if the two free bags policy isn’t eventually altered in some way.
Based on the survey, it sounds like the most likely scenario is that Wanna Get Away fares will lose one free bag, but that would be mitigated by being a Southwest cardholder. That effectively kills two birds with one stone: allowing for at least some increase in incremental baggage fee revenue and at the same time giving more perceived value for credit cardholders. In the grand scheme of things, it seems like a fairly reasonable change…but I’m not a loyal Southwest customer, either.
We’d love to hear from anyone else who got this survey and what folks would think about the implied change to Wanna Get Away fares.
(h/t: Frequent Miler Insider James S.)
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I have been flying Southwest since 1970 I love flying with them I won’t fly with anyone else but now I have a tendency to think twice about the changes that they are making I am handicapped and I like the first boarding tradition and why should we have to pay for our luggage it has always been two bags fly free maybe if you would lower your prices a little bit better you wouldn’t have to be making all of these cuts because more people would be flying
I think one free bag for WGA fares is more than reasonable. I wonder how many individuals actually check two bags with no carry on or personal item. It’s gotta be pretty small. One checked bag plus a carry on should be more than enough for most people.
Dropping from two to one checked bags free I don’t believe would be an issue for most travelers – I’m having trouble recalling anytime I’ve checked more than one bag per person in the past two decades for a personal trip. Only time it came a little in handy was traveling with a large school group for a robotics competition. The free checked bags covered about 12 totes of tools and equipment flying across the country for an event. But we had enough in that group one free bag per person would have still been just fine.
Traveling with lap infants where you’re also carrying portable cribs, strollers etc. (the car seat is able to be checked separately of a bag allowance) created that need for us, to the point we’ve booked southwest because of the savings. Now that one of our children is 3 and getting her own seat anyways we’d still be able to manage.
Good point, we didn’t fly a lot at the lap infant age. With young kids the extra checked bag for their seat is usually good enough to cover extras.
Car seats and strollers shouldn’t count as checked bags on any airline.
So disappointed that SW is making these changes (never check a bag, so that one doesn’t concern me). I don’t get the hate with the seating. Lining up in numerical order to board is SO MUCH MORE ORDERLY than 150 “Group 4” passengers all rushing to board first on other airlines. I fly SW all the time and have never not gotten to sit with my spouse/family. Obviously they are going to make the pitch of the “regular” seats less to add the extra legroom. Who wants that? One of the joys of SW was NOT having to pay extra for seats.
Southwest is for those who want to pay $59 a seat and board first as a pre-boarder getting the best seats on the plane. The flight attendants often don’t enforce not allowing pre-boarders from taking exit row seats and not allowing pre-boarders more than 1 guest to board with them. Also, regular customers subsidize the 2 seats an obese person gets for the price of one seat. btw i’ve flown SW about 8 times in the past 1 year and noticed this.
I’ve been on a flight when we had a stop along the way, but about 20 of us didn’t get off the plane. I loved the look on A-1’s face when he got on the plane and all of the best seats were already taken by those of us flying through.
I didn’t think of that. but yep that too.. why buy a-1 when that happens. Another reason SW is losing money.
All the SW executives needed to do, was fly on their own SW planes and they could have easily realized why they were hemorrhaging money.
Flight attendants do not allow preboarders to sit in an exit row. (comment edited by Admin)
Respectfully, there are 100s , if not 1000s, of data points in vlogs, blogs, internet forums proving SW flight attendants allow pre-boarders to sit in exit rows. Maybe they look the other way, or can’t tell the difference between a pre-boarder or an a1-15 boarder, but it unfortunately happens.
Interesting. I’ve never flown Southwest Airlines due to their free-for-all seating. Now, I probably won’t try Southwest. There are too many established carriers to choose from. I bet Southwest will actually lose customers. If all this happens, the customer might change or try another airline if they offer the same service. I don’t see this change as a definitive resolution to their cash flow problems.
You fools all need to be paying to check your bags and help me get a bigger bonus . Show me the money foolios
I would love a lower fair option that comes with 0 free checked bags for those of us that do carry-on. Since I never check a bag, I feel like I’m subsidizing someone else’s two free bags every time I fly.
Stop being poor and pay up to get my bonus up
They could also include 2 bags if you choose the more legroom seats making that a package deal. Sometimes it is convenient that one person can check bags for both of you while the other person parks the car, but other than that I’ve maybe flown with two bags one time.
I’ve never traveled with more than one checked bag per person. If Southwest makes these changes, it won’t be a big deal. The trend that I’ve noticed most with Southwest is that the Wanna Get Away fares are disappearing faster than in the past. At peak travel periods, it doesn’t appear that there are any seats on some flights with Wanna Get Away fares, even it you book on the first day that the booking window opens for your flights.
The wanna get away seats are taken by the pre-boarders and the whole family they are allowed to preboard with them taking the best seats on the plane. btw these preboarders are miraculously healed on the flight, board in wheelchairs and deplane walking. Word has spread among those who claim to be pre-boarders that SW is the best cheap deal in town for the best seat on the plane.
I’ve definitely seen a follower of Jetway Jesus on a previous flight. The guy was traveling with an off duty flight attendant and was wheeled onto the flight. When I got on, he was sitting in the exit row seat that doesn’t have a seat in the row in front of it. I still can’t figure out how a person that needed wheelchair assistance is the person that would assist everyone getting off of a plane in the event of an emergency. Miraculously, this guy was healed when we deplaned and got off the plane under his own power.