Last week, I wrote that Southwest changes, Southwest will still be the same. Then, yesterday, Southwest made announcements providing more detail about the changes coming next month. The changes are mostly things we expected, which is to say that some things are just as disappointing as we knew they would be, but nothing was more sweeping than expected. On the credit card side, we’re seeing what could be a positive development for the best Southwest card to have and hold, so I ended up slightly less bummed about the coming changes than I otherwise would have been.
Southwest renaming its fare types to Basic, Choice, Choice Preferred and Choice Extra
In a change that is no doubt meant to completely reset customer expectations, Southwest has renamed its fare types, while keeping the benefits and parameters mostly unchanged. Gone are “Wanna Get Away”, “Wanna Get Away+”, “Anytime”, and “Business Select”. Starting on May 28, 2025, we’ll see the following changes in fare types:
- Wanna Get Away becomes Basic
- Wanna Get Away+ becomes Choice
- Anytime becomes Choice Preferred
- Business Select becomes Choice Extra
Obviously, Southwest isn’t billing this as a straight name swap but rather announcing the fare types above with “new” sets of (mostly expected) benefits and drawbacks. Here is a chart showing the coming changes for fares purchased from May 28, 2025 onward:
Very little changes here apart from things we already knew, with the biggest change being how assigned seating and boarding groups will work.
Southwest expects to begin selling tickets with seat selection fees in 2025 for travel beginning in 2026. When that begins:
- Basic fares will not get a seat assignment in advance, instead being assigned a Standard seat in the back of the plane at check-in. It says this will be assigned rather than selected, so I expect that those on Basic fares will have no ability to select their seats.
- Choice fares will be able to select a standard seat in the back of the plane at booking.
- Choice Preferred fares will be able to select a Standard (back of the plane) or Preferred (between the middle and almost-front of the plane) seat at booking
- Choice Extra fares will be able to select an Extra Legroom seat (or any available seat) at booking.
Here’s a look at how seating will be divided:
As expected, Basic fares will become even less desirable thanks to not coming with the ability to select a seat. I’m not sure that a seat in the almost-front of the plane is enough incentive to purchase a Choice Preferred fare. I think this is a shortsighted miss on Southwest’s part — including a single free checked bag and that middle-of-the-plane seat assignment (along with the refundable nature of what was previously an “Anytime” fare) might have convinced some customers to buy up. In my family’s case, we prefer to sit at the back of a Southwest plane anyway, so I’d be sticking with Choice. I’ll also be happy to buy Choice because of a coming credit card benefit — more on that below.
Apart from those changes to seating, you’ll also see the boarding starts earlier for higher fares — no surprise there. Otherwise, we see changes we knew were coming and had previously mourned.
- Basic fares will have a flight credit expiration of 6 months in the vent that you cancel, other fare types will receive a flight credit valid for 12 months in the event that you cancel
- Only Choice Extra fares get free bags (two included). Other fare types will not come with free bags (though cardholders and elites will have the expected baggage benefits)
- Earning rates will remain at their recently-reduced levels
These changes won’t make much difference for me personally as I almost always buy Wanna Get Away+ rather than Wanna Get Away either for the ability to same-day change for free or for the ability to cancel and receive a transferable credit. I’ll be happy enough to buy Choice in the new scheme (though obviously hugely disappointed that flight credits will expire in 12 months — that will push me toward award booking over revenue booking).
New credit card benefits: Southwest Priority card gets even better
Most importantly for most Southwest credit card holders, all Southwest credit card holders will get 1 free checked bag for the cardholder and up to 8 passengers traveling on the same reservation (this will also extend to a companion’s reservation for Companion Pass holders). We previously knew to expect all of that.
However, each of the Southwest credit cards will also come with seating benefits and these benefits extend to up to 8 additional passengers traveling on the same reservation. These seem potentially pretty generous.
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Credit Card holders and Southwest Rapid Rewards Plus Business Credit Card holders will be able to select a Standard seat (when available) within 48 hours of departure on any fare type (which is to say that these cardholders do get to select a seat even on Basic fares, albeit not until close to departure).
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier and Southwest Rapid Rewards Premier Business Credit Card holders will be able to select a Standard or Preferred Seat when available within 48 hours of departure on any fare type
- Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority or Southwest Rapid Rewards Performance Business Credit Card holders will be able to select a Standard or Preferred seat at booking, on any fare type when available. Additionally, these cardholders will be able to upgrade to Extra Legroom seating within 48 hours of departure on any fare type when available.
In other words, if you have a Southwest credit card, you’ll be able to select seats at some point for yourself and up to 8 passengers on the same reservation even if you buy a Basic fare. That’s quite an increase in benefits over the current status quo. My prediction: prepare for an increase in fees and likely couponization.
Still, as things stand, the Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority card gets a pretty compelling value proposition. The card is already a great deal given benefits like an annual $75 credit for Southwest purchases and 7,500 points at anniversary (the combination of which arguably mitigate the annual fee). Even those customers who prefer booking a “Basic” fare will still get a free checked bag and seat selection throughout most of the plane at the time of booking — and maybe even extra legroom seating! That could work out to be quite a nice perk. Just yesterday, I booked a Jetblue flight to Florida and if I wanted extra legroom seating it would have cost $131 each way for seat selection — which was more than the cost of the plane ticket (you won’t be surprised to hear that even within a couple weeks of departure, they haven’t sold a single extra legroom seat yet on my flight). Getting extra legroom seating within 48 hours of departure on Southwest could work out to be a great deal by comparison.
Southwest tier benefits for 2026
Southwest will also launch tier benefits associated with checked baggage and seating for travel starting in 2026. Here is the chart they’ve provided for A-list and A-list Preferred members:
As you can see above, A-list members get the chance to select an extra legroom seat when space is available within 48 hours prior to departure and also get their first checked bag free. A-list Preferred gets Extra Legroom seating at booking and two free checked bags.
I imagine that the extra legroom seating at booking will be the key draw for A-list Preferred. Oddly though, there’s not much incentive to chase A-list status since seating and checked baggage benefits match those given to Southwest Rapid Rewards Priority cardholders. Since my wife has a Priority card and we almost always travel together, I can’t imagine I’d ever bother even looking at the requirements to earn A-list status no less chasing them. If I were close to A-list Preferred based on natural activity, I could certainly see the ability to select an exit row or other extra legroom seat at booking to be an upgrade worth a little extra time and effort. I suppose the Priority Lane and Express Lane access may be nice in some situations.
Overall, Southwest’s tier benefits continue to be incredibly weak by comparison to competitors. I wouldn’t have expected much change here and we don’t get much change.
Bottom line
These Southwest changes will begin being implemented on May 28, 2025 with seating assignments being sold later this year for travel beginning in 2026. Most of these changes were expected, but things work out better than I might have guessed for credit card holders given that they will get seating and checked baggage benefits that could certainly help justify the current annual fees. That said, one has to wonder how long it will be before we see fee increases on those cards since giving away more doesn’t seem to align with Southwest’s new direction.
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Well I’ll be a big loser because I ditched the card a few years ago, and to boot I’m a pretty big wanna get away buyer because my most usual route is about an hour long and I regard anything that length as public transit.
So now on a high load factor route, my same exact usual fare category will be much more likely to be in a middle (whereas before it was just if I was too lazy to check in on time), and if with someone, probably sitting apart, since people traveling together on basic miraculously tend to get assigned apart to remind you to buy a higher fare next time. That’s basically the definition of enshittification.
No specific mention, but this implies that they have done away with same day confirmed change for AL & AL+- that was my go to benefit.
You already know my concern for flight credit refunds that expire before the flight date (booked 8 months in advance, cancelled last minute, no opportunity to get a refund).
This just about kills SWA for me the way I was using it….
Extra complication
BUT what i like is cc perks to upgraded seats. Maybe united will match. Im a captured houston flyer. Southwest or united. I hold variations of both cards. I just want a blue seat on united. Lost status during covid. Maybe i can get blue seat back now
My question is when will be the best time to apply for the Priority card? The CC benefits will have to change with SWA’s big shift (ie Upgraded Boarding won’t mean anything). So apply now or apply later? Any chance there is a bigger SUB to help with a re-launch of the card with updated benefits?
I think the best answer there is before they increase the annual fee. The change in benefits regarding seating are covered in the post. Also covered in the post is my speculation that we’ll probably see an increase in the annual fee sooner rather than later. I wouldn’t be terribly drawn by the current offer on the card (it has often been better), but at the same time if you applied now, you could theoretically use the A1-A15 boarding benefit this year and also get the seating benefits next year while locking in the current fee for now. If the annual fee increases, you’d probably get access to any new benefits.
At the same time, to your point, maybe they’ll significantly overhaul the card and offer a really strong initial bonus. I don’t know.
Historically, the best time to get a Southwest card is near the end of the year (after October 1st) and then you want to wait until after January 1st to meet the spending requirement so you can earn the bonus points near the beginning of a year in order to earn a Companion Pass as early in the year as possible. Especially if you’re going to consider opening both a consumer card and a business card, that’s probably still the best strategy. If you’re only looking to open one card and you aren’t interested in the Companion Pass, then you may prefer to get the card sooner under the current fee and benefit structure, though some will likely gamble on the card being refreshed in a way that makes it even more attractive. There’s no single answer.
The Priority card pays for itself just with the annual $75 flight credit and 7500 anniversary points. They offered 100k a few years ago, so personally I’d wait for some increase in the bonus. Apply now if you highly value the free bags and 4 upgraded boarding credits in 2025.
You get to a point in life that your body needs that extra legroom and you’re willing to pay for it. Moving to assigned seats and extra legroom have made it a consideration again for me. And, Choice Extra comes with its benefits. So, my wife and I will likely do two-player leap frog on SUBs, which will cover one particular route we fly. For many, the changes at Southwest are negative but for us they’re positive.
As always, thanks for the reporting. FM is *the* hobbyist website.
I guess there will be one day when they flip the switch to assigned seating? Because right now, it’s still the cattle call. I will miss the days of arriving at the airport 30 minutes before the flight and just taking the middle seat though. And with such a sharp separation, I would expect that a lot of folks just move up once the fasten seat belt sign is on, like you see on Avelo. I don’t see that with Spirit or Frontier mostly because there are enough card holders that there aren’t entire rows empty in the front.
They’re going to start retrofitting seats next month for the new seating configuration. Once they’ve finished all planes by the end of the year, they’ll switch to assigned seating.
Biggest winner here is definitely the Southwest Priority card.
Biggest loser are those with “regular” A-List status (which includes a lot of corporate travelers that get A-List automatically by virtue of Southwest corporate travel agreements) who will now have to compete with Priority cardholders for the exact same seating benefits.
Not sure if it was intended or not, but Southwest really devalued regular A-List here; which effectively disincentivizes chasing status at all since A-List Preferred is far out of reach for most. It’s going to be much easier and more cost effective for most people to just get the Priority card as A-List now provides no meaningful incremental benefits over just holding the Priority card.
I would expect a flood of applications/upgrades for the Priority card and subsequent oversubscription for Preferred seats. The bonus for cardholders, especially Priority, is exceptional when compared to other airline cards, especially at the current price point. Soon the AF will increase on the SW cards, or the perks on those cards will be rolled back, or both. Hope I’m wrong.
Agreed, there’s no way the AF on the Priority doesn’t get increased with such a generous benefit.