In late January, Southwest ended its decades-long open-seating policy and moved to assigned seats to increase revenue from extra legroom and priority boarding options. The change also reshapes the way airlines manage boarding, baggage and on-time performance, highlighting the fine balance between customer experience and operational efficiency.
The change follows an earlier move by the airline to abandon its long-standing “bag-free fly” policy. Under the old rules, passengers could check in up to two pieces of luggage at no extra charge.
The airline now charges most passengers $35 for a first bag and $45 for a second checked bag, according to its website.
Once airlines charge for checked bags, more passengers will choose to carry just one carry-on bag and one bag that’s sized to fit in the overhead bin on the plane. When more passengers bring luggage onto a plane, boarding slows down, something airlines want to avoid.
That’s why Southwest has quietly adopted a boarding policy widely used by United, Delta and American Airlines. It has been checking bags at the gate and telling passengers who board later that the overhead bin space is full, even when it isn’t.
When I boarded a Southwest Airlines flight to Las Vegas on January 30, I heard the announcement that anyone boarding in groups 6 through 8 would need to have their bags gate checked.
According to CBTravel.com, “Gate check is when your carry-on bag is removed at the gate and stored in the hold, which is common on small regional aircraft, or can be returned at the aerobridge or baggage claim when the suitcase is full.”
In this case, on my Southwest flight, passengers who were forced to go through gate control had to retrieve their bags at baggage claim.
On a positive note, airlines do not charge fees to check bags at the gate. The downside is that many passengers carry their luggage with them so they don’t have to wait at baggage claim after their flight.
On my flight and on the return trip a few days later, I heard passengers forced to check their bags complaining about the lack of overhead bin space.
Gary Leff of View From the Wing said: “Southwest is now forcing passengers to check carry-on bags early, claiming the overhead bins are full even though there’s still plenty of room.”
This happened because once Southwest eliminated open seating and “baggage free flight,” boarding times were longer. Forcing passengers to check their luggage at the gate could speed up the boarding process.
“The controversial practice, long associated with American Airlines, Delta Air Lines and United Airlines, marks a real shift from Southwest Airlines’ recent adoption of assigned seats and checked bag fees, undermining their historical advantage in efficient boarding and angering passengers,” Leff reported.
If planes stay on the ground longer, airlines pay a price because it means the planes can fly fewer flights.
“If we added just a few minutes of congestion time on every flight in the schedule, we would be losing about eight to 10 planes a day,” Southwest CEO Gary Kelly told the Chicago Tribune in an article that is no longer on the Internet.
More travel:
That means Southwest must maintain the same boarding efficiency as it did under the old system, a key reason.
“Losing about 16 planes per day now would probably result in them losing about as much revenue as they generate from checked bag fees (even if separating checked bag fees from fares doesn’t reduce fares, which is unrealistic),” Leff reported.
Southwest has achieved significant improvements in turnaround time (the time it takes for a plane to land to take off).
“We have also seamlessly implemented our turnaround time program at more stations, and we have now reduced turnaround time by five minutes across our schedule at 19 stations while leading the industry in on-time performance,” Jordan said during the first-quarter earnings call. “Importantly, we executed on our unit cost and overall cost reduction plans.”
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Southwest’s operational changes have yielded positive results.
“The fourth quarter was a year of meaningful transformation and accelerated execution for Southwest. We performed strongly on both the revenue and cost fronts, with full-year EBIT of $574 million, above our previous guidance of $500 million. Fourth-quarter operating income of $7.4 billion and full-year operating income of $28 billion were quarterly and annual records,” CEO Robert Jordan said on the airline’s fourth-quarter earnings call.
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Net income for the fourth quarter and full year was $323 million and $441 million, respectively, or diluted earnings per share of $0.61 and $0.79
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Adjusted net income for the fourth quarter and full year was $301 million and $512 million, respectively, or diluted earnings per share of $0.58 and $0.93
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Returned $2.9 billion to shareholders in the form of dividends and share repurchases
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Wall Street Journal’s #1 Best U.S. Airlines of 2025
Source: Southwest Airlines fourth quarter earnings
Jordan noted that the company will not provide high-end guidance for the first quarter and 2026 due to changes in seat availability.
He shared: “Assigned seating and extra legroom seating became operational just two days ago, and we believe that based on how booking behavior unfolds related to these initiatives, we are seeing an increase in profitability, particularly upsell revenue from close-quarter bookings that are more relevant to business and price-flexible customers.”
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This article was originally published by TheStreet on February 7, 2026, and first appeared in the Travel section. Click here to add TheStreet as your preferred source.