{"id":131090,"date":"2025-03-13T16:41:23","date_gmt":"2025-03-13T16:41:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/business\/finance\/southwest-becomes-just-another-commodity-airline-basic-economy-no-checked-bags-less-legroom-paid-seating-my-money-blog\/"},"modified":"2025-03-13T16:41:23","modified_gmt":"2025-03-13T16:41:23","slug":"southwest-becomes-just-another-commodity-airline-basic-economy-no-checked-bags-less-legroom-paid-seating-my-money-blog","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=131090","title":{"rendered":"Southwest Becomes Just Another Commodity Airline (Basic Economy, No Checked Bags, Less Legroom, Paid Seating) \u2014 My Money Blog"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mymoneyblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/swa_model.jpeg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"418\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-82712\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mymoneyblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/swa_model.jpeg 700w, https:\/\/www.mymoneyblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/swa_model-300x179.jpeg 300w, https:\/\/www.mymoneyblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/swa_model-180x107.jpeg 180w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The big news in travel is that Southwest Airlines has basically given up their unique \u201cWe are different!\u201d corporate identity and become just another commodity airline that tries to look as cheap as possible upfront (only $200!) while adding multiple fees on the backend for all the things that used to be included (want to sit next to each other? checked bags? decent legroom?  ok sure it\u2019s really $500).    As educated consumers, our job is to understand the changes to their value proposition and adjust accordingly.   Here\u2019s a list of the new Southwest realities:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Basic Economy has arrived to Southwest.<\/strong> The cheapest fare tier is now called \u201cBasic\u201d, not \u201cWanna Get Away\u201d.  You can no longer make free changes; you only get a non-transferrable credit that expires after only 6 months.  Earns only 2X points, down from 6X points (elite status-holders get a little more).  They are stripping everything possible because Southwest believes that people just pick the lowest fare regardless of features when listed on a comparison site like Google Flights or Expedia.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No more free bags.<\/strong>  Starting 5\/29, on most fares you\u2019ll no longer get two free bags included and they\u2019ll start charging you like everyone else.   Business Select fares and A-List Preferred elites will get 2 free checked bags. A-List elites and co-branded credit cardholders will get 1 free checked bag.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No more open seating.  Must pay for seat choice.<\/strong>  Southwest is moving to assigned seats as well, which means Basic fares will have to pay up to pick their seats or be stuck in the worst middle seats or in the back.<\/li>\n<li><strong>No more reasonable legroom for everyone.<\/strong>  Southwest used to be known for decent seat width and legroom in all its seats.  Southwest is now adding \u201cpremium\u201d extra-legroom seats if you pay extra $$$.   This usually means the rest of Economy loses a few inches in return (right now it looks like seat pitch will go down to 31\u2033 from 32\u2033, similar to Basic Economy for other major airlines).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Changes to Rapid Rewards points redemptions.<\/strong>  When redeeming Rapid Rewards points for flights, it will not longer be directly linked to the current cash fare.   Basically, they want to be able to charge whatever amount they want, and limit the number of award tickets available on certain flights.  It\u2019s not clear exactly how the per-point value will change, but I doubt it\u2019s going up. <\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>I wouldn\u2019t actually read this <a href=\"https:\/\/www.swamedia.com\/news-and-stories\/news-release\/southwest-airlines-outlines-changes-to-drive-revenue-growth-and-reward-its-most-MCR5UCS6BF65HVRGPWNL43DHWTFY\" target=\"_blank\">Southwest press release<\/a> because it has so much PR-spin that it is quite trifficult to understand, but this attached graphic is useful:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mymoneyblog.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/03\/swa_march2025.gif\" alt=\"\" width=\"720\" height=\"855\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-82709\" \/><\/p>\n<p>It\u2019s almost funny because you can still look up their old talking points and interviews on why open seating is better, why keeping free checked bags is better, why the fact that Southwest treats everyone well is important, but now it\u2019s just the exact opposite.   Your unique brand was around for 50 years, but now you\u2019ve traded it all for a temporary bump in share price.<\/p>\n<p>Well, Southwest, if you want us to just judge you on price, that\u2019s fine with me.   Selling a commodity product is usually a tough business, though.  Prediction: The next step is to be merged away with another major airline soon.<\/p>\n<p>In the meantime, I\u2019m not sure if this makes their <a href=\"https:\/\/www.mymoneyblog.com\/southwest-companion-pass.html\" target=\"_blank\">co-branded credit card<\/a> more desirable or not.   The card has basically added a free checked bag benefit that can be valuable, but if you were a loyal Southwest flier, these new changes may cause you to not fly them as much anymore and now try out other airlines.  <\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The big news in travel is that Southwest Airlines has basically given up their unique \u201cWe are different!\u201d corporate identity and become just another commodity airline that tries to look as cheap as possible upfront (only $200!) while adding multiple fees on the backend for all the things that used to be included (want to [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":131091,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[93],"tags":[14249,2011,2959,3767,4551,56999,10916,28089,832,11252,8429,13048],"dealstore":[],"offerexpiration":[],"class_list":["post-131090","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-finance","tag-airline","tag-bags","tag-basic","tag-blog","tag-checked","tag-commodity","tag-economy","tag-legroom","tag-money","tag-paid","tag-seating","tag-southwest"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v26.4 - 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