Southwest Airlines' New Boarding Plan

Times are definitely changing. As Dawn Gilbertson wrote in The Wall Street Journal this past July ("I'm calling it.  Southwest's new seat policy is just another money grab"), "Southwest [Airlines] is officially just another airline."  I guess I've been hiding under a rock, because I wasn't aware of their plans to change.  I first heard about it after seeing a commercial on television advertising the Southwest's upcoming switch to assigned seating.  A representative from the airline stands at a podium and asks, "America, are you sitting down?  Southwest Airlines is introducing assigned seating!"  The rest of the commercial shows Americans cheering and clapping.  

The airline will officially make the switch on January 27, 2026.  But wait, wasn't the open seating arrangement at Southwest Airlines one of the perks that everyone was supposed to like?  Wasn't their open seating policy supposed to be a market differentiator?  And as Ms. Gilbertson suggested, are they now just another airline?

One business school case study on Southwest Airlines from a few years ago stated, "Southwest is profitable because of two factors: its low costs and the loyalty of its customers. Its low costs come from a number of sources. Southwest offers a no-frills approach to customer service. No meals are served on board, and there are no first-class seats. Southwest does not subscribe to the big reservation computers used by travel agents because it deems the booking fees too costly."

The author of the case study went on to say, "Southwest also has a reputation for being the most reliable carrier in the industry. It has the quickest turn ­around time in the industry (it takes a Southwest ground crew just fifteen minutes to turn around an incoming a craft and prepare it for departure), which   helps keep flights on time."  Part of the reason for the rapid turnaround time was the open seating policy.

Adam Richardson wrote an article in Harvard Business Review in 2011 ("Southwest Airlines Is Playing with Brand Fire") and stated, "A major part of Southwest’s brand is simplicity (a key piece of the larger convenience message): Pick your own seat so you don’t have to plan ahead. Check-in online on your smartphone. Everybody is in the same class of seating. Need to swap a ticket for another date or grab an earlier flight? No problem. From an operations standpoint, they use Boeing 737’s for every flight, simplifying training and maintenance."

Simplicity.  Consistency.  The same no-frills service again and again.  That is the essence of the Southwest Airlines brand.  But as Richardson also emphasized, as Southwest Airlines expanded and tried to keep up with some of the changing airline regulations (particularly after 9/11/2001), they had to change some of the practices and procedures that were essential to their brand.

In a more recent WSJ article this past week ("Here's a Sneak Peek Into Southwest's New Boarding Plan") , Ms. Gilbertson wrote, "The last time Southwest Airlines changed its boarding process, nearly 20 years ago, it launched an online boarding school to teach passengers the basics.  This time, travelers might need a graduate-level course. The airline that has offered open seating for more than 50 years is switching to assigned seating in January, including its first premium seats. Those changes dictate not just a few boarding tweaks but a dramatically different system."

Ms. Gilbertson thought that there was "a lot to love" about the new boarding process (she got a sneak peek at the airline's Dallas headquarters), even if it will be a major change for Southwest Airlines customers.  As a general rule, and speaking strictly from on a scientific basis, there are certainly better ways (and much more efficient) to board a plane, but unfortunately no airline uses them and probably never will - these scientific methods would require a lot more coordination, and more importantly, they would require doing away with some of the priority boarding perks (e.g. first class passengers board before everyone else) that some of us love.

Time will tell whether Southwest Airlines' new boarding procedures will prove better in the long run.  And more importantly, it will be interesting to see if people are still cheering after experiencing the new procedure!  As my wife used to often tell our kids, "We'll see..."