Social media is so infected with liars and bad actors that we can’t trust it even to tell us the sky is blue anymore.

But the minute Southwest Airlines announced that, after some 50 years, the carrier will do away with its open seating system, the online reaction seemed to repeat a certain point that rings true. 

You might hear it said that open seating was the best thing about flying Southwest. The lack of assigned seating made it easier for families to sit together without paying too much more. All you had to do was check in 24 hours before departure and secure an early boarding group—it was all about jostling for that A group.

I personally found the boarding experience anxiety-inducing and dehumanizing, but millions of customers have felt it made Southwest easier and more affordable to use.

Now Southwest has announced it will begin charging for seating assignments, and will deviate from its long-running system of seat equality to add seats with extra legroom, which will also come with an extra charge. 

Let’s be honest. Southwest’s no-class system had already deteriorated before today, eroded by cash grabs. The airline’s “EarlyBird” check-in upcharge, available 36 hours before departure for $15 a person, was already infuriating customers who bought it, thinking the service would allow them to seat their entire families together, yet still finding themselves in group B.  

“What’s up?” Denver TV host Jeff Schroeder asked Southwest on the air on July 16. “What am I paying for? … I’m paying to be average?”

Now, just like the other airlines, Southwest will charge you to access higher-quality versions of the same service. Southwest will also force you to shell out for seats, just like the other airlines do, except in Southwest’s case premium service is highly unlikely to be much more than an afterthought.

Southwest has caved to the class system. Why would the airline change the central personality trait that sets it apart?

You know the answer. It’s green and it fills bank accounts.

The people who built Southwest are no longer in charge. In early July 2024, activist fund managers at Elliot Investment Management took control of the airline.

The new puppeteers at Southwest care nothing for tried-and-true egalitarian passenger boarding systems, nor for the operational advantages they have been said to provide in helping Southwest board planes quickly and keep flying.

Twenty years ago, Southwest was flying high on low-priced, negotiated fuel expenses and an aviation system that gave power to Southwest’s focus on one-way domestic short hauls. But our fraught era has bedeviled the airline, dragging it below the profit line via a combo of inflation and antiquated systems.

Southwest’s most recent earnings report, issued this week, showed a profit drop of 46%, all but forcing the airline’s new puppet masters to take drastic measures.

Hours later, open seating was abandoned and the new seating fees were brought in to generate cash.

But there’s still one major aspect of flying Southwest Airlines that sets it apart from its rivals.

Southwest still grants two free checked bags per passenger. While competitors charge $45 each way for luggage, Southwest’s bag policy stands out and often makes its airfares the cheapest when you factor in all charges. 

Southwest is strapped for easy cash, and bag fees represent big, fat, juicy, low-hanging fruit that could be plucked for desperately needed income. In 2022, U.S. airlines collected $6.8 billion in bag fees, double the amount from a decade earlier, and Southwest didn’t reap that bounty.

The airline’s operational meltdowns over the past few years have been the subject of sorrow, satire, and federal scrutiny, and the airline’s executives have been scrambling to shore up business. In January, Southwest tried to ease its redemption program for the airline’s most dedicated customers, and in the spring, Southwest departures finally began appearing on Google Flights, when third-party engines had previously been blocked.

But those moves weren’t fast enough to turn profits around.

If Elliott is willing to sweep away the core democratic principles that made Southwest Airlines unique, how long do you think the free baggage allowance is going to last? Take advantage of the perk while you can.

The future of free checked bags at Southwest is now in doubt. 

The change in boarding procedures also means the efficient turnaround of Southwest planes at the gate, a keystone in the aggressive operational schedule that once made the airline viable, is on the line.

What isn’t in doubt is that Wall Street types have finally caught up with the carrier, and just like JetBlue before it, Southwest is being forced to behave like all the other airlines, erasing the points of difference that fueled Southwest’s rise in the first place. 

At the airlines, product uniqueness is over.

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