Southwest Sets Seat Sales Start

When Southwest Airlines extends its schedule on July 29th it will mark the beginning of a new era for the carrier: Assigned Seating will be on sale. The first flights with assigned seats are not until January 27, 2026, but the schedule extension gives the carrier the opportunity to implement the change effectively.

Assigned seating unlocks new opportunities for our Customers—including the ability to select Extra Legroom seats—and removes the uncertainty of not knowing where they will sit in the cabin. This is an important step in our evolution, and we’re excited to pair these enhancements with our legendary Customer Service.

– Tony Roach, Executive Vice President Customer & Brand

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In addition to assigned seating, flights from 27 January will include the new boarding groups, and new fare bundles covering seats and checked bags (which also carry a fee now) and other bits.

Southwest showed off a version of the new cabin layout at a media event in September 2024. At that time CEO Bob Jordan anticipated completing the rollout in H2 2025. Slipping it into January 2026 is not too bad, all things considered.

The design now flying on about a quarter of the carrier’s fleet shifted slightly from the September 2024. Among other things, all the exit row seats will be considered extra legroom, and there are fewer total extra legroom seats on board.

And, as I noted at the time, “The carrier brought in the newest seats from Recaro and pitched the cabin with the freshly revealed extra legroom layout. They showed off the updated color scheme and the seat customizations that will fly on board, including the seat cushioning, tray table, and headrest designs. It is still an economy class seat on an airplane; the geometry around that is relatively well set. But the carrier believes it is ‘truly a seat that is the voice of the customer.'”

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Regarding the boarding groups, Southwest pitches the plan as “a new group-based boarding process designed to deliver a smooth and efficient Customer Experience on every flight.” Given the data available from every other airline that also does boarding groups and their lack of efficiency that seems a stretch. But it also makes a smidgen of sense to give the advantage to those paying more, especially as overheads will be more full with the new Bags Fly (with a) Fee program.

With the carrier’s focus on trimming turn times to increase aircraft utilization – including music in the jetways to keep people moving, even though that’s rarely the bottleneck – this will be especially interesting to watch.