I write about Southwest Airlines frequently for many reasons: I think they get less coverage than other airlines in the miles and points “blogosphere”, I fly Southwest domestically more than any other airline as they are the biggest carrier at my home airport of STL (and largest domestic carrier in the US in general), and I think many of my readers are in the same situation. While I would definitely not describe myself as a Southwest fanboy, I do generally like flying Southwest as it means more direct flights, no small regional jets to get to connecting hubs and many customer-friendly policies.
Despite some devaluations of their points over the last few years that makes me much less likely to transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to Southwest, they did roll out some nice enhancements in 2024 and already fixed two big annoyances that definitely would have made this list; companion reservations now receive a boarding position with the main reservation holder without having to try to check them in at exactly the same time as well as eliminating the expiration of flight credits.
With all of that said, there are still 7 things that bug me about Southwest that I would love to see changed.
Allow online flight changes with companion reservation attached
I’ve written before about saving points or cash on Southwest flights after you have booked them and Southwest is famous for its lack of change or cancellation fees, but changing a reservation once a companion ticket is attached is painful. Essentially there are two options; cancel the companion ticket then rebook it after making the change or calling in and have them do it in real time over the phone. On a near-fully booked flight there is a risk of the first option because you need a seat to be available to add your companion and with the second option you can face a long hold time (or wait for them to call you back from the automated system). I realize Southwest is not known for their IT prowess, but this seems like a change that wouldn’t be that difficult to implement. You can easily change two passengers on one reservation at the same time so why not two passengers across two reservations that are already linked?
Automatically combine flight credits
When canceling a flight booked with a Wanna Get Away or Wanna Get Away Plus fare or rebooking one that dropped in price, you are left with a credit for future use. While it is great these credits no longer expire, they can be tough to use up in small amounts because you can only use 3 forms of payment on a new booking. Based on my personal example below, I could not use up these 4 credits on a single flight that cost $300. A few tricks to help with these situations are to book two one-way flights vs a round trip and to use small, orphaned credits to pay the $5.60 taxes each way on award tickets. Better yet would be to automatically put the credits into a single travel bank for future use instead of continuing to tie each amount to the specific flight confirmation number separately.
Allow Award Tickets to Count Towards A-List Status
I often surprise people when I tell them that I have had Companion Pass nearly continuously since 2015 but have only had A-List status for one year in that time. Because most of my flights have been award tickets, I am usually well short of A-list qualification. While the thresholds for flight segments to earn A-List and A-List Preferred were reduced for 2024 (a positive change), it would be fantastic if award tickets also counted as flights towards qualification. Perhaps with the reduction of flights required for qualification from 25 to 20 that would be too generous, but maybe there is some middle ground. While I did end up qualifying for A-List for 2025, I would love to see a change where award flights counted at least as a half credit towards A-List qualification.
Offer USB chargers at all seats on all planes
This one has already started to be improved but will be a slow and incomplete process. New 737 MAX planes will be delivered with both USB A and C charging ports installed and existing MAX aircraft will be retrofitted over time. However, there is no plan to retrofit their large fleet of 737-700 and -800 planes which currently make up the majority of the fleet. Unless that changes, it will be many, many years before all planes have this feature that I would love to see consistently.
Limit the Number of EarlyBird Upgrades Sold
The boarding process on Southwest is definitely a controversial one and the reason that is most often cited as why some people don’t want to fly Southwest. With the current 100% open seating, the better your boarding position, the more likely you are to get a desirable seat and guarantee access to overhead bin space. Over the years, Southwest has rolled out new programs to try to monetize this such as the introduction of Business Select fares which guarantee an A1-15 boarding position, selling remaining upgrades to A1-15 boarding positions and EarlyBird Check-In. If you purchase EarlyBird Check-In you will be checked in before customers who race to check in at exactly 24 hours before the flight takes off. However, A-List and A-List Preferred customers are still checked in before EarlyBird customers and even EarlyBird has a hierarchy based on the type of fare purchased and when you purchased it. While limited on some flights as of last summer, in general Southwest does not limit how many EarlyBird upgrades it will sell and it by no means guarantees an “A” boarding position. Obviously Southwest doesn’t have a good way to know how many A-List customers will end up on a flight but to prevent the frustration of someone buying EarlyBird and still ending up with a B42 boarding position, I think they should have a predefined number of EarlyBird spots available for each flight. In fact, the scarcity could cause people to buy it sooner or be willing to pay more for it. Maybe this will go away in 2026 with the arrival of seat assignments.
Improve the WiFi Experience
In my experience, purchasing the in-flight WiFi has not been a great experience. Typical download speeds have been < 5 Mbps and I will often get disconnected,, even on newer aircraft. On the flip side, using the free WiFi features for text messaging or watching live TV, movies, or TV series tends to work pretty well. On a recent flight from Atlanta I connected to the WiFi and tried to answer a few emails. For over 30 minutes I couldn’t even get my email to load even though I was connected in Outlook. Then, almost as a cruel joke, one email did come through: my receipt for purchasing the in-flight WiFi. Doh! Another pain point is that the paid WiFi, while not expensive at $8, only covers 1 flight, so if you have a connecting flight you would have to pay for it twice. Starlink please!!
Take a More Formal Stance on Seat Saving
One of the negatives with the open seating policy is the tendency for people to save seats. The official stance is that any available seat is free to take, but what defines a seat as being available? I have personally seen some pretty extreme cases, usually on leisure flights. The craziest one was a flight returning from Cancun where a large family purchased one A1-15 upgrade and that person tried to save two entire rows with items from their bag. Not seats. And not the 3 seats of a row. All SIX seats of the full row and the row behind for 12 total seats! Of course it was very near the front of the plane as well. I’ve also had someone yell at me for requesting to keep open the middle seat next to me for a colleague who was boarding soon when there were aisle and window seats available just a few rows behind. My personal opinion is that it is ok to say that you were hoping to save a middle seat for a traveling companion but if someone really wants it then you should let them have it. So, what do I want from Southwest? I would like them to somehow define what is an available seat and find a way to discourage saving entire rows (or more!) at a time. This one will likely become irrelevant with the introduction of assigned seats in 2026, but for now it stays on the list.
So there you have it; the 7 things I would change about Southwest Airlines. Do you agree with these changes or would something else be higher on your list? Leave a comment below!
TL;DR: There is a lot that I like about Southwest Airlines and I do give them credit for making some improvements over the last few years. However, there are still 7 things that really bug me that I would love to see changed: online changes with companion attached, automatic combining flight credits, award flights counting at least partially towards A-List, USB chargers on all planes, capped EarlyBird upgrades per flight, improved WiFi, and a more formal stance on seat saving.
