Southwest has been slowly releasing information about their upcoming changes and this week we learned more about the future elite benefits, fare classes and credit card perks. The most interesting of these was more detail about how the new seating rules will work
The new seat map will feature 3 categories of seats:
- Extra legroom seat: up to 5″ of extra legroom at the front of the plane and the exit row.
- Preferred seat: standard legroom between the extra legroom seats and the exit rows
- Standard seat: standard legroom behind the exit rows
Who can access these seats?
The new information this week includes who can get access to these seats and when. There are 3 different considerations based on fare class, elite status, or holding one of the Chase Southwest credit cards. Let’s break it down:
Fare class
- Choice Extra (the current Business Select) tickets can select an extra legroom seat at the time of booking
- Choice Preferred (current Anytime) tickets can select a Preferred seat at the time of booking
- Choice (current Wanna Get Away Plus) can select a Standard seat at the time of booking
- Basic (current Wanna Get Away) will be assigned a Standard seat at check in. I assume it would also be an option to buy up to a specific seat assignment like we see on many other carriers.
Tier Status
- A-List Preferred customers will be able to select extra legroom seats at the time of booking
- A-List customers will be able to select extra legroom seats, if available, 48 hours before departure, and Preferred seats at time of booking.
Chase Credit Card Holders
- Southwest Personal or Business Plus (new product?) card holders will be able to select a Standard seat, if available, 48 hours before departure
- Personal and Business Premier card holders will be able to select a Preferred seat, if available, 48 hours before departure
- Personal Priority and Performance Business card holders can select a Preferred seat at time of booking and extra legroom seats, if available, 48 hours before departure.
- In all 3 cases this applies to the primary cardholder and up to 8 travelling companions on the same reservation.
Analysis
For card holders, there is now a very clear winner as to which personal card is best if you fly Southwest a few times per year or more: the Priority card. Despite the highest annual fee, the annual flight credits and 7500 anniversary points plus the ability to get guaranteed Preferred seats and likely common access to extra legroom sets at no cost. As a current Priority card holder, this is more attractive to me than the current 4 upgraded boarding positions. Fingers crossed the annual fee is not increased to fund this new benefit.
If there is a loser in this announcement, it may be A-List customers. With the strong benefits for the Priority and Performance Business cards, you can get most of the A-List benefits just by holding one of these cards. The only real differentiators would be the 25% points earning bonus and free same day change even on Basic fares. However, with the new seating rules, the same day change benefit is reduced because all of the extra leg room seats and Preferred seats may be taken when a flight is changed last minute. Currently, I don’t worry about this because as an A-List customer, if I change to a new flight, I can still get a good seat by being able to board between the A and B groups.
What I would have rather seen is a differentiation in time for access to the extra legroom seats for A-List customers such as 48 hours and then 36 hours for the Priority and Performance Business credit card customers. Overall, these changes make me much less likely to pursue A-List status and much more likely to keep the Priority credit card.
Also buried in this announcement is what appears to be a new credit card product, the Business Plus card. While the details are not yet know, I assume it will not be very compelling to keep for the benefits but may open up additional avenues to easily get the Companion Pass.
TL;DR: Southwest Airlines will introduce new seating rules featuring Extra Legroom, Preferred, and Standard seats. Access to these seats varies by fare class, elite status, and Chase Southwest credit card holders.
