We’ve known for some time that Southwest was moving to assigned seats, what those seating options will look like, and what access to these seats elite members and credit card holders will have. What we didn’t know is when those flights would start selling and flying – now we do.
Starting July 29th, assigned seating options will be available for travel January 27th, 2026 and beyond. It is also safe to assume that Southwest will further open their schedule on 7/29 as you can only book flights out to 1/26 currently. I would expect the new schedule will cover most or all of February and March, and possibly extend into April. As a reminder, here are the seating benefits based on fare type (names are changing), elite tier status and credit card level:
How easy will it be to get extra legroom seats?
As an A-List customer, I have grown used to not worrying about checking in right at 24 hours before takeoff since I get my boarding position reserved automatically. Now I will have to set a new alarm, this time for 48 hours before to fight for the extra legroom seats with all the other A-List members and some credit card holders.
Looking at the new seat map image, it appears that there will be 42 extra legroom seats available. I don’t know if that will be consistent across the 737-700, 737-800, and 737-MAX8 aircraft, but overall, this represents a healthy amount of capacity. Judging from my recent flights and knowing that A-List members get boarding positions after A1-15 but before those who purchased Early Bird check in, I am relatively confident I should be able to consistently pick extra legroom seats. Assuming the new Choice Extra (old Business Select) fare remains at 15 seats or less (but some risk it could be higher in the future), that means there about 27 additional spots available. Since I am consistently getting A25-A40 as my boarding position currently, all of those spots should end up with extra legroom seats in the future.
The one wildcard here is how many credit card holders are on each flight, specifically the Priority personal card and Performance business card. I currently hold both of these cards but will likely cancel one of them at the end of the year. For as many people as I see whip out a Southwest card on a frequent basis, it wouldn’t shock me if there were 30-50 people per flight who have one of the cards. The good news (for me at least) is that I suspect the vast majority have the Plus or Premier card which does not offer the same extra leg room seating benefit as the Priority card. As an aside, this also means that come 2026, simply having the Priority or Performance Business card is almost as good as being A-List, which may drive some frequent customers to become free agents. It will also be interesting to track which planes get the seat retrofits during the remaining open seating window – even more incentive for all the fake pre-boarders later this year unfortunately.
Another wildcard will be the amount of passengers buying up to the extra legroom seat. I am not that concerned about this group seeing as how many of those seats are open on American and United typically, but that could erode availability before the 48-hour mark as well.
Yet another consideration is same day change (which I do a few times per year) or standby. In these cases you will be left with whatever seats are remaining which could now be very unfavorable on a full flight because even the Basic fare crowd with no seat assignments will now have those assigned at check in. For A-List and A-List Preferred customers, this is a potential downside as is the loss of the ability to make a same day change on a Basic fare that used to be possible with Wanna Get Away fares.
Lastly, the amount of solo vs group travelers will have some impact, specifically WHICH seats are available. For me personally, if I have Preferred (standard leg room) aisle seat already reserved from the time of booking, I am less likely to swap that for a middle seat just for the extra leg room. For the majority of my Southwest flights I am travelling with at least 1 more person (> 10 Companion Pass round trips this year already flown or booked), so I will need to ideally find 2 or more extra leg room seats together. I expect you will see a lot of aisle-window seats selected hoping for the empty middle; not a bad strategy!
What about boarding positions?
In the announcement, which you can read in detail here, we also learned more about the future boarding process. Similar to other domestic carriers, Southwest will move from the current A, B, and C groups of 1-30 and 31-60 to 8 boarding groups.
Considering how many B and C customers already try to line up in the A group, I can imagine there will be a long learning curve as higher group numbers crowd the gate area and jockey for position to be one of the first to board within their group. For the higher number groups in particular, being the 5th person vs the last person in group 7 may mean the difference of finding overhead bin space or not. This also means that the flight attendants will likely have to police access to the “reserved” bin space in the extra legroom areas not to mention those trying to “upgrade” themselves for free once on the plane.
We also learned that customers will be able to purchase Priority Boarding at 24 hours before departure. What that will look like in detail is not clear yet. It’s also not clear how preboarding will work although I am hopeful that assigned seating reduces the sometimes-ridiculous amount of people who preboard currently.
TL;DR: While we have known about Southwest’s plans for assigned seating, we now know that starting July 29th you will be able to book flights with assigned seats for travel starting January 27th, 2026. We also learned that they will be moving to a new boarding process, with 8 groups similar to legacy carriers.
