Last Friday, an email went out to Southwest elite members announcing an upcoming change to the boarding process. Effective April 30th, all A-List members will enjoy group 1 boarding, regardless of seat selection. Currently, Groups 1 and 2 are made up of Choice Extra (highest fare class) fares, A-List Preferred members, and A-List members who are able to upgrade to extra legroom seats within 48 hours of departure. Without that upgrade, A-List members would board in group 3-5 depending on seat selection.
I’ve noticed that group 1 has been a pretty big group on most of my flights this year, and it’s about to get bigger with this change adding all A-List members to the group. As a current A-List member, that’s good news, but there may be 2 other reasons why this makes sense for Southwest.
Why this move makes sense
I’ve noticed that group 1 has often taken a very long time to board. That makes sense when it largely represents the first 5 rows of the plane – an instant bottleneck trying to stow bags, etc. I have typically been group 2, especially when I am in the exit rows. By sprinkling in some customers that are not in the first 5 rows into group 1, hopefully more people will be further back in the plane and getting settled versus being stuck on the jet bridge.
Perhaps even more important, Southwest needed to do more to differentiate between A-List and simply holding the Priority or Performance Business card, as I’ve written about before. This is a small change that costs Southwest nothing, may actually speed the boarding process, and creates an additional incentive to take more revenue flights on Southwest. As someone in that boat of being A-List and a Priority card holder, I am intrigued but I don’t think it moves the needle enough to get me to commit to going for A-List requalification.
Per the email announcement, here are the full benefits:
As an A-List Member, you and everyone on your reservation receive these benefits:
- Select any available Preferred or Standard seat at booking at no additional cost
- Upgrade to an available Extra Legroom seat within 48 hours of departure
- Check up to one bag per Passenger on your reservation for free
- Earn a 25% point bonus on all your qualifying flights
- Enjoy priority access to our Customer Service phone support, and more.
New card spending offer
Southwest was not just showing some LUV to A-List members this week. There is also a targeted offer out for increased spend on cards, with 25% bonus points if you spend at least $3000 before the end of June. Maximum earning with this promotion is 20,000 bonus points. It’s nice to see spending offers, but this is nowhere near enough of a needle mover to take spend away from cards already earning much higher category multiples. But for my friends who tend to put everything on their Southwest cards, go for it!
TL;DR: Starting April 30th, Southwest is moving all A-List members to Group 1 boarding, regardless of their seat choice. This change aims to reduce the “row 1–5 bottleneck” during boarding and adds much-needed value to A-List status. Additionally, keep an eye out for a targeted 25% bonus points offer for spending $3,000+ on Southwest credit cards through June—though it may not beat your other cards’ category multipliers.
A List Preferred got a different email: we will board before Group 1 starting April 30th.
In the meantime, anyone in rows 1-3 get automatic Group 1 (somewhat related to the discussion).
Per the email:
I’m excited to share that starting April 30, 2026, you and all A-List Preferred Members will enjoy boarding before Group 1,* giving you earlier access to the cabin and overhead bin space every time you fly with us.
As an A-List Preferred Member, you and everyone on your reservation receive these benefits:
Select any available Extra Legroom or any seat at booking at no additional cost1
Check up to two bags per Passenger on your reservation for free2
Earn a 100% point bonus on all your qualifying flights3
Enjoy priority access to our Customer Service phone support, and more.
Thanks for sharing. I am a little surprised they are giving A-List the same treatment as A-List Preferred customers. Even giving A-List automatic group 2 would have been fine, but like I said, I think part of it is to help reduce the bottleneck of the first few rows boarding so slowly. I had 4 segments last week and 3 of them were absolutely brutal – I couldn’t help but wonder what the heck the group 1 people were doing it was so slow.