For more than 50 years, open seating has been nearly synonymous with Southwest Airlines, but that will all change in the coming years.

Over the course of several hours Thursday, executives from the Dallas-based airline walked investors through the finer details of top-to-bottom changes aimed at improving the company’s financial performance.

For customers, these changes will mainly take the form of the airline’s first-ever assigned seats and rows with extra legroom.

That seismic shift from Southwest’s half-century of open seating will also force the airline to reshape its boarding process — though the new procedures executives outlined Thursday maintain an aura of familiarity with the airline’s current unique process.

Combined with new seats the airline has planned for its fleet as early as 2025 and an overall facelift for its cabins, it’s safe to say the next few years will be a time of change for Southwest flyers.

Here’s a look at what you’ll soon see when booking, boarding and boarding the airline’s flights, plus what changes the airline considered but ultimately didn’t implement.

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Booking

The biggest change customers will notice in the coming years when booking a flight on Southwest is the ability to select a seat — or, if they prefer, to pay more for a seat with extra legroom.

Southwest estimates that for flights departing in the first half of 2026, these changes will go live in its booking channels by the end of 2025.

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Leaders said details about the exact services included in each of the airline’s four current fare classes are still in the works, but here are a few things we do know.

No seat selection for Wanna Get Away fares

Wanna Get Away rates do not including free seat selection. Passengers on this fare type who do not pay to select a seat will be assigned one before departure.

While some travelers may be disappointed by this news, Southwest executives maintain that the fare will remain a more lenient option than the basics offered by other U.S. airlines, many of which do not offer free cancellations, checked bags or, in United’s case Airlines, large carry-on luggage.

“That’s by far the best base fare product in the industry… in terms of two free bags, no change and cancellation fees for the base product,” said Ryan Green, executive vice president of Southwest. “Flight credits don’t expire, that all remains. If you don’t like the ability to select your seat when booking… nothing will change for you.”

Wanna Get Away passengers will also still receive the full Southwest Rapid Rewards elite qualification credit, executives added.

Other fare classes

Wanna Get Away Plus (and higher) fare classes come with free seat selection, although customers can choose to purchase more expensive seats.

Seats with extra legroom

Southwest will charge extra for its all-new extra legroom seats. They provide between 7 and 5 centimeters of extra space, depending on the aircraft.

Members with A-List elite status can select these seats for free within 48 hours of departure. Elite members of A-List Preferred can select these seats at no charge when booking a ticket.

Southwest may also offer seat selection benefits (including the “preferred” standard economy seats located closer to the front of the plane) to elite members and as a future credit card benefit. Those decisions are still in the works, leaders said.

A new (but familiar) boarding process

Even as Southwest revamps its seating processes, boarding procedures will remain “highly familiar,” the airline said Thursday — albeit with one major exception.

“Gone are the days of having to set an alarm 24 hours before a flight to ensure a good boarding position and a good seat,” Green joked, referring to the lengths Southwest flyers today go to at the earliest possible opportunity. time to check in. hoping to secure the best entry position.

However, the overall boarding process of the future will be reminiscent of the airline’s unique current procedures.

Passengers will still be given a boarding number and will still line up next to numbered posts in the boarding area.

“Because our customers are accustomed to queuing in order to board aircraft, we expect our future boarding process to feel very familiar and unique to the Southwest,” CEO Bob Jordan said Thursday.

The airline plans to award higher boarding positions to elite members and customers purchasing higher fare types – although in the absence of open seating, the main benefit of early boarding in the future will be priority access to overhead bins.

In addition, the airline plans to order the remaining passengers in a manner that maximizes boarding efficiency.

Aircraft changes

To achieve these seats, Southwest will have to reconfigure its fleet of approximately 800 aircraft. The aircraft will also receive a complete facelift of the interior.

We took a look Thursday at the future layout of a Southwest Boeing 737 MAX 8 with the new look and cabin layout, including 68 of the 175 seats (about 39%) with extra legroom.

Cabin design

As soon as you walk into a newly redesigned Southwest aircraft, you will notice an updated color palette with a new color scheme of navy blue and lighter blue.

This particular aircraft also features the all-new airline seats from seat manufacturer Recaro, which I first saw in May at an aviation event in Hamburg, Germany.

Seating

Southwest says the seats, chosen after extensive customer research, offer improved lumbar support compared to the current product. The headrest offers fold-out neck supports and vertical maneuverability.

Around the seatbacks, the seatbacks feature USB-A and USB-C charging ports, a personal device holder, a tray with two cup holders, a back pocket, and a water bottle holder.

These seats are expected to enter the fleet in 2025.

The seats are identical whether you sit in a standard row or an extra legroom row, with one cosmetic exception.

Seats with extra legroom

Even if you don’t have a measuring tape, you can immediately recognize an extra row of legroom on this Southwest plane by the light blue stripe on the seats.

Southwest’s “premium” seats offer a 34-inch pitch on the Boeing 737 MAX 8, 737-800 and future Boeing 737 MAX 7 aircraft. (The pitch is the distance between a fixed point on one seat and the same point on the seat in front of it and is an indication of legroom.)

That’s compared to 31 inches in the standard economy rows, which will be about an inch tighter than what you’ll find today, a move the airline is making to avoid losing seats due to legroom in the new, premium rows to expand. The airline claims its pitch will still be among the best in the economics of the US airline industry.

On Southwest’s Boeing 737-700 jets, the extra legroom will be a more comfortable 36 inches.

On some aircraft, the extra legroom seats will take up about a third of the cabin, but on others, such as the Boeing 737 MAX 8, they will take up almost 40% of the cabin.

Here’s how the space of an extra legroom seat on the Boeing 737 Max 8 compares to a standard seat for Ben Mutzabaugh, senior aviation editor at TPG.

Cabin layout

Think of the cabin layout as four “zones,” says Andrew Watterson, Southwest’s chief commercial officer.

When you first get in, you will see the extra legroom seats in the front. Then come the ‘preferred seats’, which are more expensive economy seats positioned closer to the front of the plane.

In the middle of the plane, near the exit row, there are a number of rows of extra legroom.

Behind this are the standard economy seats.

Renovation plans

Southwest has ambitious renovation plans in the works to make these changes a reality.

The airline is currently working with the Federal Aviation Administration to have the new cabin layouts certified and expects this process to take several months.

The airline hopes to begin redesigning these cabins in the first quarter of 2025, starting with the largest Boeing 737 jets – and plans to equip 50 to 100 jets per month with the new seat configurations.

Then those jets will be put back into service — which means you’ll see Southwest jets with extra-legroom seats showing up in service long before they’re assigned and extra-legroom seats technically go on sale.

What Southwest considered, but didn’t do

These boarding and seating changes are just part of a larger commercial overhaul intended to improve Southwest’s financial performance, as the airline has lately lagged behind its larger U.S. competitors in profits.

Executives say they came after extensive data-driven research and consideration of even more dramatic changes.

Bag costs

Southwest leaders acknowledged that they have studied the possibility of using just one free checked bag (instead of the two the airline currently allows) or introducing a bagless economy-style basic fare.

Ultimately, Green said, the company concluded that eliminating the bags fly free policy would have driven customers away.

“It is by far the most important feature that sets Southwest apart from our competitors,” he said. ‘And it is one of the most important criteria in the world Why customers choose Southwest Airlines.”

First class? No fit

Southwest even studied the possibility of a premium cabin on its planes before deciding to just go with the simpler concept with extra legroom.

“We looked at everything and tested everything, including a full first class, the European first class with the blocked middle seat, and from both revenue potential and customer desire,” Jordan said. “What we do is what turned out to be best for both.”

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