Southwest Airlines Reveals New Card Perks With Assigned Seats, Extra Legroom And Upcoming Boarding Changes

Southwest Airlines is trying to tailor their product to get customers to spend more. They’re going to introduce assigned seats and extra legroom seats. You’ll no longer pick your own seat when you board. This means changes to their credit cards. At competitor airlines, cards usually come with boarding benefits. Southwest’s premium card offers a statement credit for buying earlier boarding, which gets you a better seat assignment. They’ve talked about card benefits needing to evolve with the way they’re changing the airline, but haven’t talked specifics. I haven’t seen much notice of this, but Southwest Airlines has posted how their credit card customers will be treated under new assigned seating and premium seating that the carrier plans to roll out. All Rapid Rewards Credit Cards will include new complimentary seating and boarding benefits, as…

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Inside The American Airlines Premium Pivot: Deep Dive Into The Challenges Ahead And Blueprint For Success

Feb 15 2025

For years I’ve written that American Airlines has high costs, and can’t win with a strategy of aping Spirit and Frontier (despite that having been Isom’s focus while President of the airline). Over the past three years they’ve been focused primarily on costs when they largely have a revenue problem. They need to earn a revenue premium because saving an incremental $100 million through purchasing efficiencies and product cuts doesn’t move the needle, and can be more than offset in revenue losses.

They seem to be realizing this.

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