Southwest Airlines used to offer free checked bags. That led to passengers checking more bags and trying to carry fewer items into the cabin. Even though the airline didn’t have many planes with oversized overhead bins, there was almost always plenty of room for your items.
Now, passengers are bringing more stuff onboard with them, taking up all of the cabin space.
- It also takes longer to board planes, with more items going into the cabin and with the time it takes to store all the bags. Yet Southwest is trying to reduce the time that each plane spends on the ground between flights (and it’s going to get worse as they move away from their current boarding process where everyone rushes on the plane to find seats, to more leisurely assigned seating).
- As a result, Southwest has adopted one of the more maddening practices of other airlines: forcing passengers to gate check bags even when there’s still space available in the bins.
- That’s because they don’t want to spend time at the last minute gate checking bags, risking delaying flights. It’s better for them to have bags gate checked earlier in the boarding process. So they confiscate bags too early.
- Customers board, having had their bags taken away, only to find their was still space. Their belongings were taken from them for no real reason and they’re forced to wait at baggage claim.
Hey @SouthwestAir why did you make me gate check my bag again? Yes, there was even more space available and I was one of the last to board. pic.twitter.com/dnRHsK8Y1H
— Dan Savoie (@djsavoie74) July 21, 2025
@SouthwestAir
Is this a new policy or a control issue to check bags for flights with many empty seats and compartments completely open at takeoff? pic.twitter.com/vwOHqPVyDs— Steve Schoenherr (@SteveSchoenherr) July 24, 2025
Generally I’ve found Southwest Airlines to take longer to deliver bags than many other airlines. Bags were free so people put up with it, but they’re nothing like Delta and Alaska with 20-minute bag delivery guarantees.
To be clear, this is a problem we see all the time on American Airlines and United. But that’s the point – Southwest has given up its advantages over competitors, its unique selling proposition. They’re becoming much more like less financially successful peers like American and JetBlue. But they’re worse.
Southwest lacks the quality wifi, seatback video screens, first class, lounges or a long haul international route network so their points can take you to aspirational destinations. So they’re ‘the same, but less than’. That puts them in a battle over just schedule and price to attract customers, in a race to the bottom.
Oh, so they’ve turned it into United…
Now, where are our resident Elliott (mis)Management apologists who say this is all necessary to create a ‘lean’ airline? Profits over people, every time.
I’ve long argued that anyone with a boarding position of B-31 or later should be required to check their bags in advance. No carry-on, no gate check.
Would do wonders to speed up boarding.
Pretty sad when the only SWA “lounge” is the handicapped bathroom stall across from the boarding gate…
Welcome to the party, Southwest passengers.
Now we are seeing $39 flights.
A great bus company.
Elliott will take them through reorganization next year.
Slash, burn, dump and repeat.
The management fees are huge.
as if there haven’t been scores of articles written on here about the same thing happening on other airline flights – with pictures.
I miss PeoplesExpress
@Tim Dunn — But isn’t that the point: Southwest is becoming just like all the other airlines (but, for the worse).
SWA used to be uniquely passenger-friendly (no seat assignments; two free checked bags; more flexible change, cancel, credits, etc., and less of this last-minute gate-checking nonsense.)
As usual, workers and consumers will ultimately pay the price, so these investors can extract *excess* profits; these aren’t ‘necessary improvements,’ or whatever euphemisms anyone wants to attempt; it’s just greedy, and that greed may kill the golden goose.
1990
yes, WN is becoming just like other airlines so it isn’t exactly like customers can go running somewhere else and get what WN is no longer giving away for free – and losing money doing.
and, no, WN workers are doing just fine financially through this. It is UA’s employees that have paid the price for the company’s success and those employees’ unions inability to get what is due theirs.
WN was fairly early up after DL in raising their employee wages.
I mean why don’t you complain about the free gallon of milk or wine you DON”T GET every time you step into your favorite grocery store?
@1990 – “SWA used to be uniquely passenger-friendly (no seat assignments; two free checked bags; more flexible change, cancel, credits, etc., and less of this last-minute gate-checking nonsense.)”
And was great for those of us who primarily flew short-haul routes (2.5 hours or less) on a frequent basis, often at short notice.
I used to fly United until they vexed me one too many times. I moved to Frontier, which used to be pretty good until Republic drove them into the ground. Now with Southwest-As-We-Knew-It on the verge of extinction, I’m running out of airlines…
@Tim Dunn — Clearly, loyalty is dying, and it’s not because consumers got greedy; it’s because investors thought of the actual passengers as leeches who just wanted their ‘two free checked bags’ and ‘free seat assignments.’
You know, based on my personal travel habits shared here, that I’m fortunate enough to spend plentifully on the full-service, mainline domestic and luxury foreign carriers. I’ve earned my statuses, paid my dues, and still fork over tens of thousands of dollars each year. No regrets.
But, I still fly LCCs occasionally, and haven’t forgotten what Southwest used to be, or when airlines like Delta attempted their own short-lived versions (remember Song?) There are different market segments that should be served (and there’s real money to be made there); differentiation is key. SWA is giving up on differentiation, which makes me believe either Elliott just doesn’t know what they’re doing, or they know *exactly* what they’re doing, and it ends poorly for workers and consumers.
@Denver Refugee — Sorry, bud. Turbulence ahead. Seatbelt sign is on. Flight attendants, jump seats.
@1990 – “when airlines like Delta attempted their own short-lived versions (remember Song?)”
Remember “Ted”?
I would be very happy to go back to 1970s sans the cigarette smoke and lack of technology. Leg room, your price includes a checked bag, meals, clean planes, more on time planes, etc. And yes I’d be willing to pay a fare that is designed for the airlines to make money on every seat sold. Are you?
@1990. “Enhancement. Customers asked for it.”
Alaska Airlines has the same behavior, especially out of Seattle. The stress ruins the trip for those passengers. It’s insane, the opposite of good service.
Thanks for reporting on this. I vote with my wallet and I vote to bankrupt Southwest and Alaska.
My mid-November flights, booked in May before the changes, will likely be my last on Southwest and I fully expect them to be terrible. I did purchase early check-in way back in May which I hope will land me an extra legroom seat, but I don’t care too much. Protecting my two free checked bags was the real issue. I hope the folks forcing these changes are not too gleeful about killing the golden goose that they purchased a share of, because it will be dead by the end of 2027, is my guess.
Charge for overhead space. The airline will make more money and passengers will know ahead of time if they will be able to carry-on.
I don’t understand Elliottball. You alienate your loyal customers so they start shopping the competition, but you don’t offer anything special to attract other airlines’ customers. Are there really that many customers who would have flown Southwest if only they had assigned seating? How can this possibly increase market share?
Get over it Gary! You can rant all you want but this isn’t going to change. All airlines use projections on filling overheads and, yes, sometimes they are wrong. However, better to inconvenience a few than delay the entire plane and inconvenience everyone. Also, not sure why this is such as issue for you (except to get clicks as you are apparently desperate to do that). You (and probably almost everyone on here) is elite or booked in a premium cabin so this doesn’t impact us. I frankly couldn’t care less if a BE passenger or someone with no status in group 5 or 6 has to check a carry on.
@Denver Refugee — I do! They flew FLL-DEN back in the day.
@Michael — That’s it, ‘enhancements.’ Other than ‘value-add,’ I cannot think of a phrase more ‘MBA’ mindset than that. Nothing wrong with education folks, but when you hide behind Excel and skip LGA for Teterboro, maybe, just maybe, you forget where consumers are at. I get though, ‘line must go up.’ Don’t worry, we passengers have super short memories and are easily distracted by the next shiny thing. Ooh, looky, if I may double the annual fee, I can get one free checked bag with Southwest! Niccce! *facepalm*
Our SWA flight from OAK arrived at ONT around 2:30pm on Wednesday. We waited almost 40 min for our bags!
Yet another way Southwest has become “the same, but less than” is that they don’t tend to fly to small metro areas. Granted, I generally choose MDW instead of Cedar Rapids or Moline anyway, but with Southwest, you don’t have that option.
I always hated SW’s open seating and lack of premium options. The new bag fee is great because it makes Delta more cost competitive. With Delta my bags are free through status so I’m more likely to book it for work. I win.
JG,
it is absolutely because more Americans want to believe they can buy their way into a better situation compared to other groups of people than there are people that want to be just like everyone else – which is what WN offered before. US businesses want to thrive on the basis of capitalism and not what makes everyone feel the same – even if 90% of people aren’t willing to pretend they are incapacitated to cut in front of someone else.
and Julie K,
yes, there will be deterioration in service as WN handles more last-minute checked bags. But remember, they have been handling more checked bags than other carriers for a long time so the issue might be related to some of the labor cuts or other issues including overlapping of flights due to delays or something like that.
let’s not forget that other airlines regularly have 40 minute claim times.
the answer is for WN to get larger overhead bins installed but that is part of the same process of getting rid of older aircraft.
@JG — It’s folks like you that are making @Tim Dunn happy… SWA’s loss is going to be Delta’s gain. *sigh* keep climbing… 100.. more.. years..
@JG
You may think that you have won, but in the end, you and other travelers will be losers as Delta and the other legacy carriers raise prices and cut back on services since they have less competition in the marketplace. It will soon be realized that Southwest is not sustainable in its’ present business configuration. Without open seating and “bags fly free” millions of formerly loyal Southwest passengers are now looking elsewhere for their air travel needs or just staying home. I look forward to the disastrous exploits of Elliott Investment Management being studied in our nations’ business schools as an example of capitalism gone awry.
@Tampa Jim — Well said! Competition is good for both workers and consumers. If there are more airlines fighting for crews and passengers, that often means higher wages and either lower fares or more amenities; profits and benefits are better distributed to more people overall. If there’s less competition, then whoever remains with their relative monopoly or duopoly can pay slave wages and charge more for less, while a few at the very top take nearly all the profits. There are a lot of corporate bootlickers here, either out of their own self-interest or the incessant pro-oligarch propaganda that is the astroturf of this 2nd Gilded Age. I hope we can survive to the next Progressive Era so that those schools still exist, can study, and learn from these abuses of wealth and power.
SwA hasn’t been a low cost carrier for 10 years. I just went to MKE on the dreaded American because it was way cheaper. They might as well fashion after the legacy carriers and buy other types of planes for the job.
1990
DL and UA both have the financial strength to pick off WN passengers and the fact that WN is shrinking says that there are passengers in play that DL and UA, and to a lesser extent, AA, can win over.
Let’s keep in mind that the whole basic economy strategy was focused on ultra low cost carriers and now has as much if not more value in picking off WN passengers.
While I still assert that all of the anecdotal data around WN customer defections doesn’t prove that WN is losing loyalty, the fact that they are barely growing when other carriers are says WN’s share will fall.
AA and WN operate a huge amount of financially unviable capacity so there are some serious hubs and routes that are up for grabs if one or both of those two carriers don’t turn things around very quickly
My WN flights now cost half as much as they used to.
Got on this morning in C group with large bag on packed flight. No issues.
@Tim Dunn — Change isn’t always good or bad; and clearly, there’s going to be some ‘realignment’ for this industry in the coming months and years. It was bound to happen after the pandemic (demand returned, government assistance disappeared, higher interest rates, tariffs, global conflicts escalating, etc.) I plan to keep traveling personally, and still enjoy the sharing of ideas, vigorous debate, and occasional banter on here.
Disappointing to witness, but this is the inevitable outcome when finance-driven decisions overshadow customer experience. There’s no added value—just more cost to the customer. If the goal is to rival United, count me out. They’ve already mastered what this company seems to be sacrificing. Join the burning heap of Hess, Phillps 66, Aetnahealth and who knows who else. Adios to a once great company – Nuts!
Self inflicted wound from the airline that wants to change its name to Generic Airline #5.
Bye Bye SWA
You were my airline of choice for years, Now you are the same as all the others, So i’ll look at all the others and pick the least worst carrier
Forcing people to take bags in the cabin by charging baggage fee is the stupidest thing they could do.
At only five extra seconds for each passenger to board due to having to store a bag, that’s an additional 17 minutes in boarding time.
Obviously, they’re completely math challenged.
@George Romney
> I would be very happy to go back to 1970s sans the cigarette smoke and lack of technology. Leg room, your price includes a checked bag, meals, clean planes, more on time planes, etc. And yes I’d be willing to pay a fare that is designed for the airlines to make money on every seat sold. Would you?
In a heartbeat. Deregulation that has only brought enshittification of flying and contempt for passengers.
@Mary — Thank you for making the distinction about ‘sans cigarettes.’ We owe the flight attendants and their union a debt of gratitude for encouraging the end of widespread tobacco use on flights and elsewhere. It’s a shame so many dealt with increased risk for so long due to second hand smoke in those confined spaces.
No one is mentioning the other reason that I have run into with my carryon being taken from me; it contains something I do NOT want out of my control like a laptop or gold jewelry, expensive camera, etc.