One of the most frustrating things for airline passengers is being forced to give up their carry-on bag at the gate. You’re supposed to be allowed a carry-on and a personal item when you fly on most airlines in the U.S. (United doesn’t allow the carry-on if you buy their cheapest fares.)
However, overhead bins fill up, and passengers getting on the plane last are often forced to ‘gate check’ their bags because the plane runs out of room.
- Everyone tries to bring all their belongings on the plane, to avoid checking bags. That’s because airlines usually let you bring your stuff on board for free, but charge you to check them.
- Airlines don’t want to gate check bags at the last minute, potentially delaying the flight. They don’t want passengers getting on the plane, discovering that bins are completely full, and then having to go back out onto the jetbridge or up to the gate to check their bag – that eats up time right as they’re trying to get the flight out.
- So U.S. airlines tend to require passengers to gate check bags long before overhead bins are full, to avoid this problem.
Having your bag taken from you at the gate because ‘bins are full’ and then boarding only to find bins empty is maddening – and it’s probably one of the two most common complaints with photos that I see posted to airline social media.
This basically never happened on Southwest Airlines! That’s because gate checking bags was so much less common. Southwest offered two free checked bags with every ticket, so passengers didn’t bring all their belongings on board. That meant overhead bins didn’t fill up very often, and it helped the airline get out on time.
However Southwest now charges for checked bags (on tickets purchased since May 28). We’re starting to see the airline have to gate check bags more often. They’ve even had to invest in modifying gates to support transporting bags down from gate to plane.
And we’re seeing Southwest Airlines gate agents require checking bags early, when there’s still plenty of overhead bin space left. They’ve given up the advantage of not having to gate check bags, right at the same time they’re facing a lot of pressure to reduce the amount of time it takes to board so that planes spend less time on the ground and more time in the air generating revenue.
One of the unintended consequences of customer-unfriendly changes at Southwest is that now there’s a good chance you won’t be able to bring your carry-on bag onboard. And there’s a good chance you’ll have your carry-on confiscated even when there’s still space for it.
Southwest made us check in our luggage because of “no overhead bin space” ok Southwest… @SouthwestAir #southwest #southwestairlines #travel #ridiculous pic.twitter.com/a8WPkCWO7e
— Mermaid ♀️ (@littlem3rma1d) June 15, 2025
I’ve never seen an airline – or almost any business, really – blow up their brand and do so voluntarily the way that Southwest has. This is just another way they’ve become customer-unfriendly, virtually overnight. And it’s an example of one way they used to offer a better experience than competitors, and now do not.
Of course, this new approach to delivering poor customer service may even be intentional. In addition to charging for seat assignments and checked bags, they’re going to monetize the boarding process. Today, Southwest Airlines makes money selling early boarding positions and that helps you get a better seat.
When they sell seat assignments there would no longer be a reason to board early – but they don’t want to lose that boarding money. By confiscating bags from passengers who aren’t among the first to board, even when they don’t need to, they create a new reason to pay them for early boarding.
It’s now the US4. I’ve had flights delayed when bags have not been checked and you end up with passengers trying to swim upstream with a bag with no room.
I travel Southwest often enough and have not seen this.
The gate will become a place of contention, like at the big three, and that will erode the friendly interplay between Southwest employees and paying passengers.
This is actually a fascinating little microstudy of the impacts resulting from bag fees.
I personally hope it blows up in their face.
The only times I’ve flown Southwest is up and down California (I live in the south, my office is in the north). I’ve disliked the cattle call method of boarding, but usually fly business select so at least i could board fairly early. However all these changes are turning SWA into an airline I don’t want to fly. I have other options and can fly into SFO rather than SJC (my office is almost midway between the two and while SJC is easier, I can pick and choose). My next visit? I’m picking United. Sorry Southwest. You lose.
This is just another way, to go for the lowest price. Customer service is dead, there will be a start up, that will take over, it’s just a matter of time.
This is going to get interesting… Southwest’s boarding process has always been somewhat of a sheet show, but now add another 10-15 minutes to gate check every oversized carry on bag in Boarding Group C…
Wanna Get Away?
I’ll say this again, this is what everyone wanted, not those that flew Southwest, but those that didn’t. They wanted assigned seats, bag fees (since that is typical), extra legroom and international flights. Other than first class, Southwest is doing all of those thigs. So for all of you that didn’t fly Southwest before for those reasons, you got what you asked for (in a good way I mean, so now is your change to fly with them!)
It is absolutely mind blowing how this once great airline has sunk to the bottom so quickly. This needs to be a case study on how not run a business in some senior business mgmt class.
Someone at Elliott Management has to realize that not charging for carry-ons (and higher than for checked bags) is leaving money on the table.
If Chase releases a promo video of Claudia Schiffer flying Southwest to promote the Reserve, I’ll eat my hat when it comes to criticizing Chase for offering Southwest status as a reward for spending seventy-five thousand dollars. Maybe they can convince her to fly the new route to Iceland next year, who knows.
Thankfully I’ve used up most of my credits and can’t run from the burning smoking ruins of Southwest fast enough.Ill now fly delta before Southwest and I hate them
That might say it all
Otherwise American Alaska united in that order
Done finished forever.
Truly sad
It was a mediocre airline with uncomfortable seats with no wifi and no chargers now it’s mediocre with high prices
Let them crash and burn the hard way
Buh Bye!
Alternately, Southwest could adopt a boarding policy where carry-ons are limited to boarding positions A-1 through B-30. Passengers boarding B-31 and later must check bags in advance, and will be denied gate check.
@George N Romey — That’s right, Georgy Porgy. “Made them cry.” It really is a ‘messy breakup’ for formerly loyal passengers.