Southwest Airlines is going to start confiscating passenger bags at the gate on almost every flight once they begin charging for checked bags in two months.
More people check bags today on Southwest than any other airline in the world, because they don’t charge extra. When that stops, the airline estimates that their checked baggage volume may drop 30%. And most of those bags are going to try to squeeze in to passenger cabins. There’s just not enough room. And that’s going to be a problem for Southwest Airlines on-time reliability, and it’s going to be a huge problem for customer experience.
Justin Jones, Executive Vice President of Operations at Southwest Airlines appeared on this week’s episode of Airlines Confidential and he answered candidly and earnestly about the operational challenges involved in some of the changes that Southwest will be making to its business model as it becomes ‘just like every other airline but less than’ with assigned seating, basic economy, checked bag fees and a devalued frequent flyer program.
There were a lot of smiles over ‘how is this going to work’ when Southwest Airlines starts charging for checked bags, and there’s an influx of bags into the cabin.
- They are going to be “extremely hesitant to do heavily policing on bag size” like at “some other airlines.” And he acknowledges that means even more gate checking of bags because those oversized bags take up more room in the bins, meaning room for fewer total bags.
- “Houston gates still have an old cable system” for gate checking bags, that can handle up to 10 bags at a time and they’re “going to have to replace that” just because they know the gate checking of bags is going to go up so much. However, he says, “we did think through some of this ahead of time” so they’re going to be increasing capital spending to deal with the new policies.
Jones admits that he is “very concerned about the gate checked bags” taking time during the boarding process and slowing down the operation.
The airline is trying to reduce the amount of time planes are on the ground. They only make money when planes are in the air. But this is going to hurt on-time performance and their ability to schedule planes as efficiently as they do today.
Southwest doesn’t have as many oversized bins as other airlines (though he says 737-800 and MAX 8 planes should have bigger bins by the end of 2026). As passengers try to bring more bags on board to avoid the fees, boarding is going to take longer. Gate checking bags take longer still. And there’s going to be a worse customer experience with bags taken away from them.
Of course it will cause delays, chaos and security incidents at gates.
This still occurs with airlines that have been charging bags fees since 2008.
Stupid is what stupid does….
Southwest made a monstrous error that will, ultimately, destroy their company. I predict that within six months, a bit more, a bit less, that Southwest will be “acquired” and will disappear.
Easiest way to fix the baggage problem is to give pax who dont have a carry on , to get a free checked bag
Carrot works better than stick
Now that it’s been definitively confirmed that the Elliott Management guys are in fact the dumbest guys in the room, when does Southwest get its airline back ?
This could be a real disaster. Customers do not know or understand that all checked bags need to be done 45 minutes before departure or the luggage will not get on the flight. How many check in agents will need to be added?
the value of Elliott shares is gonna tank which will be sweet revenge
As a longtime SW customer who flys 3 to 6 times a year. I am looking forward to the assigned seating. Just last weekI flew from Seattle to HI via Oakland the pre-board wheel on – walk off was appalling each leg of the plane change in this flight. Oakland to HI had 9 wheelchairs with extended family’s totaling 30 people pre-boarding before the A group even started. I say ENOUGH. My SW priority credit card will get me 1 each free checked bag for the wife and I. let’s see how the assigned seating shapes up. Those wheel on – walk off pre-boarders will no longer have an advantage of first choice seats as they will be assigned. Please keep the A- C boarding groups for orderly boarding and limit the wheel on assisted to + one person each.
Please add a loud buzzer that goes off with an announcement. “STEP ASIDE UNTIL YOUR BOARDING POSITION IS CALLED.”
Thus calling out those who frequently take an out of turn attempt to board .
SW just needs carry on baggage sizers everywhere. If the carry on doesn’t fit, it get’s checked in. Also charge extra if you have to check in a luggage at the gate.
Author Unknown …but a very good point!
So maybe raise a glass to what Herb Kelleher accomplished, but let’s not get too teary-eyed about the old Southwest. If the company were attracting enough passengers at high enough fares to earn robust profits, it wouldn’t be attracting the attention of activist investors.
This is a simple business proposition. If you can’t soar with the hawks, soon enough you’re going to be flying with the vultures
Picard
Herb K. is rolling over in his grave. The unique airline he created is dying a slow painful death. I have been a LUV shareholder for decades and a regular customer for several years. I switched from AA because they were consistently late, and nickeled and dimed me to death even though I am a million miler and hold “status”. I might as well go back to AA now.
I never liked Southwest and happy to see them go out of business. I’ve seen these consulting companies destroy value at lots of companies. It won’t change. Wonder how many are writing books
Elliott doesn’t have shares. It invests its own money, money it manages. Latest report is it has $2BILLION of LUV stock, Southwest Airlines (LUV), Elliott has sold -2% of what it originally held, LUV has outstanding 60M shares, valued as of 12/31/24 at $33.62 per.
Latest news: it’s now making a run at Shell Oil stock, which I thought was already out of business, betting it’ll go down.
Just shoot yourself in the foot and be over with it.
It should be 1st bag free 2nd and 3rd bags are charged.
Duh! In other news, Southwest should warn us that water is wet.
They’re going to need to change the LUV symbol to HATE
What a mess.
There will be many altercations on board over luggage space which will cause flights being delayed. These new policies are never going to work for SWA. Revenue will suck!
Who let this clown out of his cage. Another look into the mind set of those running WN now. Doom and gloom from him and others foolishly peddling the quick turnaround nonsense that went out the door decades ago.
En$hittification…
The changes at southwest are designed to drive away current passengers in the mistaken belief they can be replaced with more affluent passengers.
If successful, that would raise the M&A value. But history is littered with companies that tried to move “upscale” and failed.
As a person who lived in Dallas for 20 years and use to revere SWA, sadly the airline has been going downhill since Herb died. Read his book, Nuts, and used to fly SWA weekly. But the LUV has long been gone. RIP
This, from an airline that already has a difficult time getting planes off the ground on time.
Dear Southwest: It was fun while it lasted, but it is clear the luv is gone. I have just used the last of my loyalty points, and its doubtful we will meet again.
Your new management looks to make you into a Delta, but I think you’re going to end up an Eastern.
I remember before Elliott that many on this blog were calling for changes to Southwest to make them more like the big three and more like most airlines. I hope that they are happy now because I believe that many if not most of the people who have been flying Southwest are now unhappy.
I see SWA going downhill. Trying to be something they are not. No Frills at a larger cost will chase your customers away. You are now nickle and diming your customers just like the other airlines. Customers came to you over spirit and frontier. Free bags and a good rapid rewards program for All customers. Now they will go to other airlines you dont have the incentive to choose just you anymore.
Greedy bastards joining the abuse and gouging of passengers who now are relegated to the status of steerage class on the Titanic !!! I hope these miscreant executives disappear in shame along with their corrupted, third world airline !! Let THEM travel in their own filthy, stinking. airplanes, breathing the virus saturated air and eating snacks from a tray table encrusted in fecal bacteria !! Bon Voyage !!
The time spent accommodating passengers trying to cram carry on bags will be offset by the winnowing out of the bogus wheelchair users/entourages once assigned seating is in place.
I wonder if Elliott is getting ready to dump LUV. Even though it has slid a bit lately it is still up from when Elliott bought in. Maybe dump it and sell it short.
Elliot has succeeded in turning Southwest into just another airline.
There’s nothing special about them anymore.
Too bad, I don’t think I will necessarily choose them anymore. Not unless they are SUBSTANTIALLY lower than the competition.
Southwest could still recover from this disaster by charging a reasonable bag fee that will differentiate it from the legacy airlines. How about $10 per bag. I would gladly pay that.
I wonder if Elliott is getting ready to dump LUV.” No, the big money is still ahead … last I heard SW has sold about 40 of its planes, one story is $600million, Elliott’s plan is to sell, refinance, whatever, the cash proceeds from around 800 planes will go to buy SW stock, diminish what’s available from the public, till it gets to whatever point Elliot wants, Elliott will then slowly sell, take the equity from SW and run. As I wrote earlier, Elliott now has 10% of the SW stock. Give them 10% of the increased value.
Unfortunately Southwest has a number of financially challenged customers
And some of them will be angry with these changes and act out in airports
Much like those folks we’ve seen on Spit Airlines ;)and Frontier in the past.
Hopefully someone can take over for the late Jerry Springer
Myself I doubt I will fly them again unless there is no other choice
However at least I can buy a seat assignment the only single thing that needed to change
Unfortunately the sky fell on Southwest policies and the outcome won’t be pretty I presume 🙁
@Ralph: LUV won’t get the affluent customers when they don’t have access to an overseas route network.
My family and I have flown SWA exclusively for many years. It’s so sad that now it’s reputation is being tarnished by ill conceived changes. The new baggage charges are not the worst item in the pending disaster – it’ll be the delays that come with it. I booked my next flight before the demise of good feelings. I used my accumulated rewards for a recent emergency trip, before word of changes got out.
Aside: I am one of those passengers needing wheelchair assistance. I resent the folks who say they have noticed some of us walking. I am 86 yrs young, so even tho’ I can walk short distances, I can’t “do” an entire airport. When and how will I be able to book a seat in the first few rows ? I haven’t been “cheating” to get one. I need it. TNX for asking for comments.
Southwest is going to be forced to do what every other airline is now doing. Pressure paxs in Groups 8 and 9 to gate check their bags, for free. It’s going to cause the boarding process to slowdown as people in latter groups that won’t do so find no room on the plane for their bag. It’s going to be a total cluster for a period of time.
This won’t be a problem for me at all, as I will no longer be flying on Southwest.
@Dan: Brutal but accurate.
I was reading about the changes atTWA in order to stay competitive. I’m guessing Carl Icahn wasn’t interested in SWA since there is no pension fund to raid. When Elliott Management starts selling airplanes for less than market value, it’s time to liquidate LUV stock.
This is going to get ugly really fast when they try to take away bags the people don’t want to check, you combine that with the anger that a lot of people have about the changes in Southwest policies it is a recipe for disaster. Look for a lot of You Tube videos people are going to make about the chaos at Southwest boarding gates.
Where are all the people that wanted assigned seats, more legroom and visibility on OTAs? There should be a lot of new customers that avoided Southwest before….
I have been on several Southwest flights in the last year. None of them had the newer overhead luggage bins that hold several carry-ons. They all had the old style shallow bins that might hold three bags if you’re lucky. That’s gonna really bite Southwest.