Southwest Airlines will add first class. It’s inevitable. But they’re going to underperform the industry with premium products. Still, it’s the only path forward for them:
- Once you have basic economy and a fare structure aimed to get customers to spend more, you need a product ladder. Just offering extra legroom seats (without extra width) doesn’t cut it. They don’t even let you reserve a blocked middle seat in the booking path. Buy up to what?
- Spirit Airlines has ‘first class’ and Frontier Airlines is adding first class. JetBlue is adding first class. Southwest is becoming just like the rest of the industry with bag fees and basic economy, they can’t possibly position themselves as less premium than Spirit.
- They need premium to attract credit card spend, just like they need lounges (JetBlue’s are effectively paid for by their bank partner) and international partners – not just for connecting passengers, but for points redemption. United’s miles and American’s can take you to Europe and Australia. Why accumulate Southwest’s miles, besides Companion Pass?
Southwest’s CEO admits they’e considering it. They have to be more than considering, because it’s a huge hole in their revenue strategy without it.
However Southwest’s first class is going to lag the industry. While galleys were designed with the ability to add ovens later, they’d need to do that also for hot food service.
Southwest’s seats don’t have screens. They don’t have standard power ports. This is a bare bones product, and they can’t earn a revenue premium. But since they’re following a model of copying the rest of the industry, it makes no sense to only add the fees, but not give customers something to buy up to. So they have to add first class. They just aren’t well-suited for the offering.
CEO Bob Jordan has been talking up a first class for months. Enilria says the decision was already made but they ran into supply chain issues with the seats.
I’ve said for years that WN can’t get 800 shipsets worth of first class seats and that is why they will have to take it slow.
I also don’t think that not having ovens matters. There are plenty of cold meals can work well at least in the short term.
They do have to re-organize their galleys to accommodate more than a bunch of drink cans.
and they are putting in in-seat power and WiFi.
and, let’s be honest, even UA is copying what DL started in cabins over a decade ago. There is no reason why WN can’t get there in far less time than UA by moving in stages.
Southwest 1st class is whether you’d like to board before or after the Jetway Jesus crowd.
It will be interesting if SWA labels and reserves the overhead bins for its ‘BUS’ class customers; yes they actually assigned a bus fare code instead of F. You can’t make this stuff up…
Have been A-List Preferred for years.
Up to the beginning of 2025 I have saw value in WN product: lots of flights, low prices, high flexibility to move schedules.
Then it started being flipped upside down: less frequent flights, always the highest price, flexibility of an Aeroflot ticket.
This year my first 24 segments are 1 on NW and 23 with AK.
Maybe SW can acquire those temporary DL FC 321NEO seats if and when the lie-flat seats get their fire retardant coverings approved. 😉
@VIk: Similar here. Southwest removed confirmed same day change as an Elite benefit. Virtually all former elite benefits are now credit card holder benefits or fare class benefits. Add in funds expiration and higher fares, and very little remains except routes and schedule. Intra-CA flights have been reduced by 50% or more over the past several years.
Southwest will gain from higher fares only until customers and the competition respond.
Gave up on WN after all the changes. Using up my remaining miles. Their schedules were never the best but the bags/flexibility made up for it. No longer. All revenue flights are done elsewhere.. hoping to use the remaining credits Q1 so I can be done with them.
No screens? May be worth considering then. Even though I am not a Southwest fan, I book my children on their flights specifically so they aren’t exposed to the filth that other airlines expose us all to in the name of entertainment. Yes we can choose what we play, but we can’t choose what those around us are showing, and besides, it’s really distracting to have lots of screens around you all showing different content.
I also predict that their product will evolve and will, in time, challenge the other airlines to do better themselves if they do it properly.
Umm, ‘considering,’ doesn’t mean anything is happening. @Mike Hunt has long wished for it. @Tim Dunn predicted TATL on Southwest, which is silly. Taking a 737 Max (even with recliner) across the Atlantic doesn’t sound ‘fun’ to me. jetBlue has done far better with actual lie-flat in Mint; that should be the goal.
Once again. I would much rather free on board high speed internet rather than a seat back video monitor that might not work, scratched up by some kid who’s parent didn’t parent, and a screen that is faded from exposure to sun and other elements. I much prefer my own device with blue tooth connectivity for my headphones.
@Coffee Please — How come Delta and jetBlue can handle both ‘free’ reliable WiFi and IFE on nearly all their aircraft, (UA is 50/50 and needs WiFi), while American, Alaska, Southwest, Frontier, Spirit, etc. seem to literally celebrate how they don’t have those things, and that BYOD is soooo great. It isn’t. More is more.
The Southworst turd is swirling the bowl. They will see the effect of these asinine changes this year as long time, loyal customers flee this basterized version of the once great , industry leading airline that was Southwest Airlines. Profits are way down, no free bags, soon no swift, sane boarding groops, outrageous ticket prices, increased credit card yearly fees, on board credit card shilling – they have joined Spirit and Frontier in being mediocre.
Finally a carrier who can be equal to Delta
Just doubt they will rip folks off as bad
Peanuts could be back too 😉
@Vik
1 segment with Northwest Airlines and 23 with AirAsia Berhad. Impressive
@1990
Friend of mine just flew UAL to the west coast, 737. Many of the video screens did not work. Several resets attempted to no avail. Like the 8 track, cassette, cd players in cars these screens are simply dinosaurs. Tell me you don’t own a PED.
They will need to have at least cold meals (on longer flights) and some kind of petition between the cabins.
Customers tell me every day how much they love Southwest. Very loyal fan base. Very motivated work force. Southwest employees love their jobs and love their customers. I think Southwest is going to crush it in the coming years.
@Coffee Please — Flew United earlier in December, and Delta and jetBlue in the last two weeks… no issues with IFE screens on any of them. Glad your ‘friend’ survived. LOL.
Over the past ten years, Southwest has gone from great to horrible. Given a choice between Southwest and Greyhound, I’ll take Greyhound.
It’s about time! If indeed implemented, this will be a game changer for many business travelers in certain O&D markets where Southwest dominates certain airports, perhaps most of all Love Field. No longer a need to schlep out to DFW when DAL is just a few minutes away. And the seating on JSX isn’t really all that comfortable versus a true domestic F hard product even if they went to all the same destinations. But moreover, with all the changes that have been made at the airline I see this more of a “when” than an “if” should the airline truly wish to survive in the long run.
When that happens, I will walk away from the only preferred airline I have willingly flown in well over 30 years. The idea that you have to pamper grown up adults to get them to fly on your airline is ludicrous at best. These so called adults who want to be pampered and made to feel like they are better than others are pathetic. Put them back in the playpen where they belong. As for the rest of us that just want to get from point A to point B but the quickest, hassle free way, I preferred the old Southwest Airlines before GK started messing it up.
@Jeff S — Uh, you might wanna read @Dan’s comment…
It will also require a renegotiation of the FA contract for an added class of service.
Mike Hunt has it, again.
This will be a huge competitive shift in AA and even moreso, UA hubs which have far more overlap with WN.
WN understands that they have not been competitive in major markets; they have struck out 3 times at IAH, can’t make ATL work, and ORD is down to, like, 8 flights/day. Add in all of the connecting markets where business travelers have abandoned WN and they have no choice but to offer a competitive product.
and, 1990, WN will operate widebodies within 10 years and likely a whole lot less.
The big advantage WN has had restructuring itself is that they have a pristine balance sheet and, as noted, an outstanding workforce followed by a loyal customer following. As they “trade in” some of their traditional low price customers for more business travelers – which WN used to carry alot of – they will be a force to be reckoned w/
And a major thorn in UA and AA’s side
@Tim Dunn — Ten years?! Anything can happen in 10 years… *facepalm*
@Barry Graham -any relation to Billy Graham? The son inflicts his “Christian” values on my TV every day. Only the Rubes donate to this fraud scheme.
Glad you put your grand children on WN to avoid the “filth” other airlines show.
Do they at leas get the Jetway Jesus seats?
At this point, my interest in WN comes from having the option for a nonstop when the big3 requires me to connect. (Most big3 nonstops from by homeport are to their hubs.) This would almost alway be on flights about 2 hours or less. Coach and no meals on a 2 hour flight is no big deal. Heck, I have no problem packing a turkey sub and chips when I take a TGV. I can do that if timing and airport food options require it. Still, I’d buy F from them, but I’d probably not hesitate to book extra legroom (not that this short guy needs it). The most important thing is reserved seating. I can download Netflix etc. to my tablet, which is why AA domestic isn’t such a big deal for me.
“Over the past ten years, Southwest has gone from great to horrible. Given a choice between Southwest and Greyhound, I’ll take Greyhound.” Please do.
“When that happens, I will walk away from the only preferred airline I have willingly flown in well over 30 years. The idea that you have to pamper grown up adults to get them to fly on your airline is ludicrous at best. These so called adults who want to be pampered and made to feel like they are better than others are pathetic. Put them back in the playpen where they belong. As for the rest of us that just want to get from point A to point B but the quickest, hassle free way, I preferred the old Southwest Airlines before GK started messing it up.” Do you expect to be missed?
“No screens? May be worth considering then. Even though I am not a Southwest fan, I book my children on their flights specifically so they aren’t exposed to the filth that other airlines expose us all to in the name of entertainment. Yes we can choose what we play, but we can’t choose what those around us are showing, and besides, it’s really distracting to have lots of screens around you all showing different content.” You children will forever try to not repeat their upbringing if they have kids.
@This comes to mind — Ah, another anti-IFE evangelist. Oof. Unless you somehow manage to seclude them from the internet 24/7, your kids (and all kids, and everyone else) still see everything anyway, regardless of you ‘generously’ booking them on an airline without IFE. As if Netflix doesn’t have ‘dirty’ content. Psh. And your or government censorship won’t solve this either. Education might. But we’re not seemingly willing to try that anymore as a society. Anyway, yeah, sure, a sarcastic ‘boohoo’ about @Dan’s disappointment on Southwest.
@1990 – God you are such an insufferable moron. How do you get dressed in the morning?
@Mike Hunt — You got an opinion on IFE, BYOD, etc., or just name-calling? Thought you were the resident ‘premium’ aficionado…
@1990 – Anytime I fly on a plane to with IFE I generally end up using my tablet or phone anyhow. It has nothing to do in with kids as mine our grown up, but yes Netflix does have a lot of content that’s trash, that’s why a lot of parents dropped them over the last several years. I seldom find anything on netflix of interest to me anyhow.
@ Jeff S. What decade are you referring to? SWA was for many years the innovator but has become the imitator as we have seen with all of the members of the Legion of Forgotten Airlines. I rarely agree with 1990’s posts but he correctly opines that government won’t solve (SWA’s) problem…competition will.