Southwest Airlines has changed its business model, away from ‘transfarency’ and customer-friendly polciies like no bag fees and no seat fees. They started expiring travel credits, introduced basic economy fares, and devalued Rapid Rewards points.
To enforce paid seats, they’ve gone farther than other airlines in not allowing customers to move into empty seats – want a seat, you must pay for it. But find empty seats on the plane once you board? It’s too late to pay for it.
So when a Southwest Airlines passenger found “garbage everywhere” at their seat and “brown liquid all over” the seat and they moved up one row, since the row ahead of them was empty, a flight attendant “YELLED” at them for doing so.
@SouthwestAir 1st time flying with seat assignments & will be my last. Garbage everywhere. My seat had brown liquid all over it. I moved up a row bc it was empty & the flight attendant YELLED at me. Said it was a complete disregard of safety and that she would be reporting me. pic.twitter.com/aBNUoRcL6t
— my delayed spirit airlines flight to vegas (@thatgirlBV) June 1, 2026
When Southwest Airlines rolled out paid assigned seating, they did it in a draconian way. Customers were not allowed to change seats, period. Passengers were stuck in seats next to other customers of size spilling over into their seats, but weren’t permitted to move to empty rows, even. That was Southwest enforcing their revenue model.
@SouthwestAir Buy better AI. I paid for a seat. My row is full. Empty rows in front. Attendant says "We must follow the rules". Can you call FLT129 Phx-Stl And give permission for the fat guy in the back row to not go to SWA jail for moving up a row? pic.twitter.com/PLU1goK5e5
— Ken Dobson (@kdobson99) February 24, 2026
In a totally empty late night plane, a @SouthwestAir flight attendant just refused to let me sit anywhere except the row where my ticket is, and where someone inexplicably bought the middle seat. As an 80+ segment a year business flyer, you’d better fix this nonsense SWA. pic.twitter.com/YkvVP48tfE
— Brad Todd (@BradOnMessage) February 12, 2026
@SouthwestAir has really figured out this whole assigned seating thing. 42 people on the flight and we are all jammed into 7 rows. And they won’t let us move. And we were not given an option for a different seat at booking. Good call to switch to this system! pic.twitter.com/OLMDi5uKbl
— The Sklar Brothers (@SklarBrothers) January 31, 2026
In contrast, here’s Delta’s much more generous rule allowing moving to an empty seat.
If you and another customer agree to swap seats, please try to do so before departure whenever possible.
Any swap between cabins/seat products must be completed before in-flight service begins. After service starts, moving between classes is not permitted.
If you’d like to move to an unoccupied seat within your ticketed cabin/seat product during the flight, please ask a flight attendant — changes are at the crew’s discretion and depend on safety considerations.
The published policy is still that passengers do not choose seats after boarding. Seats are assigned. Around April 9, there started to be some operational flexibility, with some crews allowing seat moves:
- within the same class of seats, no moving from regular seats to extra legroom
- at crew discretion
Now, when customers see an unfriendly move by the airline, they assume it’s all about squeezing them for an extra dime or preventing them from getting a deal, when often – as in this case – it appears to be inconsistent training as a result of see-sawing policies. Or, when their technology glitches (often! this is Southwest!) it’s viewed as nefarious rather than incompetence.
@SouthwestAir why is it that when I try to change my flight to take advantage of the lower fare through the app, my preference of aisle seat is not available, but when I look outside the app, there are several aisle seats available on the exact same flight? pic.twitter.com/R5lhYTvvvt
— JustCallMeKarr (@ThatDamnKaren) May 31, 2026
Southwest has changed a lot of things quickly. And they’re going to change a lot more. They’ve gotten rid of their unique selling propositions to become just like other airlines, but now they’re ‘the same, but less than.’ They want to sell a premium product, but they don’t have a premium product to sell. There are no lounges, no first class, no seat back screens and no long haul flights. Once they move to a buy up model, they’re going to need to have things to buy up into.
That’s why we’re going to see long haul, first class, and lounges. In fact there are already at least 5 lounges in the pipeline. But the customer-friendliness of the airline may have been sacrificed along the way.
And yet y’all will keep flying SWA just like Spirit and Frontier and then complain
My how the culture has changed over there. Kelleher must be rolling in his grave.
I haven’t flown Southwest since these changes took effect, and I don’t plan to.
They used to have the friendliest crews, the most organized boarding process, and by far the most customer-friendly policies. For short hops—anything west of the Mississippi—they were my go-to, mainly because of how easy it was to book and change flights without hassle.
Now it feels like they’re turning what was once the most customer-friendly airline into something resembling American—but without any of the actual “premium” product to justify it. “Premium” was never their thing. The closest they got was boarding early and picking a decent seat near the front, which worked because the system was simple and flexible.
I still have a decent amount of credits and miles, but I’ll use those to fly my kids and grandkids out to visit. Beyond that, I have no intention of flying Southwest again unless I absolutely have to.
It’s wrong that this was all about revenue. Southwest wrote and got its weight and balance process approved that was so specific (overachieving on writing policy) that put them into a situation where they were not allowed to let people sit anywhere but where they were in the seat chart used in weight and balance. It caused them further issues too with pilots as those listed for the flight deck jumpseat weren’t allowed to just take an empty cabin seat if they were cleared into the jumpseat.
As of April, the change to the policy was because Southwest went to the FAA to get an amendment approved – which is not an overnight thing. The FAA approved the change to allow crew to move passengers but it must be within the same weight and balance zone (and fare class of course – that’s the revenue side restriction WN rightfully puts on it). If you’re in, say, a regular coach seat next to the extra legroom seats mid-cabin, you may only be allowed to move into 1 or 2 different rows. In the back, the margin may be 5-6 rows because the entire zone is in one fare cabin.
Flight attendants could not move people before because that because of the paper requirement that the only seats occupied are the ones on the computerized seat map. Flight attendants were unable to get the ability to make changes because of work scope rules and union contracts – only the CSAs in the IAM can assign seats (not even the ops agent, who is TWU). They weren’t going to allow moves if they had to get the CSA back up at the gate counter to make all the changes and undoubtedly cause delays.
So yes, it’s Southwest being inflexible…. not solely because of revenue, but because they wrote a procedure so “safe” and detailed far more so than any other airline and once the FAA stamped “Approved” it became the law.