Southwest Airlines is notorious for its rather chaotic boarding process in which no passenger is assigned a seat ahead of time.
But after the harassment possible changes during a first-quarter 2024 earnings call in April, it appears the airline has quietly begun offering higher fares in exchange for passengers being able to pre-select their seats.
Multiple selling point are reporting that the airline has increased fees for an “enhanced boarding” option, which allows earlier boarding for paying passengers, meaning they have a better chance of grabbing a better seat by get on the plane earlier.
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Fees have increased from $30 to $149 extra per ticket, up from a maximum of $80 before the change.
Upgraded Board passengers are assigned seating assignments in A1 to A15 and can choose to upgrade only 24 hours or less before flight departure.
Another fee that has increased is “early bird check-in,” which now ranges from $15 to $99 (previously capped at $25), which puts passengers in an earlier group of boarding, giving them a better chance for a better place.
During an interview with CNBC in April, Southwest CEO Bob Jordan told the media that possible changes were on the horizon after an estimated quarterly loss of nearly $231 million.
“We're looking for new initiatives, things like how we sit and board our airplanes,” Jordan told the media in that time. “Customer preferences change over time.”
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Despite mounting losses, Southwest was still able to bring in $6.3 billion in operating income during the first quarter, which was Q1 higher operating income in the company's history, and an increase of 10.9% year over year.
South-west was down up just over 7% year over year as of Thursday morning.