If you like Southwest Airlines’ southwest boarding process, you’re in luck

Southwest Airlines is set to go completely overhauled its seating setup, With the first seats delivered and the first offline officially launched next year. However, even after the change, passengers will still receive an individual boarding number at check-in, the airline told TPG. And, just like today, passengers will continue to line up at the gate, single file, along its characteristic boarding areas.

All things considered, Southwest’s future boarding process will look very similar to the one-of-a-kind setup used today—a process CEO last year said They hope to serve as a blueprint even as the airline moves to assigned seating.

“Our customers really appreciate the calm at the loading gate,” Ryan Green, the Southwest executive overseeing major changes at the airline, told TPG in an early interview. this month.

“What they don’t like,” Green added, “is the anxiety of, ‘Which train seat will I get?’ So we hope to address both.”

Quick take: Southwest Airlines will end open seating: What you need to know

A unique way to board a plane

Under Southwest’s current boarding process, passengers are assigned letter groups and a number boarding location within that group.

Just before departure, they lined up along the boarding areas before proceeding up the jet bridge, one at a time.

It’s a boarding setup that’s a far cry from the more traditional “pods” used by other carriers — and a process that Southwest says, prevents crowding of the boarding area (sometimes when called “Lice gate“) Other airlines have sought to eliminate it, most recently with new technology Catching the trim lines at a major US aircraft carrier.

“It could be chaotic at other airlines,” Southwest CEO Andrew Watterson said, speaking to TPG alongside Green last week in Washington.

“It’s actually very orderly [at Southwest]”We receive great reputation from our customers,” Watterson added. “

Changes needed, though

However, there’s a reality to Southwest’s unique boarding process: it was invented specifically for a half-century-old open motel policy that the airline now plans to end a year from now. hour.

The same can be said about the EarlyBird Optional Extras and boarding upgrades that the Dallas-based carrier offers passengers as a way to get an earlier slot—and by expanding the seating better.

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Southwest is currently in the process of rethinking its current onboarding process to accommodate its future delivery realities, Green said. The airline, he confirmed, plans to award better boarding spots to Elite A-List status members, as well as travelers who choose higher-priced tickets and new out-of-broom seats.

“Our customers and our best customers fly us the most often, I think those customers who buy our higher fare tier products, they’re going to be the first to get on board,” he said.

Of course, moving forward, access to overhead bin space will be an early boarding attraction in Southwest, as seat assignments will be locked ahead of time.

No more worries about 24-hour check-in

Perhaps the most welcome change the new (but similar) boarding process will bring, executives promise: an end to setting alarms for 24 hours before departure to secure a spot before.

Faster reward changes on the horizon

Meanwhile, the airline is hard at work to roll out additional future tweaks to its fast loyalty program to account for major cabin changes.

Southwest has announced its A-list priority members will be able to choose outside seating Leave it free when booking—with free access for A-list members within 48 hours of departure.

Next: Expect to hear more, soon, about how Southwest will develop the ministry Credit cards are messed up to its new reality.

“Today, with different passes, you get boarding benefits with Earlybird and boarding upgrades,” Green said. “We’re going to exchange it – convert it to a seat benefit and customers are going to be really excited about it. I think it’s going to make the card more valuable.”

Read more: Southwest passengers will start to notice big changes long before assigned seating begins

What about the waiting room?

It’s hard to imagine “Southwest Airlines and Airport Lounge” in the same sentence.

Then again, the same could have been said for JetBlue just a few years ago. However, its first club will be released later this year in New York.

Is the lounge something the southwest would consider?

It’s not on the table right now.

“We talk to customers all the time about what we have and don’t have,” Watterson said, noting how the company researched an entire focus group’s Free Fly Bag “Policy in place.”

“The fact that we asked about it is not a signal that anything is coming,” Watterson added. “Our responsibility is to keep tabs on what our customers want.”

The duo of executives fielded similar questions last fall in Dallas, at the airline’s annual investor day, and admitted the concept of adding lounges to its repertoire was ” a constant source of debate”, as Green puts it.

“They are very expensive,” he said afterwards – but also refused to rule out a move for the future.

“I think there’s a way that we would probably do a lounge, if we decided to do that, that might be different than an American Express Centurion lounge,” Green said in September.

Notably, Southwest also admitted to studying the possibility of adding a Bona fide domestic first-class cabin on its aircraft before finally landing it last year as it moved forward with simple remote rows more, executives shared last year.

Going global…kind of

What do assigned seats, street seating and a new partnership with Icelandair have in common?

“We want to broaden the appeal of Southwest airlines,” Green told me. “[It] is giving customers an additional choice, an additional way to ‘buy Southwest.’ “

That work will begin in earnest in the coming weeks, because of the carrier First international partnership with Icelandair go live.

It will be a limited combination at first; Quick rewards Members will have to wait until next year to start purchasing Icelandair flights through Southwest’s booking channels – not to mention earning or redeeming points on flights to Reykjavik and Europe.

But it’s really a long-term vision—and it’s a vision the second international partner Southwest hopes to announce before the end of the year.

Executives admitted the airline is in talks with both transatlantic and Transpacific airlines, focusing on providing fast, loyal connections to as many people globally as possible.

It’s a pretty remarkable change for an airline long known for its heavy American footprint.

Southwest has steadily grown its international footprint across Mexico, Latin America and the Caribbean since launching its first non-US flights in 2014, but it is not yet selling tickets on its transatlantic routes. or premium Transpacific.

However, with continued interest in international travel among customers and loyalty programs (and credit cards) proving incredibly lucrative for carriers, it’s a move Southwest sees it as a logical step after recent years’ gains and pressure from 2024 from a group of activist investors.

“Yes, this is about loyalty programs. Airline loyalty programs,” Watterson said. “So it all works together and it makes for a great product.”

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