Southwest Airlines ripped over controversial new…
This change didn’t sit properly with some.
Southwest Airlines’ standard “pick you own” seat perk isn’t the only coverage on the chopping block. The funds provider announced that a new measure that could require plus-size passengers to fork over further dough.
Starting January 27, 2026, flyers who “encroach upon the neighboring seat” will probably be required to buy an further seat in advance, CBS News reported.
“To ensure space, we are communicating to Customers who have previously used the extra seat policy that they should purchase it at booking,” reps for the the low-cost airline said in a assertion.
“I think it’s going to make the flying experience worse for everybody,” seconded Jason Vaughn, an Orlando-based journey agent who shares journey suggestions for plus-size vacationers on his web site, Fat Travel Tested. AP
Those who don’t buy one forward of time will probably be required to buy one at the airport.
This marks a major change from the current coverage, in which plus-size passengers can proactively buy an further seat with the option of being refunded later, or request a free further seat at the airport.
Under the new mandate, the second seat is non-refundable unless the flight isn’t absolutely booked at the time of departure, and if both of the passenger’s tickets are booked in the same fare class. However, the passenger wants to request their money back within 90 days of the flight.
Critics have ripped Southwest for ending the insurance policies and packages that differentiated the airline from other carriers. AP
If the flight is fully-booked, the flyer will probably be rebooked onto a new flight.
Critics had been fast to rip Southwest, which has long been seen as a haven for plus-size passengers.
Tigress Osborn, the chief director of the National Association to Advance Fat Acceptance, deemed the overhaul adjustments “devastating” for plus-size flyers.
“Southwest was the only beacon of hope for many fat people who otherwise wouldn’t have been flying,” she lamented, per the New York Times. “And now that beacon has gone out.”
“I think it’s going to make the flying experience worse for everybody,” seconded Jason Vaughn, an Orlando-based journey agent who shares journey suggestions for plus-size vacationers on his web site Fat Travel Tested.
“To ensure space, we are communicating to Customers who have previously used the extra seat policy that they should purchase it at booking,” reps for the the low-cost airline said in a assertion. Gado via Getty Images
He analogized the makeover to Cracker Barrel’s much-maligned brand makeover.
“They have no idea anymore who their customer is,” the Southwest loyalist lamented. “They have no identity left.”
The seating coverage follows a string of controversial adjustments that the Texas-based airline rolled out as a manner to bolster income and beat back advances from activist buyers.
These included scrapping the favored “first come first serve” seating coverage that allowed prospects to choose their own seats upon boarding.
Starting January 27 — the same day as the plus-size seating coverage goes into impact — flyers will probably be assigned seats in advance.
In May, the airline also bagged the decades-old “bags fly free” coverage, whereby passengers had been allowed two complimentary checked items of baggage regardless of their ticket fare.
Critics claimed that ending these insurance policies was the fallacious transfer as they distinguished the airline from other carriers.
Even the airline’s own executives ripped the complimentary baggage program overhaul, claiming that they might garner up to $1.5 billion from baggage charges, but that they’d lose $1.8 billion in market share from people who flew the airline because of the perk.
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