Southwest Airlines Rolls Out Major Free Perk on Some Flights for a Limited Time

Earlier this 12 months, Southwest Airlines announced that it might be ditching its open seating coverage and shifting to an assigned seating model that would come with seats with further leg room at the entrance of the airplane.

While assigned seating won’t be coming to the airline until January, Southwest has been regularly retrofitting its fleet of Boeing 737 plane with the new format, including the seats with further leg room at the entrance of the airplane.

That means that for a restricted time, those further legroom seats can be obtainable free of charge for those fortunate enough to fly on a Southwest airplane that has already been retrofitted.

Southwest Adds Extra Legroom Seats

Throughout its historical past, Southwest Airlines has never provided premium seating choices to its clients. The airline used a relatively democratic open seating model where all seats had been the same (outdoors of the exit row seats, offering a bit of further space).

With Southwest shifting away from that open-seating model, however, that is altering.

Earlier this 12 months, Southwest Airlines announced that it might be including seats with further legroom on all of its flights by the start of 2026.

“To prepare for assigned and premium seating, Southwest Employees will retrofit aircraft to accommodate new, Extra Legroom seats,” Southwest announced back in April. “This large-scale effort will touch every single plane in the Southwest fleet between April 30 and the end of the year and tangibly paves the way for selling assigned seating in third quarter 2025 and operating in first quarter 2026.”

Southwest Rolls Out the Change

While Southwest shouldn’t be anticipated to have all of its planes retrofitted until the end of the 12 months, the airline has regularly been including the additional legroom seats to its flights. In fact, asThe Points Guy stories, Southwest has already retrofitted 380 of its planes with the new seating setup, which quantities to about 47% of its fleet.

The further legroom seats make up the first 5 rows of the plane, as effectively as the three rows around the exit row of the airplane.

It’s value noting that while these seats will ultimately be bought to clients at a premium price, it’s just normal coach seats with a bit of further legroom. The seat itself is the same as the remainder of the airplane, and there may be no distinction in width.

It’s also value noting that since Southwest Airlines will still be working under its open seating coverage through the end of the 12 months, these further legroom seats can be obtainable free of charge until then on a first-come, first-served foundation.

How to Get the Free Extra Legroom Seats

Southwest Airlines will start charging further for the additional legroom seats starting in the early half of 2026. Until then, however, the seats can be obtainable to anybody free of charge, as long as you are one of the first to board the airplane.

As Sean Cudahy of The Points Guy lately explained, the best manner to secure one of these seats is to make sure you might be in the A boarding group. This might be finished by being one of the first to verify into your flight, since Southwest planes at present board in order of check-in time.

Alternatively, holding A-List elite standing or buying an EarlyBird go would help, too, but that is hardly free.

“Until the airline officially makes the shift to open seating, customers with A-group boarding will certainly have the best shot at scoring an extra-legroom seat on flights offering the new layout,” Cudahy wrote. “Customers who have A-List elite status, or who purchase its EarlyBird or Upgraded Boarding products, will also have a better chance at scoring one of those seats.”

As far as which planes can have the additional legroom seats obtainable, that largely comes down to luck, relying on your flight. The Points Guy stories that all of Southwest’s flights to and from Hawaii have been geared up with the additional legroom seats.

Outside of that, it comes down to luck of the draw, but your probabilities will continue to get better later in the 12 months as more and more planes are retrofitted.

This story was initially reported by Men’s Journal on Sep 15, 2025, where it first appeared in the Travel part. Add Men’s Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking right here.