Southwest Airlines Facing Backlash After Getting Rid Of Open Seating

If you’ve flown Southwest Airlines before, you know the drill: show up to your gate, line up in the boarding group on your ticket, and pick whatever seat you want when you get on the plane. No assigned seats, no seat upsells, just find a spot and go. It was simple, it was different, and honestly, a lot of guys loved it.

Well, that era is officially dead, and it’s causing quite the commotion.

Southwest Ended Open Seating on January 27, 2026

After 54 years of doing things its own way, Southwest Airlines pulled the plug on open seating at the end of January. The change has been in the works for a while (we reported on it back in 2024), but now that it’s live, the backlash is very real.

The airline has officially moved to assigned seating, and if you want extra legroom, you are going to pay for it. For a carrier that built its reputation as the no-frills, no-BS “people’s airline,” that kind of upsell rubs a lot of longtime customers the wrong way.

Flyers Are Calling It a Disaster

Social media is already packed with complaints from people who feel Southwest is just turning into every other basic carrier that nickel and dimes for everything. On X, one traveler didn’t mince words: “Southwest needs to go back to open seating. This new assigned seating is a disaster and also take away from A-list perks. Bad move.”

The frustration goes beyond just where you sit. For many passengers, Southwest was the go-to specifically because it was different from every other carrier. “The reason many of us flew Southwest was because of the open seating and the luggage,” another X user wrote. “If I wanted to be treated in this way of the new policy, I would fly any other airline.”

One passenger went even further, saying the airline has gone from a “solid airline… to perhaps the worst around.” Ouch.

Over on Reddit, user @flyingaround806 summed up the sentiment pretty bluntly: “The major issue is southwest went away from its identity. Simple as that, they were a cheap airline, open seating and bags fly free.”

The Boarding Process Has Become Chaotic

It’s not just about picking a seat. The transition to assigned seating has created a ripple effect on the boarding experience. Passengers are reporting crowded overhead bins, bags getting stored far from seats, and non-preferred passengers getting early plane access, so by the time regular flyers board, the good bin space is already gone.

“Way too soon I’ve now taken four flights since the change and it is chaotic,” one frustrated flyer wrote online.

Another passenger, a 15-year Southwest loyalist, put it plainly: “Miserable experience since seat and bag policy changes, switching to other options after 15 years of SWA being our go-to.”

Southwest Is Responding With Some Promises

To be fair, Southwest is listening. Executive Vice President and Chief Customer and Brand Officer Tony Roach sent out a letter to customers in February 2026 acknowledging the rough rollout and promising improvements.

The airline says it will refine the boarding process by introducing assigned boarding groups, and it’s investing in physical upgrades to the fleet. New overhead bins are being added that can hold 50% more bags, with plans to update at least 70% of its planes. The goal is to speed up boarding and deplaning while making sure your carry-on actually ends up near your seat.

“As we’ve transitioned from open seating to assigned seating, the feedback we’ve received has been invaluable,” Roach wrote. “We’ve already made several enhancements and will continue refining the experience to reward your loyalty while delivering the industry’s best operational reliability and hospitality.”

Will It Be Enough?

That’s the big question. Southwest built decades of loyalty by being the airline that did things differently. Now that it’s starting to look like every other carrier, with assigned seats, extra fees for legroom, and chaotic boarding. With these changes, it risks losing the core customers who made it a success in the first place.

The upgrades are a step in the right direction, but for a lot of flyers, the damage may already be done. If you haven’t flown Southwest since the change, it might be worth giving it another shot once the new bins roll out. But don’t expect the same experience you remember.