Southwest Airlines will begin charging customers a fee to check bags. It's a significant change for the budget carrier, which built years of advertising campaigns around its policy of letting passengers check up to two bags for free.
So the final thing that made Southwest a better option for flying at the lower cost end is finally gone.
The best seat selection used to be free if you put in the effort. Thats gone because the “free” option is now at the back of the line with, with pay-to-win “A listers” extra fee, military members, “those needing special assistance”, and even families board before everyone else no matter how fast you checked in 24 hours before. Even this is getting replaced with assigned seats in the next year or so with extra fees on better seat locations no doubt.
two checked bags free also meant many people felt no need to try and drag a giant carry-on back into the cabin and fight for the meager bin space. Now with bag fees everyone is going to be skipping checked bags to try and keep the costs down.
their rewards program sucks, but that was worth it for the seating and the bags
So they’re now more expensive than the “low cost” airlines like Frontier, Spirit, and Allegiant with equal service offering.
So the final thing that made Southwest a better option for flying at the lower cost end is finally gone.
The best seat selection used to be free if you put in the effort. Thats gone because the “free” option is now at the back of the line with, with pay-to-win “A listers” extra fee, military members, “those needing special assistance”, and even families board before everyone else no matter how fast you checked in 24 hours before. Even this is getting replaced with assigned seats in the next year or so with extra fees on better seat locations no doubt.
two checked bags free also meant many people felt no need to try and drag a giant carry-on back into the cabin and fight for the meager bin space. Now with bag fees everyone is going to be skipping checked bags to try and keep the costs down.
their rewards program sucks, but that was worth it for the seating and the bags
So they’re now more expensive than the “low cost” airlines like Frontier, Spirit, and Allegiant with equal service offering.