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Southwest Airlines Confirms Big Move After Controversial Change

Southwest Airlines has dominated the headlines in recent months thanks to the carrier's controversial decisions to start charging for checked bags and changing how its aircraft will be boarded. Starting on Jan. 27, 2026, instead of being assigned a number relating to boarding the aircraft, travelers will be able to select their assigned seat ahead of time. CEO Bob Jordan previously opened up on the change, suggesting it's for the betterment of employees and travelers alike. "... Our employees are excited about the changes. Because if you think about it, if in the open-seating world a family gets on and they can't sit together, the flight attendant is having to police that in the cabin," he said. "Our open-seat boarding can cause a lot of pre-boards, and our agents are having to police that. You have people who paid for early boarding, and then we have more pre-boards than anybody else. "So folks that paid for earlier boarding are going, 'Well, wait, why?'" Southwest Makes Another Policy Shift In another major change for the company, Southwest Airlines announced a partnership with Priceline allowing users to search and book the carrier's inventory on websites owned by Booking Holdings including Agoda, Cheapflights, Momondo, HotelsCombined and Rocketmiles. "We're happy to partner with Priceline to broaden our distribution network and offer even more Customers the opportunity to experience our Southwest Hospitality," Tony Roach, Executive Vice President Customer & Brand at Southwest Airlines said in a statement. "We look forward to making it easier for Customers to access our extensive flight offerings to book their next trip." What Led to Southwest's Latest Move? The move comes just over a year after Southwest broadened its retail network by selling tickets on Expedia's list of booking sites, Travelocity, Hotwire, Orbitz and CheapTickets and its decision to show fares on Google Flights. Earlier this year Southwest revealed just two months after the initiative began, four to five percent of the airline's bookings were on Expedia-owned websites, and that most of the customers were new to Southwest or "customers we haven't seen in a long time."Southwest Airlines Confirms Big Move After Controversial Change first appeared on Men's Journal on Aug 7, 2025 Solve the daily Crossword