Last week, Southwest Airlines caused an uproar by eliminating its free baggage policy. Now, the airline is apparently planning to rethink how it boards the plane, too … by simply copying its competitors again.
In an episode of the Airlines Confidential Podcast published Wednesday, host Scott McCartney reports that Southwest is planning to ditch its novel boarding process with signature stanchions at each gate and instead move to a nine-group boarding procedure. That comes from an already recorded (but yet-to-be-published) interview with the airline’s Executive Vice President of Operations, Justin Jones.
The timing of when Southwest will do away with those trusty boarding stanchions – and how it will structure its new boarding groups – is unclear. Southwest did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
If that nine-group boarding format sounds familiar, it should. Group-by-group boarding processes – with first class customers and top elites at the front and basic economy passengers getting onboard last – have become a mainstay among other major U.S. airlines. United has six boarding groups, Delta has eight, while American Airlines segments boarding into a whopping nine different groups.
Depending on who you ask, Southwest’s longtime boarding process is either a fun quirk that made the process both orderly and speedy or a major headache and a reason to avoid the airline altogether. Passengers line up 60 at a time on either side of a row of stanchions, with a number on their boarding passes determining when and where to line up.
Southwest was already planning to do away with the controversial first-come, first-served seating model in favor of assigning seats – for a fee. But the airline had previously indicated those signature stanchions and numbered boarding were here to stay.
No more. That change was likely set in motion when it dropped its “Bags Fly Free” policy. Rather than paying to check a bag, plenty of passengers will suddenly bring carry-on bags onboard Southwest, requiring a different approach to boarding. Plus, the airline could reward co-branded credit cardholders with an earlier boarding position … and penalize passengers who buy their cheapest basic fares.
The airline business is a monkey-see, monkey-do industry. Carriers are constantly copying one another on everything from raising luggage prices to doing away with change fees to installing premium seats. After decades of doing things differently with customer-friendly policies, Southwest is looking to join the herd.
That transformation began almost a year ago, when Southwest fares began appearing on Google Flights and later, Kayak and Expedia – a monumental change for an airline that always forced travelers to use its site or app to buy tickets. But it’s been accelerated due to pressure from an activist investor, Elliott Management Group, which has been hounding Southwest for the last year to make more money … by doing exactly what its competitors have been doing for years.
Baggage fees and stingy basic economy fares are in, Southwest’s famous “Wanna Get Away” fares are out – starting May 28, anyway. Just a few years after making flight credits good for life, the airline will expire them in as few as six months after purchase. It’s taking a page out of Delta’s book with its Rapid Rewards program, too: Southwest warned that it would introduce “variable redemption rates across higher-demand and lower-demand flights.”
Bottom Line
A week after gutting its free baggage policy, Southwest is apparently planning to do away with its current boarding process, too.
Those signature metal stanchions at each gate may soon disappear as Southwest instead pivots to a nine-group assigned boarding system. It’s just another reminder: The carrier that set itself apart from the rest of the pack by holding on to customer-friendly policies for decades is gone now – Southwest is becoming just another airline.
