Southwest Airways, after months of hypothesis, has confirmed the discontinuation of its free checked luggage coverage, a function that was beforehand highlighted as a key facet of its customer support.
Going ahead, passengers can be required to pay for bags storage, though the airline has but to reveal the precise price. For comparability, airways similar to Delta cost $35 per checked bag.
The brand new coverage will take impact on Could 28, 2025. This marks a big shift from Southwest’s well-known slogan, “Two luggage fly free,” a coverage that they had vowed to keep up simply over a yr in the past.
“After fare and schedule, luggage fly free is cited because the No. 1 difficulty by way of why prospects select Southwest,” CEO Bob Jordan said throughout an earnings name final July.
Nevertheless, it seems the corporate now believes the income generated from baggage charges will outweigh the advantages derived from customer-friendly options like free checked luggage. Any further, solely Southwest Fast Rewards A-Checklist Most well-liked Members and Enterprise Choose fare passengers will proceed to get pleasure from two free checked luggage.
Final yr, Southwest Airways additionally revealed plans to discard its open-boarding system, a staple of the airline for greater than 50 years, opting as a substitute to assign seats to passengers. This choice was based mostly on in depth analysis into seating preferences, together with buyer surveys and trial runs, which indicated that almost all vacationers now favor realizing their seat project earlier than arriving on the airport.
Southwest’s distinctive boarding course of was initially conceived as a swift strategy to load passengers and cut back downtime on the bottom, thereby enhancing effectivity and profitability. This technique performed a big function in Southwest being the only real US airline to maintain profitability yearly till the Covid-19 pandemic struck.
The corporate has performed in depth analysis, revealing {that a} staggering 80% of its present prospects and 86% of “potential” prospects favor assigned seating. Jordan additionally highlighted that the absence of assigned seating was a key cause for vacationers selecting different airways.
However there’s extra. Southwest can be debuting premium seats with further legroom, an amenity already commonplace on different main US carriers.
The airline is launching pink eye flights from mid-February, linking cities similar to Las Vegas, Los Angeles, and Phoenix to varied locations.
These audacious steps are taken as Southwest grapples with stress from Elliott Funding Administration, which criticizes the airline for lagging behind rivals and has demanded new management, focusing on each Jordan and Chairman Gary Kelly.
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