Southwest Airlines Moving Forward with Another Fee For Customers

Southwest Airlines was once notorious for its customer-friendly policies, offering each passenger two checked bags free of charge, some of the most cost-effective fares of any airline, and a democratic open-seating policy that allowed travelers to choose whatever seat they wanted with no added fees.

Over the past several months, Southwest has made several changes as the company looks to boost its bottom line, presumably prioritizing profits over customer experience. As a result, the airline has eliminated its "bags fly free" model and moved to an assigned seating model where travelers must pay to choose their seats.

Those changes have not exactly gone smoothly for the airline, leading to a chaotic boarding process. Now, as Southwest struggles to fix these issues, the airline is reportedly considering a sigh-inducing solution: a new fee for customers.

A 'Chaotic' Boarding Process

Southwest Airlines officially implemented an assigned seating model on Jan. 27 of this year, ditching its longstanding open seating policy. Even though the airline had months to prepare for the change, things have not been going smoothly. Southwest has had problems with a lack of overhead bin space, and customers filling the overhead bin space at the front too soon.

Since passengers at the front of the plane don't necessarily board the plane first in Southwest's new boarding policy, some passengers seated in the front of the plane have been boarding their flight only to find that the overhead bin space above their seat was already taken.

As a result, those passengers then have to go toward the back of the plane, place their carry-on in the overhead bin space, and then work against the crowd back through the aisle to their seats, creating what Gary Leff of View From the Wing called “far more chaotic than the other airlines.”

“So people would stop at their seat, see no bin space available, and have to head back in the aircraft to stow bags – only to return down the aisle to their seats. This was far more chaotic than other airlines,” Leff wrote.

This has all been exacerbated by Southwest’s decision to begin charging for checked bags back in May. Following that change, travelers naturally began taking more carry-on luggage onto Southwest flights, and the airline immediately began having problems with handling this surge in carry-on luggage, especially since its aircraft were not designed with enough overhead bin space.

While Southwest has been taking steps to fix these issues, it has had little impact on the issues the recent changes have created with the boarding process.

Southwest Attempts to Solve the Problem

So far, Southwest has been largely unable to solve this "chaotic" boarding process, and each solution it tries seems to upset somebody.

At first, Southwest essentially punted these self-inflicted problems to the flight attendants, moving Southwest's flight attendants' bags to the back of the plane and telling flight attendants to simply start boarding flights earlier.

Obviously, these proposals were met with some firm pushback from the official TWU 556 union, which represents flight attendants at the carrier, which understandably blasted Southwest's management for being "out of touch," telling them to "read the room."

Now, it seems like Southwest is going to make customers pay: literally.

A New Fee for Customers?

Southwest's attempted solutions to this totally self-inflicted problem have been unsuccessful so far. After trying to make flight attendants shoulder the burden, it seems that Southwest is now asking customers to empty their wallets.

This week, WFAA in Dallas reported that Southwest Airlines is moving forward with a new fee for customers to reserve overhead bin space on their flights ahead of time.

"Tonight, Southwest Airlines says it has come up with a fix for planes running out of overhead bin space, but you might not like it," a WFAA anchor reported on Thursday.

"A lot of customers have been complaining about the lack of space since the Dallas-based airline switched to assigned seating," the report continued. "The airline just sent an email saying it'll offer passengers a chance to reserve bins for an added fee."

Yes, the airline that allowed free checked bags to all of its customers less than a year ago is now charging a fee to ensure that your carry-on item makes it into the cabin.

WFAA reported that the airline is working to make its overhead bins larger to accommodate more bags, but that is certainly not an overnight fix, and it will be months before it's able to equip most of its aircraft with these oversized bins.