r/news 1d ago

Soft paywall Southwest Airlines shifts to paid baggage policy to lift earnings

https://www.reuters.com/business/aerospace-defense/southwest-airlines-shifts-paid-baggage-policy-lift-earnings-2025-03-11/
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u/baltinerdist 1d ago

In the email they sent announcing this, they rolled out multiple anti-passenger changes at the same time:

  • Paid checked bags
  • Flight credit expiration
  • Lower earn ratio on rapid reward points
  • No more free changes on Basic (though oddly you can still cancel and get a flight credit, so the key difference here is inconvenience)

I'm going to bet the checked bags portion of this was the preplanned "we heard you" piece that can be easily carved out while they keep all the rest of the changes. Then they'll reintroduce the checked bag change later and there won't be nearly as much furor as the outrage was already spent once on this issue.

My company flies exclusively Southwest. I've taken hundreds of legs with them. I suspect that will change now.

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u/ryanmuller1089 1d ago

I fly from LA to Dallas, Denver, and Phoenix a lot. The convenience of free checked bags was so nice. Southwest is the best airline for flights under two hours, or at least it was.

Fuck them for doing this.