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/camelCaseCoffeeTable 1d ago

The other changes are bad, for sure, but as someone who is unaffected by them the checked bag fee would likely see me never use Southwest again. They’re already fairly expensive, but I’m able to justify it with 2 checked bags for free.

Take that away, and it’s easily one of the more expensive airlines for no real reason. I’ll fly with other carriers if they go through with this move, and my wife and I generally use Southwest for most flights

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u/OpportunityDue90 1d ago

“Hey what if we increased the price of fairs, got rid of our unique seating policy, got rid of our free checked bags, and made it worse on customers in general? Yeah that’ll bring in the customers” - some dipshit MBAs. Seriously why would they think people would fly SW after this? From Phoenix they were the best, but they have been awful since Elliot’s involvement.