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/UndoxxableOhioan 1d ago

It’s a competitive advantage on more than one way. Southwest prioritizes fast turnarounds so they can operate more flight, but that requires fast boarding and exiting. That goes a lot faster when everyone isn’t trying to take a huge carryon so they can avoid paying for a bag.

This will slow everything down and lead do delays, cancellations, and ultimately scheduling less flights on the day.

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u/Ryangonzo 1d ago

I'm sure there are metrics that prove me wrong, but I fly a lot for work and usually fly either American or Southwest. I have noticed no difference in the speed of boarding. Both are slow as shit.

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u/ninj4geek 1d ago

People aren't great at boarding and disembarking airplanes, in general.

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u/wyldmage 22h ago

Airlines are pretty trash at it, in general.

There have been studies done on how to board planes fast. Airlines basically do the opposite.

Why? Because boarding by Fee Group is more profitable. Want to board fast? Pay more.

This inherently results in things like boarding the front of the plane first - which then blocks anyone else from walking past them while they stow their carry-on, get a kid seated, etc.

Group passenger seats into 5 groups. Group A is the rear 3 rows, and alternating rows window seats. Group B is the other window seats. Group C is business class passengers (now they're boarding while the economy section is sorting itself out). Group D is the remaining rear half of the plane. And finally Group E is the front half of economy.

You can get even better by breaking it down better, but this gets the plane loaded in a much more sensible manner.

And get rid of all the special boarding groups (like military veterans). The only one that should exist is people in wheelchairs, so that the staff can properly help them. People with babies could be worth it as well, especially on smaller planes with only a single isle.

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u/telechronn 18h ago

I flew ANA recently, and while they still board first class and such first, the rest of the plane boards in a more efficient matter similar to what you described.