Southwest to End Open Seating, Adopt Assigned Seats and Boarding Groups

• Operational impact: Southwest will move to assigned seat selection (effective Jan. 27, 2026) and replace the cattle‑call with a multi‑group boarding order, a change that will alter gate procedures and boarding throughput.

(See the reporting on assigned seat selection and the Jan. 27 rollout and the end of the open-seating policy with a new boarding order.) - Commercial and customer‑experience consequences: the shift creates new ancillary opportunities (paid seat selection, boarding prioritisation) and changes how Rapid Rewards and other retailing levers are presented to customers. (Context on Southwest’s push into ancillary products and retailing: Getaways packaged vacations and distribution changes and OTA distribution moves.) - Legal, reputational and policy risk: the change follows incidents and litigation that linked open seating to onboard conflicts, and sits alongside new rules on paid extra seats for encroachment — factors that may drive regulatory scrutiny and customer complaints. (See the lawsuit citing open seating and the encroachment/extra-seat policy update.)