Southwest Investor Day
There were some interesting tidbits taken away from the Southwest investor day presentation. A lot of it is stuff we already knew, but it comes with some more insight into timelines etc. It also shared some interesting data on expectations. Southwest even dropped a mini bombshell about airline partnerships, something they have avoided like the plague.
My buddy Dave, who lives in the finance world, listened to it and took some notes for me that I will share with all of you.
Southwest Investor Day Presentation Takeaways
Here are some of the bigger takeaways from the presentation:
Southwest Is Adding Airline Partners
The most unique / unexpected thing to come from all of this is the addition of Icelandair as their initial partner. This will take place in 2025 and it will be a connection at Baltimore's airport (BWI). They also hinted that there are more partnerships to come, with at least one more landing in 2025. Hopefully this means that we will be able to use Rapid Rewards points to book flights over to Europe and vice versa.
Baggage
Bags will still be flying free (for now at least). I know this is a change that everyone kind of expects to happen at some point.
Redeye Flights Lead To Increased Hawaii Bookings
We knew that redeye flights were finally coming to Southwest, and even while they said it wasn't all about Hawaii they did talk about how much it will help with travel to Hawaii today. The Honolulu to Las Vegas overnight flight with morning connections on the mainland will increase itineraries to Hawaii by 50% more. That is a pretty astonishing number right there.
New Status Perks & Assigned Seating
With the new seat assignments, and extra legroom seating, that means that Southwest A-List status holders will be gaining a few new perks. Both of those things will be included for free for status holders. It will be a nice addition to the lineup of benefits they already get.
I imagine both of these things will become a perk for certain credit card holders too. Probably in the form of a few freebies each year you have the credit card.
The plan is to begin selling assigned seats during the second half of 2025. The first flights that will be using the new model will happen in early 2026. They plan on having around a third of the plane as extra legroom seating, adding 5 inches of pitch to those seats.
Paid Seating
The investor PowerPoint shows a few pictures of the assigned seating booking process. It makes it seem like they will be having a good portion of the cabin paid seating at the time of booking. On top of 1/3 of the plane being extra legroom seats, they will also have premium priced standard seats. Up towards the front of the plane etc. This is similar to what we see with American Airlines and United Airlines. You can check out the photos on page 75 of the power point for a better idea of what it will look like.
Boarding Process
I had hoped that they would do a modified boarding process with the new assigned seating, and it appears that is exactly what they will do. They said they will continue using position numbers and signage displays around the gate area to keep the process orderly and smooth.
Southwest Changes: ToP Thoughts
It is nice to have some more information on the Southwest changes thanks to the investor day presentation. It does mean monumental changes are coming to Southwest, and that they will look eerily similar to the set up of the big 3 going forward. That will be blasphemy to many loyal Southwest flyers. Will it be enough to have them walk though? That remains to be seen at this time. It will be interesting to see how all of this is implemented over the next year or two and if it all works as expected. Their credit cards may become much more valuable as long term keepers for regular Southwest flyers when it is all said and done too.
