Top of Mind Thursday – March 13, 2025: End of an Era

For as long as I can remember, there were two things you could count on at Southwest Airlines: no assigned seating, and bags flew free.

Several months ago, the airline announced it would be moving to assigned seating. This week, it announced the era of free checked bags is over as of May.

In the short term, I’m sure the fees they expect to collect for checked bags will add to the airline’s bottom line. However, we have to ask if that’s worth destroying what’s left of the airline’s long standing positioning.

Southwest was always the airline that was a little less mainstream, a little off-the beaten-track (remember when they flew mainly into airports like Midway in Chicago and Hobby in Houston?), and a little more fun. The flight attendants were known to spice up preflight safety instructions and to be just a little more casual and upbeat than most of their competitors.

And Southwest had a reputation for being the low-cost alternative—you could put up with the need to check in exactly on time and queue up in numerical order because it was a safe but less-expensive way to fly. Because bags were checked at no cost, fewer people were trying to stuff oversized luggage into overhead bins.

Now, Southwest’s prices match most of their competitors—and that’s before accounting for checked baggage fees. More people will be likely to carryon baggage, which will slow down boarding. All this makes it appear that management is trying its best to mold SWA into just another nondescript American airline. What’s next? Reading the safety announcements word-for-word from a canned presentation?

Too often, companies with unique brand differentiators shoot themselves in the foot by stripping out what makes them so unique. Changing what customers have come to expect from Southwest may increase revenue for awhile, but long term, if fewer people choose them, the airline may find the extra baggage around marketing and positioning wasn’t worth the fee.

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