Southwest Assigned Seating Still Up in the Air

In their 1995 annual report, Southwest Airlines cited their open seating policy as one of the seven secrets of their success. Intrepid travel reporter Chris Elliott recently wondered why they would “about-face” on what they once touted as a crucial part of their business model.

In a recent blog post Southwest CEO Gary Kelly wrote that potential switch to assigned seating is mostly a byproduct of a computer systems upgrade. Currently, Southwest’s computers don’t have the capacity to assign seats. In the process of upgrading the computer systems company-wide, they’ve decided to add this functionality.

Kelly also noted in his post that some customers have requested the switch, and that in order to constantly keep their service cutting edge, they’ve decided to pilot assigned seating to see how it works in a limited setting. They’ll be evaluating the assigned seating model on about 200 flights from San Diego International Airport in the coming months.

Looking at the big picture here, I’d say that assigned seating at Southwest is still very much up in the air (pardon the pun). Computer upgrades and efficiency testing do not an “about-face” make.