Why Southwest Ended Open Seating After More Than Half a Century

I’m a born-and-raised California boy, so I’ve taken more Southwest flights than I can remember. I mainly associate Southwest with having to set a reminder to check in to my flight exactly 24 hours before the flight (I’m actually a pro, so I set it a few minutes earlier so that I had the check-in screen up and ready). After college, I even created a tool that would automatically check me in for my flight.

For those who’ve never traveled Southwest, this might sound ridiculous. But for more than 50 years, the airline had open seating, so how quickly you checked in determined when you got to board. If you were in the dreaded group C, chances were only middle seats would be left when you boarded.

You can imagine my surprise when they announced in 2024 that they were going to get rid of their open seating. This week, I’m starting a new series called Tiny Big Moves where I cover how a single product decision changed how people behaved and if it worked.

The Backstory

How Southwest got here.

Southwest adopted open seating in 1971 because its survival depended on keeping planes in the air, making money rather than sitting on the tarmac. And open seating was fast, like really fast. They could turn the plane around in 10-15 minutes because people would quickly try to find an aisle or window seat that was open (typically towards the front unless you’re a psycho and like exiting last).

But some people didn’t love the stress and uncertainty of open seating, so in 2009, they launched EarlyBird check-in. With EarlyBird, you’d pay a fee and automatically be one of the first to check in, guaranteeing you the coveted group A slots.

A LOT of people wanted it, so the price of it kept on climbing.

EarlyBird made $358M in 2017, about 1.7% of Southwest's $21.17B in operating revenue. Over $100M in Q2 2023 alone. In August 2023, Southwest began restricting availability on some flights, routes, and days.

The product sold exclusivity, and that doesn’t work when everyone is buying it. Imagine buying EarlyBird, and you still end up in Group C. So they artificially restricted supply, but also restricted their revenue.

The Tiny Big Move

The single decision that changed how users behaved.

Launched earlier this year, they ended open seating and moved to the industry standard of assigned and premium seating. Inside one cabin, they now have basic fares with no advance selection, standard seats, preferred seats, extra-legroom seats, and paid upgrades.

No more needing to check in 24 hours before. No more uncertainty of getting a good seat. No more speedy turnarounds.

But why did they make this decision? Two reasons:

• People hated open seating: "80% of Southwest Customers, and 86% of potential Customers, prefer an assigned seat”, per Southwest’s own press release. They also admitted that "When a customer elects to stop flying with Southwest and chooses a competitor, open seating is cited as the number one reason for the change."

• They ran out of upsell opportunities: Their CEO recognized it was impossible to implement more products related to boarding. They had already maxed out EarlyBird and sized the seating opportunity as "substantially north" of the nearly $1B their boarding products already produced.

It seemed to work out for them. Roughly 60% of customers bought above the base fare in Q1 2026, up from roughly 20% in 2025.

The Psychology

People hate uncertainty. Uncertainty causes stress. Up until the second you board, you're wondering, "Where am I going to sit?"

And if you're traveling with a family or traveling with others, that stress multiplies. "Almost 60% of customers are checked in within the first 30 seconds… if you're a busy family and you don't hit the check-in window right on the nose, that causes anxiety." If you end up in group C, now you're wondering if you can bribe the lady next to you to trade places with your kid that's four rows back.

In a 2016 study where people were facing possible electric shocks, they were most stressed at 50% probability of getting shocked and least stressed at both 0% and 100%. (I hope they got paid well for that study.)

With assigned seating, you might pay for a great seat, or you might get a terrible seat, but at least you already know the outcome.

What I’d Ship

The main takeaway from their product decision is: Users will pay for certainty, and reducing unknowns in your product can increase conversion.

Let’s see this in action with another product.

Taskrabbit shows you that a handyman costs $65 an hour. But most jobs are still billed by time, so mounting your shelves might cost $130 or $325.

Imagine a new feature called Price Lock. After you upload photos and answer a few scope questions, Taskrabbit gives you one guaranteed total: $240, excluding materials or changes you request. If the job takes longer than expected, Taskrabbit pays the difference. The locked price is worse than the $130 best case, but easier to accept than an uncapped meter.

Your Turn

Run an uncertainty audit for your product.

1. Find the moment closest to payment where your user is still asking: how much, when, or what happens next?

2. Look for hedged product copy, "when will" support tickets, and users repeatedly checking the same status.

3. Pick one unknown and ask how your product could take it off their plate: lock the price, promise a date, provide a guaranteed backup.

4. Start with the commitment you can reliably keep, even if it looks worse than your current estimate. Then test whether the certainty changes conversion.

I hope this makes you appreciate your assigned middle seat in the last row just a little bit more. I’m curious what you think about the new format. Reply to this email and let me know!

— Amaraj (aka never catch me in Group C with the plebs)

The Meme