A business trip to Las Vegas this week on Southwest Airlines gave me one more chance to experience the cattle call open-seating approach just hours before the new assigned seating scheme went into effect. I can’t say that I’ll miss it…
One Last Cattle Call: My Final Flight With Southwest Open Seating
As further proof that I am a free agent this year, when work took me from Southern California to Las Vegas for a meeting earlier this week, I booked Southwest Airlines on the way out and JSX on the way back. I would have booked JSX round-trip (it was about the same cost…) or even Spirit, but I needed an early flight to Las Vegas and Southwest was the only option out of Burbank (BUR).
As I have for the last 20+ years when I’ve flown Southwest, I dutifully checked in right at the 24-hour check-in window in order to get an “A” boarding group (I could not justify paying extra for A 1-15 priority boarding). I landed with A45…good enough.
I showed up at the boarding gate just as boarding was commencing and had to try to approximate where to insert myself. (Southwest sections off each boarding group with signs designating groups of 10 passengers; for example, A 1-10, 11-20, 21-30, etc). I got in line and noticed I was just after A46 but A43 and 44 were behind me…great.
Burbank Hollywood Airport is a small Southern California Airport that proudly has avoided jetbridges for 95 years. Southwest boards via airstairs from both the front and the back in Burbank.
I elected to use the rear stairs and plopped down in a window seat near the back of the aircraft. The flight was lightly filled: everyone who wanted their own row had one, making me all the more glad I had not paid extra for priority boarding.
Our aging 737-700 had no in-seat power or functional Wi-Fi, but it was a 45-minute flight and I had the row to myself…it could have been worse.
Assigned Seating Is Coming In 2026
Assigned seating will not begin until January 27, 2026, but since July 29, 2025, passengers can purchase tickets for flights with assigned seating. The “cattle call” era is coming to an end and while I don’t think Southwest’s tinkering with its business model will ultimately help its bottom line, I must admit I just don’t like the open seating.
The rush to check in and line up to board is such a Southwest thing…but it encourages wheelchair abusers and just feels undignified. I’m hoping that Southwest conducted sufficient market research to determine that the lack of assigned seating turns many passengers off and that this change may attract some passengers who would not otherwise have considered Southwest.
CONCLUSION
I had what will probably be my last Southwest Airlines open-seating “cattle call” experience this week. I can’t say that I’ll miss it, though it’s the sort of thing that has always been a staple of Souhwest…assigned seating just doesn’ feel like flying Southwest!
You should do a story on your adventures in Vegas and your thoughts on current pricing and crowds there.
The “influencer” crowd, which I call grifters are all currently pushing the narrative the town is dead when it’s really not. The average visitor is not going to notice a 5% decrease in visitation. I get the clickbait business, which you are part of, but in your case you are honest. They are blatantly lying on YouTube and SM just for clicks.
But I do agree pricing is way too high for food and drinks unless you search out bargains.
You can’t look at the visitor count alone. Hotel stays are down 15% and everything is astronomically more expensive. Have you actually been to confirm those influencers are lying? I’m not a fan of them but the evidence is there.
Good riddance, but it won’t save Southwest. It’s a terrible airline and it will continue to be.
The one thing I’ll say about southwest that some business travelers like is that you can book or change to a flight at the very last minute and if you are A-list you are pretty much guaranteed not to end up in a middle seat, no matter how full the flight is
boarding via rear airstairs is worth far more than assigned seats.
I’ve seen a lot of people saying “this is their last”.
If this were really happening, WN mgmt would have to have their heads on fire.
I suspect alot of people will still fly WN for the same reasons they did before – schedule and price, even if the price is more than it was before
I remember the plastic boarding paddles in the 90s and early 2000s. Whenever we flew to visit family in New Mexico, we made mom stand in line at the gate podium to collect our paddles.
Hi Matt,
Will you also post a review of JSX? That would also be interesting to read.
Yes – coming later today.
“I’m hoping that Southwest conducted sufficient market research to determine that the lack of assigned seating turns many passengers off and that this change may attract some passengers who would not otherwise have considered Southwest.”
I doubt it. I expect the CEO probably came up with this idea presumably to increase revenue because that’s what his current goal is. That being said, the current system has become untenable for the reasons mentioned here and elsewhere.
Southwest now has to compete on price and service and that may be difficult moving forward. I believe their rise during the 80’s, when I used to fly them, was due to them poaching underutilized routes that the legacies hadn’t properly serviced along with low operating costs from standardized equipment. Spirit is suffering as their model is also showing cracks.
Southwest’s strategy on checked bags is what the others have discovered: A tax break on “fees” versus having to pay taxes if the baggage cost is bundled in the fare. That 1/3d capacity flight Matt was on certainly wasn’t profitable!
The aging padded seats certainly looked comfortable although the lack of IFE’s wasn’t a plus but I wouldn’t mind using my own iPad or Iphone if there was an outlet and wifi-streaming media available.
I will only ever take southwest if I had to go to any small unknown city which they are probably good for. I will never fly SW unless they have assigned seating. I’d rather take a high speed train, which we have none of.
I happen to like the current method. I will say I’ve never had to deal with boarding that way via 2 doors…so I can see that being more painful.
But via a single door, I predict Southwest’s gates will become the same mass crowd push to get at the front of the main cabin boarding groups that I experience each time I fly Delta, United, American, etc from a large airport. Sorry, but people need to be treated like kindergartners sometimes. Doesn’t apply to the favored boarding groups for preferred passengers, but the main cabin groups are a different story.
To my family, the boarding line and the free bags were the Southwest value out of Atlanta. Now, I’ll just fly Delta.
“How stupid are you, Matt? Cattle call boarding? Not hardly.! SWA’s former boarding was known as the “Intelligent Superior” persons procedure, while we former faithful SWA customers called all other airlines the “moronic arrested development” style. To fly sWA you had to be able to know your ABC’s to the 3rd letter and be able to count from 1-60. Intelligent, clearly! All other airlines were for people to godamned ignorant and mentally challenged to perform that basic feat, thereby needing a nanny-mommy gate person to hold their wee widdle hands and tell them where to sit, . It’s evident you are a blooming idiot of the latter mental category.