Another week, another largely negative news story coming out of Southwest. You’d think this would be the end of it and yet…

Updated May 24, 2025. This is your last chance to purchase fares that automatically include checked bags. Those fares go away starting May 28, 2025. Additionally, it’s your last chance to backdoor convert your non-transferrable credits into transferrable credits that never expire. Best to do it now to maintain optimal flexibility.

Southwest sent out an email to members. The news comes just a week after they let their new points earning structure go live on their website. Let’s tackle these one by one.

Southwest stops offering free checked bags on most fares

Arguably the biggest change to Southwest fares is the elimination of free checked bags.

The airline offers that free checked bags will still be offered to the following customers:

• Business Select fares will receive two free checked bags
• A-List Preferred customers will receive two free checked bags
• A-List customers will receive one free checked bag
• Southwest credit card customers will receive one free checked bag

There’s now no differentiation on what Southwest offers from any other major airline. This will apply on fares booked on or after May 28, 2025.

What happened?

Why is this so impactful? Well, the airline is built upon the principle of not charging for checked bags. This is what they build their reputation on, in their own words. Let’s take a walk backwards in time just six short months ago. CEO Bob Jordan outlined in an investor presentation the following. I’ll give you a moment to look it over.

Notice how the airline defended the “bags fly free” policy by saying it draws the most value for the company and that eliminating it would result in them losing money? But their scenario even states that the assumption is Wanna Get Away Plus fares get one checked bag and Anytime fares get two. That’s less than what was ultimately announced. So why in the world would Southwest do this? This is really just an exchange of short-term profits for long-term misery. But it shouldn’t come as a surprise to Southwest or its investors–they did the analysis already and shared it with the market!

Southwest officially introduces the Basic fare

Southwest will officially rebrand the Wanna Get Away fare into a Basic fare. Beyond the reduction in points earning, more restrictions will also be placed on the fare. They already damaged the fare enough as it was, so calling it Basic at this point seemed like a natural progression.

But can we also talk about the name of the cheapest non-Basic fare? They should have called this fare Wanna Get Away (without the Plus). Why? Because it’s completely obvious at this point that the fares will be more expensive than the typical Wanna Get Away fare. If they removed the Plus, it would be perhaps less obvious this isn’t just a giant cash grab. With the Plus still sticking on that fare class, they’re fooling no one about what the intent is. Seems like a poor business decision and a missed opportunity.

Flight credits now expire for all fares

Hiding under the news for losing checked bags is the fact that Southwest credits will also start expiring. Southwest credits previously expired after 12 months, then moved to a model where credits never expire once other carriers offered more flexibility on their fares. Southwest recognized it needed to be different to entice people to fly them. Well, starting May 28, 2025, this will also change.

For flights booked on or after May 28, 2025, credits will expire after 6 months if booking their cheapest fare, and after 12 months for all other fares. What remains to be seen is if you can book a Wanna Get Away Plus fare with a credit earned from a Basic fare to extend the validity of the credit. Currently this is possible (though with a Wanna Get Away fare since Basic doesn’t exist yet) as a way to allow credits to be transferrable to others.

What about credits in your account prior to May 28, 2025? Those will remain without expiration until you decide to use them on a flight booked after May 28, 2025. After that time, the fares will pick up the new expiration policy. You’ll want to make sure your credits are transferrable before that date to allow for maximum flexibility. This post describes the process in more detail.

No more free changes (or standby!) on its cheapest fares

One of the things that I’ve enjoyed about Southwest is my ability to change my ticket easily. Other airlines charge for this or only allow it with elite status. The Basic fare will now no longer allow complimentary changes or standby. That’s a real bummer since sometimes you just want to change your flight based on when you get to the airport.

That was especially useful when pairing it with an international award flight booked on another airline. Southwest wouldn’t protect you if that international flight gets in late, so you book a Southwest flight with plenty of time at the airport in the event of an issue. Then, when you get off your international flight, you same-day change the Southwest flight into a different flight with timing that works better. That option will go away for the cheapest fares.

Impact to Rapid Rewards

Hidden in the email sent to Southwest customers was the following blurb:

Phase 1: Beginning this month, we increased our Rapid Rewards earn ratio on our Business Select fares and lowered the earn ratio on our Wanna Get Away® and Wanna Get Away Plus™ fares. We will also begin to vary our redemption rates across our fare products on some high- and low-demand travel periods.

Yeah, we know about the earn ratio change. But they also sneak in the comment about redemption rates varying. Points are worth a flat amount towards travel (minus taxes) in today’s world. What will the future look like where redemption rates are markedly lower for high-demand travel periods? If I had to guess, it will drop to somewhere around 1 cent each.

Honestly, this is a mistake on their part. The program today does not offer any opportunity for outsized value. Destroying the value even further provides no more value than getting a punch card at your local coffee shop. Everyone would be better off getting a simple 2% cash back credit card.

Change to refundability status?

What about fares booked with Southwest points? Well, let’s take a look at the fine print.

This seems to imply that if you book and later cancel a Basic or Wanna Get Away plus fare, you will only receive the points back to your account. You will not receive a refund of taxes or fees or have credit that can be used for future use. Anytime or Business Select flights will be the only fares eligible to receive credit.

If you’re someone who enjoys using points to book prospective flights without certainty of taking the flight, this will impact you. Each time you cancel, expect to lose at least $5.60 per ticket unless you use your points towards higher fares.

I’ll miss the old Southwest

Southwest Airlines started as an upstart, looking to disrupt the major players in the airline industry. They insisted on doing things differently, carving out a unique niche that worked quite well for them over the years. They were an exception to the norm, especially as that norm started adding on more fees. Eventually, they developed a bit of a cult following, excited to look for fares that you had to uncover through Southwest’s own websites and channels.

You couldn’t just happen upon a Southwest fare–you had to go actively seek it. Southwest trained its loyal followers to go to their website and track down their fares. Of course, getting into that habit also meant there might be limited desire to look around for a better fare elsewhere, but you would get two free checked bags and no problems switching flights if needed. Collectively, people might have been forgiving of the high fares because of the extra benefits associated with the ticket.

But the loss of benefits also magnifies the inherent problem with Southwest. The airline’s gimmick is flying customers between cities, often with a stopover or two along the way. There are not many longer flights with the airline. Want to fly between Los Angeles and Seattle? Expect to stop off in Northern California along the way. Why would I pay Southwest’s prices only to connect when I would prefer a nonstop and now also get no checked bags or other benefits on its cheaper fares?

Southwest was able to command a revenue premium (even as a low cost carrier) precisely because of the benefits it offered on its tickets. When those benefits are gone, the airline will struggle to get that revenue premium.

The new Southwest is not customer-friendly anymore?

I like looking back at this Investor Day Presentation from September 2024 because it just gives so much ammunition as to why this is the wrong move for them. Let’s take a look at one last slide from the deck. Southwest describes the many features of their fares that are “customer-friendly policies”.

Now get the red pen out and mark off what they destroyed with these changes.

• Two bags fly free ✓
• No cancel or change fees ✓ (at least for changes on their cheapest fares)
• Free same day standby ✓ (again on the cheapest fares)
• Credits don’t expire ✓

This one announcement completely destroyed this slide of theirs. What’s left for them to touch? Making points expire and eliminating bookings using both cash and points? Perhaps soon enough we’ll see more (negative) updates to Rapid Rewards as they continue to remove any value left that the airline offers.

If Southwest once considered themselves “customer-friendly” because of the policies they had in place, could they at least call themselves “customer-unfriendly” now?