Southwest’s New Boarding System Could Make Aisle-Seat Flyers Very Unhappy

The new boarding hierarchy starts with pre-boarding for passengers with disabilities, followed by those with priority status, either by airline loyalty or buying a premium seat. Passengers in “Choice” and “Choice Preferred” seats will board next, followed by the general cabin in WILMA order. It’s window seats first, then middle, then aisle, running from the back to the front of the plane. Basic economy travelers will typically board last. Families will have guaranteed seats together and frequent flyers will no longer need to check in exactly 24 hours before departure to snag a premium seat.

Passengers crowding a Southwest Airlines gate in Oakland, California. Photo: JW_PNW/Shutterstock

The main selling point of boarding window seats first is that it should speed up boarding times. By filling window seats first, then middles, the WILMA method means passengers don’t have to repeatedly stand to let others pass to access their seats, supposedly reducing aisle congestion and backup. This could help Southwest make small gains toward reclaiming its reputation for quick, hassle-free boarding.

The airline also seems to think this model will reduce what have recently been called “gate lice:” people who block the gate and boarding area before their boarding group is called. This has been an especially notable problem with Southwest Airlines as of late. The company’s current boarding system at gates, in which passengers stand in a specific area based on their boarding order, is large enough only to accommodate people, not the carry-on bags everyone’s been toting since the airline began charging for checked bags So the new method is probably at least a partial response to Southwest gates being too crowded and hectic since the other policies went into effect. According to the Wall Street Journal, which first reported this news, Southwest will also switch to a two-lane waiting system at the gates.

“If queuing isn’t good, boarding isn’t good,” Lisa Hingson, Southwest’s managing director of innovation, told the newspaper in the article breaking the news. “So we spent a lot of time studying queuing.”

Some newer Southwest planes have larger overhead bins to accommodate more carry-on bags. Photo; Southwest Airlines Media Room

Unfortunately, the downsides of window-seat-first boarding are likely to be more obvious to most passengers, or at least those who don’t want to pay extra for priority boarding. The biggest takeaway is for flyers who prefer the aisle seat, as boarding last means a higher chance of all the overhead bin space being taken. Even with larger overhead bins that accommodate bags on their sides, later boarding groups are likely to encounter this, especially with so many travelers bringing carry-ons in light of checked bags no longer being free. Once bins fill, flyers will need to gate-check their bags, which could negate any speed gains made by using the WILMA method.

Southwest may also see this as a way to encourage ancillary spending and upgrades among travelers. Southwest uses dynamic pricing for “Priority Boarding” fees, which can run up to $149 per flight segment. Before Southwest began using dynamic pricing (in which the cost changes in real time based on factors like demand and customer data), priority boarding was a flat fee of about $30 to $50 per flight segment. That information was removed from Southwest’s customer service page in late 2023.

Flyers on Basic fares will likely be assigned whatever seats are left at check-in, often in the back of the plane. Photo; Southwest Airlines Media Room/Ashlee D. Smith

Southwest currently states that the cost to choose a seat will range from “$4–$250 per segment, per Customer,” for flights beginning after January 27, 2026. Travelers booking a “Choice” fair get to select from a standard range of seats, while travelers on a “Basic” fare will have a seat assigned to them. “Choice preferred” and “Choice extra” flyers get to choose from “preferred” seats, but will also have priority boarding that allows them to jump ahead of the WILMA system.

During a recent search for flights from Reno, Nevada, to San Diego, California (a 90-minute flight), “preferred” seats ranged from $12 to $18, with “extra legroom” seats ranging from $32 to $38. In that search, aisle seats were the least expensive — but once the new boarding system goes into effect, it’s possible Southwest could start charging more for window and middle seats, anticipating that travelers will pay more to ensure there’s room overhead for their carry-ons.