By Dawn Gilbertson

SOUTHWEST AIRLINES FLIGHT 790 -- The family boarding ahead of me in the coveted A group waltzed right past the plane's first five rows of seats. I knew better.

I plopped into seat 5C for the 2 1/2 hour flight from Phoenix to Houston early Friday morning. This was no ordinary Southwest plane. It was one of the first outfitted with extra-legroom seats.

The historically one-size-fits-all airline is adding roomier seats in a plane's first five rows and exit rows. It's part of an ambitious plan to boost revenue and win new customers. Southwest is also switching to assigned seats and adding bag fees. Rivals already do all this.

Travelers won't be able to buy or reserve the Southwest seats until later this year for travel in early 2026. But the airline has to start carving up the cabin on its 800 planes now to be ready.

The first planes were retrofitted last week, and I couldn't wait to size up the extra legroom. So I splurged on a pricey last-minute ticket. (Well, a couple of tickets. Last-minute aircraft swaps mean there's no telling where the retrofitted planes end up, but that's a story best told in my expense report.)

First class it's not

Southwest promises up to an extra 5 inches of seat pitch in the new extra-legroom sections. Most extra-legroom seats will have 2 or 3 extra inches. Standard seats will have slightly less than they do today, but Southwest already has among the best legroom among U.S. carriers.

I was on a Boeing 737 MAX 8 and had nearly a horizontal laptop length between my knees and the seat back pocket. Full disclosure: I don't travel with a measuring tape or obsess over seat size, pitch and legroom. I'm 5-foot-6 and travel almost exclusively in economy, from basic to plus.

The extra room was definitely noticeable. I didn't see anyone in my section with their knees jammed up against the seat in front of them.

The 5-foot-10 guy in the middle seat next to me was a standby passenger with a boarding pass in the dreaded C group, which means you board last. (The A, B, C groups are going away with assigned seating, too, in favor of smaller boarding groups like other major airlines.)

He lucked out sitting there and gushed about the unexpected extra legroom. He didn't know a thing about Southwest's dramatic makeover.

"I literally kicked my feet back three times and said, 'What the heck?'" he said.

The exit-row seats in the retrofitted planes have even more space. It was so noticeable that every flight attendant pointed them out to me and one of the pilots when he strolled back to check out the new cabin configuration after the flight. (A mechanic and other curious employees were also eager to check out the new configuration.)

The extra legroom wasn't a game changer for me, at least on a relatively short flight. I was perfectly comfortable in seat 22D on the way home on a plane that hadn't been retrofitted. Tall travelers might feel differently.

Perking up

Maybe my perspective will change when the perks kick in. Like Delta, American, Alaska and JetBlue, Southwest plans to offer priority boarding, better snacks and free alcoholic beverages to passengers who buy tickets with extra-legroom seats. Spirit Airlines even offers free drinks with its Go Big ticket bundle that includes its Big Front Seats.

The big question for most travelers, of course, is whether the premium Southwest charges for the extra-legroom seats is worth the money. That's a question no one can answer until this fall.

The seats will be included with Southwest's most expensive tickets, to be called Choice Extra, when they go on sale in the third quarter. (These will replace Business Select. This has a de facto seating benefit today in the form of early boarding, but no extra legroom unless you nab the exit row.)

Southwest's top frequent fliers, those with A-List Preferred status, will get free access to the extra-legroom seats at booking, too. And those in the next tier down will have free access closer to departure if seats remain. Certain Southwest credit-card holders will be eligible to reserve them, too.

The rest of us will be able to buy them a la carte, when available. One sign they won't be cheap: Southwest has been testing seat prices of all sorts. It has been using dynamic pricing for its Upgraded Boarding and EarlyBird priority boarding options as a proxy for demand until it starts assigning seats. In addition to extra-legroom seats, the airline will join competitors in charging for "preferred" seats. Seat fees have become big business for airlines and Southwest wants a piece of the pie.

I paid $90 one-way for upgraded boarding on a flight from Denver to Phoenix last week to jump from the C group to A. And $123 one-way on a Baltimore to Phoenix trip in March.

So enjoy those complimentary extra-legroom seats while you can. The airline is hoping to retrofit 100 to 150 planes a month, with four per night each in Atlanta, Phoenix, Denver and Houston.

It's the luck of the draw for now. Southwest, mindful of its already chronic preboarding issues, has no plans to announce the presence of one of the planes at the gate. And there won't be any sign it's an extra-legroom seat until later this summer when a different color headrest is added.

Keep your eyes peeled. "Your odds are low in May," Southwest operating chief Andrew Watterson says. "Your odds are high in October."

Write to Dawn Gilbertson at dawn.gilbertson@wsj.com

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

May 06, 2025 21:00 ET (01:00 GMT)

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