Southwest Seating: How it Works

On January 27, 2026, Southwest will officially make the switch to assigned seats. No more open seating; everyone will have a seat number before boarding the plane.

Flights for early 2026 are already on sale. That means it's now possible to select seats at the time of booking for Southwest flights taking place on or after January 27.

This article walks you through how the seat selection process works, what family seating is going to look like, how to get free seat selection, and more.

The New Seating Chart

Southwest is retrofitting all of its planes to gear up for assigned seating. There will be three distinct types of seats available.

Extra Legroom seats are located at the front of the plane and in the exit rows.

Preferred seats are basic seats with a premium location towards the front of the plane.

Standard seats are basic seats in the back section of the plane.

Selecting Seats if You Have a Southwest Credit Card

Southwest cardholders all receive seating benefits. The exact type of seat you can choose and when you can choose it vary depending on the card you have. You'll get these benefits no matter how you pay for your ticket — as long as you are a cardholder and your Rapid Rewards number is added to your reservation.

Here's a breakdown of the different cards and what seating benefits they offer:

If you'd like to learn more about the Southwest cards, we have a Southwest credit card guide that compares all of the cards in more detail.

When you go to book your flight, the Southwest website makes it easy to see what benefits you get as a cardholder.

As a Southwest cardholder, you get seating benefits no matter what fare class you book. Even when booking the lowest fare class (Basic), credit card seating benefits still apply. This screenshot is for someone with the Priority card (highest level of benefits).

With the cardholder seating benefit, you can choose seats for yourself and up to 8 passengers traveling on the same reservation.

Selecting Seats if you Book for Someone Else

You can use your Rapid Rewards points to book a trip for anyone, which is great.

If you book a trip and you are not flying on that reservation, having a Southwest credit card will not allow you to select seats for the people who are flying. Even if you pay the taxes and fees with your Southwest credit card. To get the seating benefits, the primary cardholder must be traveling on the reservation.

However, if one of the people flying holds their own Southwest credit card, they can log into their account and select seats for everyone in the group after booking (up to 8 passengers).

Companion Pass Holders: Seat Selection for your Companion

As a companion pass holder, Southwest cardholders can also select a free seat for their companion.

When you add your companion, you will be able to select their seat for free at that time (or 48 hours before departure, depending on which card you hold).

Before you add a seat for your companion, make sure you know where your own seat is. This is important because when you go to select a seat for your companion, the system won't tell you where your seat is.

When you select your own seat, make a note of it. That way, when you go to choose a seat for your companion, you'll be able to choose a seat next to yours.

Selecting Seats if you do NOT Have a Southwest Credit Card

If you don't have a Southwest credit card and you want to be able to choose your seat for free, book a Choice fare class or higher.

The Choice fare allows you to select a standard seat for free at the time of booking.

The Choice fare class comes with several other benefits as well, such as earlier boarding time, free changes, and a further expiration date for flight credits if you need to cancel your flight.

(If you cancel a Basic fare flight, your flight credit will expire 6 months from the original booking date. If you book Choice or higher, flight credits expire 12 months from the booking date.)

Pay to Select a Seat

You can also opt to pay for a seat, either during the booking process or at any time after you've made a reservation.

Anyone can opt to purchase a Standard, Preferred, or Extra Legroom seat as long as they are available, regardless of the fare class booked. Prices vary depending on the seat location, route, dates, etc.

What Happens if I Don't Select a Seat?

If you don't select a seat, one will be automatically assigned to you at check-in. Customers who book the Basic fare class will be automatically assigned a Standard seat in the back section of the plane.

There's no guarantee that parties will be seated together.

Family Seating

Southwest does not guarantee that families will be able to sit together, but what they do say is that "Southwest will endeavor to assign a child (age 13 and under) a seat adjacent to one accompanying Passenger (14 and older) to the greatest extent practicable and at no additional cost."

If you get to the gate and you don't have seats together, you can ask a gate agent or flight attendant for help, and they will do their best to make sure each child is seated next to at least one adult. If that's not possible, they can move you to the next available flight with seats together if you wish.

You can read more about the Family Seating Policy on Southwest's website.

Family Boarding

Once assigned seating goes into effect, the boarding process is going to look completely different. There won't be a separate time for family boarding anymore.

Families will board together with the rest of their assigned boarding group.

Refunds and Exchanges for Seat Fees

Canceling a Paid Seat

Once you've paid for a seat, the only way to cancel that seat reservation is if you cancel the entire flight. If you do cancel the flight, you'll receive a flight credit for the cost of your paid seat.

Exchanging a Seat

You can exchange your seat for a different one as long as space is available. If you choose a new seat that costs the same or less than your original seat, no refund is given for the price difference.

If you move to a seat that costs more than your original seat, the way it works is you'll purchase the new seat, and then you'll automatically receive a refund to your original payment method for the cost of your original seat (in most cases).

The exception is if your original itinerary had connecting flights with a paid seat on each flight, and you switched to a non-stop flight with only one seat to select. In that case, only one of the original seats would be automatically refunded, but you could contact Southwest to request a refund for the second seat.

How Important is it to Select Seats Ahead of Time?

We don't know yet how important it will be to select seats ahead of time.

Some of the Southwest credit cards allow you to select a free seat at the time of booking, but several of them only allow you to choose seats 48 hours ahead of your flight.

It's hard to tell at this point if 48 hours will be enough time to get seats together as a family. It may turn out that there are still plenty of seats to choose from 48 hours ahead of time, but on popular routes or busy times of the year, there might not be.

It will take some time to see how seating availability works when people are actually using the system regularly. For now, if you want to guarantee that you'll be able to sit together as a family, it's a good idea to select seats ahead of time.

Keeping up with the Southwest Changes

There sure have been a lot of changes with Southwest this year! Check out our master post on all the Southwest Changes to stay up to date with what's happening.

For more info on earning a Companion Pass, we have a Companion Pass Guide that walks you through the whole process. If you're interested in earning a pass this year, don't miss the updated timeline for earning a Companion Pass in 2025.