All the Hacks · Wednesday, August 12, 2026
After flying on Southwest's revamped planes, Chris Hutchins noted the experience felt similar to other airlines, with a surprising availability of extra legroom seats. He observed that even with A-list status, many extra legroom seats were empty, offering a contrast to experiences with airlines like United and American.
“Have you flown the new Southwest with the new boarding, new seats? I have, yeah. It felt a lot like any other airline. I mean, that's what they were going for, so it's just another airline now.”
“When I went to go pick extra leg room seats within 48 hours, everything was open. Half, if not more than half of the extra leg room seats in the front were empty.”
“When I was on Southwest, I had the whole row to myself yesterday. You know, I was in row four. There were no people next to me at all, and most of the rows had one to zero passengers in them.”
“And I think something that the higher fee cards include. And they handed out multiple snacks. I got a bag of pistachios. Like, I was really impressed with the experience on Southwest.”