Southwest Airlines, which has long had the friendliest policy for plus-size passengers in the U.S. airline industry, will transition to a more stringent one when introducing assigned seats in January.
Beginning with the Jan. 27 transition to assigned seating, flyers who require two seats because they encroach on a neighboring seat will be required to purchase an additional seat and pay any applicable seat fee. That differs from the current policy, in which plus-sized flyers can be accommodated for free if an adjacent seat is available when boarding. Currently, flyers also can purchase an extra seat in advance and then apply for a refund. In fact, Southwest encourages customers to take that step to ensure seat availability.
After the transition to assigned seating, the airline will still offer refunds on the adjacent seat, provided the flight departs with at least one open seat.
The new policy will still be more customer-friendly than the policies of Southwest's largest U.S. competitors. United and American require customers who can't fit in one seat to buy a second seat, and they don't offer refunds. At the gate, Delta accommodates plus-sized flyers with a free adjacent seat if one is available, but it doesn't offer refunds for extra seats purchased in advance.