Southwest Airlines Wants More Customers to Pay Extra Fees
Southwest Airlines Wants More Customers to Pay Extra Fees
Kevin HarrishSun, September 20, 2026 at 10:30 AM UTC
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Back in May of 2025, Southwest Airlines officially ended its longstanding “bags fly free” policy as the carrier began charging passengers for their checked luggage in an attempt to boost profits. Now, over a year later, not only does that plan seem to have worked, but it sounds like Southwest is planning to extract even more money from its customers.
During a recent conference, Southwest Airlines Chief Financial Officer Tom Doxey had a pretty telling message for customers as he made it pretty clear that the company’s goal is to continue to get customers to pay more for add-ons and extras in the coming years.
Southwest Ended Free Bags
Over the years, Southwest was well known for its customer-friendly “bags fly free” policy that allowed each passenger two checked bags free of charge. This policy came to an end in May of 2025 as Southwest Airlines looked to boost profits.
At the time, CEO Bob Jordan described the move as a “tremendous opportunity” to help the airline achieve its financial goals.
“We have tremendous opportunity to meet current and future customer needs, attract new customer segments we don’t compete for today, and return to the levels of profitability that both we and our shareholders expect,” Jordan said at the time.
Under the policy, travelers were charged $35 for their first checked bag and $45 for a second checked bag. A service that had previously allowed passengers to check two bags at no cost now carried a total price tag of $80.
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Less than a year after it began charging for checked luggage, Southwest raised those fees again as oil prices surged worldwide amid the conflict in Iran. The airline increased each fee by $10, bringing the cost of a first checked bag to $45 and a second checked bag to $55. As a result, checking two bags now costs travelers $100 for a perk that was once completely free.
In addition to ending free checked baggage, Southwest also eliminated its open-seating policy. Now, customers must buy an upgraded fare or pay extra to choose their seats.
Southwest Sends a Message
While the move was quite unpopular at the time, the reality is that Southwest accomplished its goals with the move. The airline successfully boosted profits, and despite the initial complaints, customer satisfaction has remained high. As a result, it sounds like Southwest is going to continue trying to extract as much money as possible from its customers.
During an appearance at Morgan Stanley’s annual Laguna Conference in California on Tuesday, Southwest CFO Tom Doxey confirmed that the airline is now collecting $2 billion a year from the checked baggage fees and seat selection fees. More than that, he said that customers paying extra fees on top of their fare have gone up from 20% all the way up to 60%, and it sounds like Southwest wants that number to be even higher.
Doxey said that the 60% statistic is “not a ceiling” for the company, meaning the airline is going to try to get even more customers to pay additional fees on top of their ticket price.
Unfortunately, it seems like ending free bags was just the beginning of the extra fees Southwest wants customers to pay.
This story was originally published by Men's Journal on Sep 20, 2026, where it first appeared in the Travel section. Add Men's Journal as a Preferred Source by clicking here.
Source: “AOL Money”
