Southwest Airlines to Charge for Early Boarding

Travel Files. — By Alex on September 7, 2009

Source: Associated Press

If you have ever flown on Southwest Airlines then you are familiar with their unique style of boarding their passengers. Instead of assigning seats like most airlines, Southwest divides its passengers into groups and boards one group at a time, with the seating up for grabs. This boarding style makes being in the early groups very valuable. Until now, only “elite” travelers could be assured of boarding first, but starting on September 10th that will change

Southwest Airlines is introducing a new feature called Early Bird Check-in that will allow passengers to pay a $10 fee for the opportunity to board the plane just after elite passengers. Travelers will be able to become early birds by registering online up to 25 hours before their scheduled flight departure time.

For now, Southwest remains as one of a very few airlines not charging for checked bags, but with announcements like this it seems as though charging for checked bags is inevitable