Earlier this year, Southwest Airlines announced that it would be ditching its open seating policy and moving to an assigned seating model that would include seats with extra leg room at the front of the plane.
While assigned seating will not be coming to the airline until January, Southwest has been gradually retrofitting its fleet of Boeing 737 aircraft with the new layout, including the seats with extra leg room at the front of the plane.
That means that for a limited time, those extra legroom seats will be available free of charge for those lucky enough to fly on a Southwest plane that has already been retrofitted.
Southwest Adds Extra Legroom Seats
Throughout its history, Southwest Airlines has never offered premium seating options to its customers. The airline used a rather democratic open seating model where all seats were the same (outside of the exit row seats, offering a bit of extra space).
With Southwest moving away from that open-seating model, however, that is changing.
Earlier this year, Southwest Airlines announced that it would be adding seats with extra legroom on all of its flights by the beginning of 2026.
“To prepare for assigned and premium seating, Southwest Employees will retrofit aircraft to accommodate new, Extra Legroom seats,” Southwest announced back in April. “This large-scale effort will touch every single plane in the Southwest fleet between April 30 and the end of the year and tangibly paves the way for selling assigned seating in third quarter 2025 and operating in first quarter 2026.”
Southwest Rolls Out the Change
While Southwest is not expected to have all of its planes retrofitted until the end of the year, the airline has gradually been adding the extra legroom seats to its flights. In fact, asThe Points Guy reports, Southwest has already retrofitted 380 of its planes with the new seating setup, which amounts to about 47% of its fleet.
The extra legroom seats make up the first five rows of the aircraft, as well as the three rows around the exit row of the plane.
It’s worth noting that while these seats will eventually be sold to customers at a premium price, it is just standard coach seats with a bit of extra legroom. The seat itself is the same as the rest of the plane, and there is no difference in width.
It’s also worth noting that since Southwest Airlines will still be operating under its open seating policy through the end of the year, these extra legroom seats will be available free of charge until then on a first-come, first-served basis.
How to Get the Free Extra Legroom Seats
Southwest Airlines will begin charging extra for the extra legroom seats beginning in the early part of 2026. Until then, however, the seats will be available to anyone free of charge, as long as you’re one of the first to board the plane.
As Sean Cudahy of The Points Guy recently explained, the best way to secure one of these seats is to make sure you are in the A boarding group. This can be done by being one of the first to check into your flight, since Southwest planes currently board in order of check-in time.
Alternatively, holding A-List elite status or purchasing an EarlyBird pass would help, too, but that is hardly free.
“Until the airline officially makes the shift to open seating, customers with A-group boarding will certainly have the best shot at scoring an extra-legroom seat on flights offering the new layout,” Cudahy wrote. “Customers who have A-List elite status, or who purchase its EarlyBird or Upgraded Boarding products, will also have a better chance at scoring one of those seats.”
As far as which planes will have the extra legroom seats available, that mostly comes down to luck, depending on your flight. The Points Guy reports that all of Southwest’s flights to and from Hawaii have been equipped with the extra legroom seats.
Outside of that, it comes down to luck of the draw, but your chances will continue to get better later in the year as more and more planes are retrofitted.
