Southwest Airlines is adding a new ticket type

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Southwest Airlines has been teasing travelers and investors for months with talk of a new fare category featuring perks not offered to buyers of its cheapest tickets.

In December, the airline’s chief commercial officer said the undisclosed perks were something for which customers would “happily pay a little bit more.”

“This will be an upsell that will be for enhanced attributes,” Andrew Watterson said.

On the airline’s earnings call in late January, new CEO Bob Jordan touted the fare category, which will boost Southwest’s ticket classes from three to four, as a promising revenue initiative for 2022.

Last week, Southwest Chief Financial Officer Tammy Romo said more details on the new fare offering, which will roll out by June, are “coming soon“.

The drawn-out disclosure – the airline has been testing names for a fourth fare category since at least 2019 – is classic Southwest marketing and has prompted speculation online about what the new fare category, and those above and below it, might look like.

Frequent guesses on the possible perk(s) to entice travelers to buy up to the unnamed new ticket type from the cheapest ticket, called Wanna Get Away: early boarding (Southwest famously doesn’t assign seats), extra frequent flyer points, free Wi-Fi or more ticket flexibility.

There have also been plenty of hot takes on the changes in general since Watterson discussed the new fare at length, with few details, at the airline’s investor day in December.

“Sigh. more fare inflation under the guise of ‘choice,'” lamented one poster on the Southwest forum on FlyerTalk.

Here’s what travelers need to know about Southwest Airlines tickets, why the airline is shaking things up and possible options on the table. 

Southwest Airlines tickets 101: Wanna Get Away, Anytime, Business Select

Southwest, the nation’s largest domestic carrier, currently has three ticket types:

► Business Select, its priciest fare, which is refundable and comes with a prime boarding position, an alcoholic beverage and other perks; 

► Anytime, a similarly pricey ticket that is also refundable but doesn’t come with the Business Select extras; and

► Wanna Get Away, its lowest-priced ticket.

All three earn frequent flyer points, with business select tickets having the highest multiplier, at 12 times the fare, Wanna Get Away the fewest, at six times the fare.

All tickets come with two free checked bags and no ticket-change fees, though travelers do have to pay any difference between the fare they paid and the going fare when they change a ticket – a pricey proposition when done last minute. 

Why is Southwest adding a fourth ticket type?  

Southwest’s goal with the new fare category and expected changes to existing categories is simple: boost ticket revenue. Jordan told investors in January that the new fare offering, combined with a new computer system to better manage fares, will provide a “material boost” in Southwest’s revenue beginning this year.

A new fare category with extra perks is designed to entice vacationers and small- to medium-size businesses who buy its cheapest tickets to buy up, though not to the degree the purchase of a refundable anytime or business select ticket would require.

Source: Southwest Airlines

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