There’s been a lot of belt-tightening at Southwest Airlines lately.
Last year, the carrier nixed its popular and longstanding perk allowing each passenger two free checked bags. The company also hiked its annual credit card fees and devalued its frequent flyer points. Open seating in the cabin was replaced with fee-based seat selection tiers.
Now part of tightening the company's belt involves inspecting yours.
Starting in late January, Southwest officially updated its policy for customers of size to require any passengers “who encroach upon the neighboring seat(s)” to purchase additional seats, including on undersold flights with empty rows.
The backlash from many Southwest customers has been considerable.
"They want to call it discernment," says Kenny Slack, a hairstylist and teacher who frequently travels for work. "It's discrimination."
In the past few months, there's been a steady torrent of social media posts from Southwest flyers, including Slack, claiming they’ve been singled out by check-in agents, gate agents, and supervisors, who informed the passengers they needed to purchase multiple seats, even when the flyers say they've flown without incident on other legs of their trips.
"The manner in which [the policy is] being applied is so inconsistent and unfair," says author Meg Elison, who also shared her experience on TikTok.
How Southwest's customer-of-size policy has changed
Previously, Southwest gate agents or flight attendants would work with customers of size to reserve a second adjacent seat, if available, at no additional cost.
Now those flyers are required to purchase second seats upfront.
Southwest recommends purchasing the extra seat in advance if you think you'll need one. Otherwise, you'll have to purchase the additional seat at the airport and pay that day's full market rate.
If there are no extra seats available, you could be rebooked on a later flight. If the determination is made that you need an extra seat after you board the plane, you could be booted before rebooking.
Granted, it is possible to request a refund for the extra seat later. But there are conditions: the flight must have departed with at least one open seat, both seats have to be purchased in the same fare class, your itinerary can't include a partner airline, and the refund request must be made within 90 days of travel.
If the flight fills up or any of the other conditions aren't met, no refund will be issued.
So it’s a gamble—and when purchased at the last minute, a potentially expensive one.
Online backlash against Southwest's new rules for plus-size passengers
The policy change may not seem like a big deal at first—who wants a stranger encroaching on their seat?—but passengers are reporting inconsistencies in how Southwest enforces the rules.
Customers have described embarrassing encounters, vague thresholds, and differing enforcement across body types—men with broad upper bodies, for instance, being overlooked while women with wide hips are asked to pay more.
Some online creators are chronicling the "what-if?" anxiety of flying Southwest, while others have described the new policy as a "fat tax," sometimes alongside more NSFW phrases.
Prior to the change, Southwest had a "great customer of size policy,” Elison tells Frommer’s.
The science fiction author says she flies about 10 times a year. Before Southwest's plus-size policy change, Elison says the carrier had "wonderful customer service. ... They would ask like, ‘Hey, would you be more comfortable in [row] 15? It's a completely empty row.' That was great.”
Southwest was Elison’s carrier of choice until earlier this year, when—on the second segment of a multileg trip–she was notified by a gate agent that she’d have to pay for an extra seat in order to continue boarding.
She did so—and ended up sitting amid "12 empty seats on this flight,” she says.
Eventually Elison filed for a refund. According to her, Southwest "wrote back to me and said they didn’t owe me a refund because my original seat ... wasn’t the same ticket type, so it didn’t count.”
She was provided a one-time courtesy refund, but the “humiliating” experience was so off-putting she doesn’t plan on flying with Southwest again.
Her viral post kicked off a conversation, with thousands contributing their own experiences and concerns about flying with Southwest in light of the rule change.
How do you know if you’re too big to fly in one seat under Southwest’s new policy?
“The armrest is considered to be the definitive boundary between seats,” according to Southwest’s official rules.
But that isn’t aligning with customers’ on-the-ground—er, in-the-air—experience.
The passengers we spoke with, along with many social media testimonials, report being able to lower both armrests on the plane, yet still being required by Southwest to buy extra seats.
In other words, customers who do not require a seat belt extender and who are able to lower both armrests could still be forced to purchase an additional seat.
And because customers of size are often approached by Southwest employees prior to boarding, there’s no way for these flyers to demonstrate that they wouldn't, in fact, encroach upon a neighbor.
In many cases, Southwest staffers are simply eyeballing it.
“[The policy] says our employees have final discretion for safety purposes,” a Southwest spokesperson tells Frommer’s in a written statement. “In those situations, we invite customers to contact our Customer Service team and we will work with them toward a resolution.”
It makes sense that Southwest would want to give staff members agency in these situations in order to avoid getting in a tit for tat with passengers about measurements.
But the resulting ambiguity creates an inconsistent, unpredictable, and possibly unfair passenger experience.
“ What about people that are super broad-shouldered, and bodybuilders that would spill over on the top, but not the bottom?” asks Slack.
“I can't tell you how many times I've sat next to a man whose shoulder was in my space, whose legs were entirely in my space because of the manspreading issue, or how many times I've been elbowed in the face by a fellow passenger,” echoes Elison. “Because the truth is, we're packed in like sardines no matter what size we are.”
For reference, the seat width of Southwest's aircraft ranges from 15.5 inches to 17.5 inches, depending on the plane.
Before booking with Southwest, travelers who are concerned that they may be asked to purchase a second seat might want to get out the tape measure. If any body part extends beyond the above dimensions, it might be smart to buy an adjacent seat ahead of time.
Otherwise, you could be singled out at the airport and made to purchase an extra seat at that day’s rate.
Slack, for one, doesn't think Southwest is worth that kind of an expense.
“For how much it costs to purchase a ticket on Southwest and upgrade your seat to the extra legroom, and then potentially also to have to buy an extra seat," he says, "you could spend less money and get a business class ticket on Delta or United or American."