For years, wheelchair lines were one of the strangest sights we saw on Southwest flights between Hawaii and the mainland. We sometimes counted 15 to 30 wheelchairs waiting to board, then saw far fewer passengers using them when those flights arrived.
Under Southwest’s open-seating system, the incentive was obvious. Wheelchair preboarding meant getting on first, and getting on first meant first choice of seats. When we wrote about what had become known as “Jetway Jesus” in 2024, the article drew 128 comments.
Assigned seating appeared to fix it.
When Southwest switched to assigned seating this past January, we expected those lines to shrink because boarding order no longer determined who sat where. On two Southwest Hawaii flights earlier this year, we went back and counted again. The prior 15-plus count had become just one or two, a change we reported after experiencing Southwest’s new assigned seating.
Southwest COO Andrew Watterson (previously of Hawaiian Airlines) has confirmed that wheelchair requests have declined. Appearing on a recent podcast, he also described an unexpected problem created by new assigned seating. Wheelchair passengers who once tended to sit near the front after preboarding can now be assigned seats throughout the aircraft, adding time when they have to be moved farther into the cabin.
Southwest’s response to the problem caught our attention. Watterson said the airline holds back blocks of seats rather than making every seat available for advance purchase or reservation, and those blocks have been underused. Call center employees are now contacting some customers who requested wheelchair assistance to see if they would like to move forward into them.
A seating advantage is back in a different form.
The part that makes that more interesting under Southwest’s new seating model is that location now has a distinct price. Extra Legroom seats are at the front of the cabin and near exit rows, while Preferred seats have standard legroom but are also near the front. Depending on fare, status, and credit card benefits, passengers generally have to pay extra to select them.
Watterson didn’t say these wheelchair passengers are automatically getting free Extra Legroom seats, or that every blocked seat being offered would otherwise cost more. So we wouldn’t automatically call this a new free-premium-seat trick.
What Southwest has confirmed, instead, is narrower than that and more interesting. Requesting wheelchair assistance can now result in the airline calling to offer to move a passenger farther forward than their originally assigned seat, precisely because Southwest needs to make the new boarding process work better and faster.
Hawaii showed how powerful the old incentive could be.
We saw a striking difference between mainland-Hawaii and short flights within Hawaii. The enormous wheelchair lines we encountered on mainland routes were nothing like what we typically saw flying between the islands, where the value of securing a particular seat for a short flight was considerably less.
That was part of what made the change after assigned seating so interesting. Our 2024 reporting documented how the old system worked, and our flights this year gave us a chance to see what happened after the incentive disappeared.
There is no evidence that passengers are exploiting Southwest’s new procedure, at least not yet, and legitimate wheelchair users should obviously not be viewed suspiciously just because others may have abused the old system. What Southwest is doing also makes clear operational sense: moving someone closer to the front can make boarding and deplaning easier for the passenger, airline employees, and everyone else waiting.
The unanswered question is what is happening as travelers discover that requesting wheelchair assistance can once again lead to a better seat location at no additional cost. We all saw a version of that incentive play out on Hawaii flights for years, which is why we’ll be especially interested to see whether those wheelchair lines stay as short as they are now. We’ll report back on this phenomenon soon.
Have you flown Southwest since assigned seating began, and what have you noticed about wheelchair boarding?
Lead Photo Credit: © Beat of Hawaii landing at LIH on Southwest
By Rob and Jeff, Beat of Hawaii.
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Your article certainly created awareness that may lead to passengers testing a new practice where “requesting wheelchair assistance can … lead to a better seat location at no additional cost.” I personally think the boarding process of every airline needs reinvention. There are so many exceptions (pre-board, military, families with young children, mileage status, etc.) that there are oftentimes very few people still in the gate holding area when general boarding starts!
Ah, yes, the Southwest Airlines ‘miracle flights’ – although this ‘miraculous cure’ of faux disabilities certainly isn’t limited to only WN and HA. There’s nothing else quite like seeing someone wheeled in a wheelchair to the baggage pickup area, where they then get out of their wheelchair, retireve their luggage, and walk out of the airport!
This is not just an issue that used to be there for Hawaii flights. If you look at any flight from Sacramento going to Mexico you will see just as many if not more wheelchairs. This issue is also on flights from India to the US via one of the hubs in Asia. You have many people exploiting this loophole. I don’t understand why the service is free since it costs money and the cost is put on other airline passengers. As long as it’s a free service, people will exploit it. We call them the wheelchair brigade.
One advantage when flights are full: Earlier boarding improves chance of getting overhead space near your seat. Most, not all, flight attendants do block front overheads for Extra Leg Room front seats. Also I notice many handicapped people do reserve (buy?) these.
Hawaiian has been suffering from the same disease and it’s insulting to any decent human playing by the rules. 15+ wheelchairs at the departure gate, and hardly any upon arrival. Those long haul flights have miraculous healing properties.
The solution is super simple. Have them board last and they’ll disappear in no time.
There must be a better solution than throwing the baby out with the bath water! Being one of those wheel chair ‘needers’ …I have assigned seating just like You (impossible to grab those choice seats just to piss you off)… and contrary to your Huge carryon bag + coats +backpacks, my carryon is generally small or non-existent as I still walk-on the plane (even tho’ it IS painful) so as not to create more havoc. We are All not bullies trying to scam the system…and I can assure you we do not enjoy the pain and limited mobility.