It's a shift that changes the Southwest customer experience just as radically as its announcement in July 2024 that airline would no longer use an open-call seating system and instead move to a more traditional seat-assignment mode — with that seating model's associated cost increase passed on to the consumer.
A recent article on CNBC went so far as to claim that "Southwest Airlines as we know it is over."
Frequent fliers are left to wonder what now separates Southwest from other budget airlines with less-than-stellar reputations, and rightly so. We had the same question, so we decided to make a comparison between Southwest and its closest competitor at Denver International Airport, Frontier.
Southwest used to be a clear winner in this face-off, but are the odds changing? Here's what we found:
Bags
Let's begin with the most recent and arguably biggest change: no more free bags after May — at least, unless you're in the tippy-top tier of Southwest's reward program or flying Business Class, which sort of makes the free bags negligible, anyway. It's a change that even Southwest admits is all about driving revenue growth. Granted, there's no real way to hide the move behind some "better customer service" claim, as the company did with assigned (and price-leveled) seating.Southwest, has yet to reveal the bag fees, but the company announced that no other bag policies will change. In a head-to-head comparison with Frontier, that will be one of the differences: Southwest check bags max out at 50 pounds, while Frontier allows only 40 pounds or less. Is that much of a win? No.
Winner: Edge to Southwest for now, but barely
Boarding
The other major upcoming change to the Southwest experience was received by fliers with more annoyance than outrage: The cattle-call model of plane boarding definitely had its issues, but there were positives.On the one hand, Southwest's boarding required more attention, as consumers had to check in 24 hours before the takeoff to get a boarding group — or pay an extra fee for "Early Bird" access, essentially putting them on an invisible Southwest list of boarding order before the 24-hour deadline.
On the positive side — and something many customers will realize once it's taken away— was that the ability to choose your own seat meant being able to not sit next to that crying baby, a dude who definitely should have showered, or some lady who thought bringing egg salad on a flight was a good idea. Southwest's plans for tiered-price seating have yet to take effect; the latest projections suggest that ticketing in the new system won't start until the second half of 2025, and won't go into effect until 2026, but the structure itself seems very much the same as Frontier's. Until Southwest issues pricing models, it's impossible to compare affordability. Right now, the two are pretty same-same.
Winner: Draw
Seats
Seats aren't all about selection, of course. They're also about comfort. In that, we.hope Southwest won't be making any changes. Not that Southwest planes are giant tubes full of recliners, but they're still vastly superior to the not-much-better-than-bus seats offered by Frontier. Sitting in the Rockpile at Coors Field is more plush than what Frontier offers.To be clear: we're comparing regular seats here, so Frontier's new first-class section doesn't apply. (And doesn't make sense, either: Frontier and first-class go together like McDonald's and fine dining.)
Winner: Southwest by a comfortable measure
Service
In a statistical match-up measuring customer service done by Comparably, Southwest rates a 4.2 on a five-point scale...and Frontier can only manage a 1.5. While not definitive, it matches up with anecdotal evidence you might find from fliers, who often report that Frontier help desks are empty, and employees who are around don't seem all that happy. And that lines up with another rating on the same website: Frontier's workers show a 51 percent satisfaction rate in Overall Company Culture, compared to 78 percent for Southwest.Southwest has dealt with its fair share of customer complaints over the years, including a total service meltdown in the 2022 holiday season that resulted in thousands of canceled flights and a $140 million fine by the Department of Transportation. But still, the satisfaction numbers — unlike, say, financial security in America's economy — do, in fact, trickle down.
Winner: Southwest
WiFi
This one's pretty easy to call. Frontier still doesn't even offer WiFi on its flights, whereas Southwest boasts several options, from free in-flight movies and TV to an $8 charge (per leg, which is pretty chintzy if you have a layover). Still, it exists, which is something Frontier can't say. This is 2025, Frontier. Stop trying to party like it's still 1999.Winner: Southwest by default
Drinks
Here's another category in which Southwest wins just by not being as much of a money-grubbing asshat company as Frontier...yet. Frontier Airlines used to offer not only free non-alcoholic drinks but also warm chocolate-chip cookies. Sure, they were pre-made and re-heated so as to offer an illusion of hominess...but, hell, that was something. It's also ancient history for Frontier, which not only canceled the cookies, but any free drinks, too. Again, Southwest: Here's to you, for achieving the bare minimum.Winner: Southwest by default
Trays
An airline seat tray is like milk on Corn Pops: you only notice when it's bad. Southwest's trays are a full seat wide, the traditional models for airlines for decades now. Frontier, for some reason, decided that these were too large, and determined that so long as it was reducing all the other amenities of the flight experience, it might as well make its new trays tiny and vestigial.Winner: Southwest
Fleet Size
Perhaps one of the biggest factors in the Southwest-versus-Frontier flying experience has to do with the booking options — and those are a direct result of each carrier's number of aircraft in-fleet. Southwest takes the win here by boasting a significant number of planes over Frontier. This relates not only to routes and frequency, but also options if a flight has to be cancelled. Southwest's fleet size as of 2025 is an all-Boeing 737 grouping of 803 total aircraft, as compared to Frontier's, which is smaller not only in the size of the planes, but also in number: only 132 planes of differing passenger capacities. In the flight game, size matters.Winner: Southwest
