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Southwest Airlines passengers who have adjusted to assigned seats, new boarding groups, and checked bag fees have another change coming.

Beginning this weekend, the carrier will increase planned boarding times to give passengers and crew more breathing room to get settled on the plane.

It sounds like a small change. But across the airline’s enormous network, it will affect thousands of flights.

Many aviation experts think one of the biggest reasons for this additional boarding time is another major Southwest Airlines policy shift. Passengers are now bringing more luggage into the cabin ever since the airline eliminated its famous “Two Bags Fly Free” perk.

Most Southwest Airlines Flights Will Start Boarding 5 Minutes Earlier

Beginning August 1, 2026, Southwest Airlines will give itself more time to board the majority of its domestic flights. Boeing 737-800 and 737 MAX 8 flights will begin the boarding process about five minutes earlier, shifting from roughly 30 minutes before departure to 35 minutes. The smaller Boeing 737-700 keeps the existing 30-minute schedule. International and Hawaii services are also unchanged at 45 minutes.

TWU Local 556, which represents Southwest Airlines flight attendants, revealed the new report times ahead of their August 1 launch.

Technically, the change concerns when flight attendants are required to report to the gate. But the carrier generally starts boarding soon after crews arrive, meaning passengers on the affected aircraft can expect the boarding process to start approximately five minutes earlier as well.

And this is hardly a niche group of flights.

Paddle Your Own Kanoo estimates Southwest Airlines operates around 500 737-800 and MAX 8 aircraft, which makes up about 65% of its fleet. The carrier ended 2025 with 803 aircraft, including 300 MAX 8s, according to its annual report. The airline continues to operate thousands of departures across its network, with more than 4,600 scheduled on the Sunday after Thanksgiving alone this year, according to TravelPulse.

Southwest Airlines’ Checked Bag Fees Have Put More Suitcases In The Cabin

The new boarding window arrives a little more than a year after Southwest Airlines abandoned one of its best-known perks: two checked bags for free.

Ending that policy on May 28, 2025, changed the flow at the airport. Passengers who previously had little reason to drag a roller bag through security could suddenly save money by taking it onboard instead.

Some passengers still qualify for free baggage. Choice Extra customers and A-List Preferred members receive two free checked bags, while A-List members and qualifying Rapid Rewards credit card holders receive their first bag free, subject to program terms and conditions.

But everyone else now has more incentive to fit their belongings into the cabin. That can create a second problem.

More carry-ons mean more passengers stopping in the aisle to find overhead space. Bins can fill before boarding is complete, forcing travelers to move farther from their assigned seat looking for room. Once the aircraft runs out of space, bags may have to be tagged and moved into the cargo hold at the gate.

The aircraft simply must wait until all this chaos plays out before it can even think about takeoff.

Southwest Airlines hasn’t openly admitted that the August 1 change was simply a direct consequence of charging for bags. But it has acknowledged that overhead-bin congestion can affect operations. In its 2025 annual report, the company said its expanding installation of larger overhead bins was expected to produce “better operational metrics” and fewer gate-checked bags.

Assigned seating made the carry-on problem more complicated

Bag fees weren’t the only major change to Southwest Airlines’ boarding process this year.

On January 27, 2026, the carrier ended more than 50 years of open seating and moved to assigned seats and eight boarding groups. Under the old system, passengers boarded and took whichever available seat they wanted. Carry-on luggage could generally go into an available bin near wherever they eventually sat.

Assigned seating upended that entire process.

Passengers now arrive onboard already heading for a specific row. If the overhead compartment there is full, a flyer may stop to look for another bin, try to move backward through the aisle, or ask crew members for help. Multiply that by a full 737 carrying significantly more cabin luggage, and a 30-minute boarding window becomes less realistic.

Paddle Your Own Kanoo reports that Southwest Airlines began seeing more noticeable boarding difficulties after assigned seating debuted, particularly as passengers encountered fully-stuffed overhead bins near their designated seats.

The larger aircraft getting the new 35-minute window may make the problem worse simply because they carry more people. The 737-800 and MAX 8 have roughly 30 to 40 more seats than the carrier’s smaller 737-700s.

That helps explain why the 737-700 keeps its existing schedule while the larger aircraft get another five minutes.

Southwest Airlines Has Already Been Trying To Get More Bags Out Of The Cabin

The August change is not the company’s first attempt to address the carry-on problem.

Earlier this year, reports emerged that Southwest Airlines was encouraging employees to proactively find volunteers willing to check carry-on bags before reaching the gate. Passengers themselves have also noticed the increased pressure to do so.

In one Reddit discussion, one Southwest Airlines traveler said they had taken four flights and heard requests for volunteers to check carry-ons on every single one. The passenger argued that eliminating free checked bags had pushed people to pack their entire trips into roller bags and large personal items, leaving less overhead space than usual.

“If Southwest doesn’t want to go back to 2 free check bags at least give us 1 free check bag. This is getting a bit ridiculous,” they wrote.

Southwest Airlines is installing larger overhead bins across its fleet. As of the end of 2025, 146 newly delivered MAX 8s already had the larger bins, while another 39 MAX 8s and 15 737-800s had been retrofitted. Southwest said it intended to retrofit the remaining MAX 8 and 737-800 fleet by the end of 2026.

Until then, adding five minutes to boarding is another way to give gate agents and crews extra breathing room when the cabin fills with luggage.

Southwest Airlines Passengers May Want To Be At The Gate Earlier Starting August 1

The change doesn’t mean Southwest Airlines is moving scheduled departure times five minutes earlier. A 10 a.m. flight is still scheduled for 10 a.m.

But it may change how early passengers decide to arrive at the gate.

The airline’s existing passenger guidance says boarding can begin as early as 30 minutes before departure and encourages travelers to be in the gate area no later than that point. Passengers must be at the gate and available to board at least 10 minutes before departure or the airline may cancel their reservation.

However, the additional five minutes of boarding time just added to many flights is particularly relevant to passengers with an early boarding group who care about overhead-bin space.

Assigned seating means arriving later no longer costs passengers their preferred seat the way it did during the carrier’s open-seating era. Their seat is already theirs.

Their preferred spot in the overhead bin, however, is not.

Southwest Airlines still allows a carry-on bag and personal item onboard for free, even as checked baggage carries a fee for many passengers. So travelers looking to save $45 by carrying their suitcase aboard may want to be ready at the gate when their group is called.

The irony is difficult to ignore. Southwest Airlines spent decades using free checked bags partly within an operating model famous for extremely fast aircraft turnarounds. After ending that perk, the airline has to give many of those same flights more time to get everyone and their luggage onboard.

Five minutes may not sound like that big of a deal, but repeated across the majority of an airline’s fleet, it can make a noticeable difference. With Southwest Airlines facing thousands of flight delays in recent months, the cascading effects could give passengers one less reason to stay loyal to the carrier.