Raphael Stevens

Southwest Airlines will start charging many passengers for checked bags on Wednesday.
The policy ends more than half a century of “two bags fly free” for all passengers.
Travelers with Southwest credit cards or who book in the highest classes of service can still check bags without paying a fee.

Passengers check in for Southwest Airlines flights at Chicago Midway International Airport on Feb. 18, 2025 in Chicago, Illinois.
Scott Olson | Getty Images

Set your alarm. Southwest Airlines customers have only one day to go before the company starts charging to check bags for the first time in more than half a century.
Starting Wednesday, Southwest will end its blanket “two bags fly free” policy.

It was a perk that was sacrosanct among customers and the airlines’ longtime executives alike, setting the airline apart from competitors. But baggage fees brought in nearly $7.3 billion for U.S. airlines last year, according to federal data, and Southwest executives who have long vowed to hold onto the policy have been under pressure to raise revenue.
The airline hasn’t yet said how much it will charge to check bags, but rivals generally charge about $35 or $40 for a first checked bag for domestic flights, though there are some exceptions.
Along with starting to charge for checked bags, Southwest has announced major changes to its business model over the past year, like getting rid of open seating. The carrier is also debuting basic-economy tickets like those sold by Delta Air Lines, American Airlines and United Airlines on Wednesday.
Here’s what travelers should know about the end of free bags on Southwest:

What is changing?

Southwest will no longer offer two free checked bags with many tickets purchased on or after Wednesday. For tickets purchased before then, a Southwest spokesman said the carrier will honor the terms of those fares, like the two free checked bags.

The fees will apply to its no-frills Basic, its Wanna Get Away Plus and its Anytime fares.
Southwest announced the policy in March after months of pressure from activist Elliott Investment Management, which took a stake in the airline last year and won five board seats, pushing for major changes at the company like its free checked bags, changeable tickets and open seating.

Are there exemptions?

Yes. Travelers with top-tier status in Southwest’s Rapid Rewards loyalty program will get two free checked bags, as will customers in the highest-level Business Select fares.
Customers with a Southwest Airlines co-branded credit card and their travel companions booked together with the same card won’t get charged for their first standard checked bag.
A-List frequent flyer members, the second-highest tier in the loyalty program, will also get their first bag checked free of charge.

Read more CNBC airline news

New fare type: Basic

Southwest on Wednesday will also start selling basic-economy tickets.
With the new Basic fare, customers won’t be able to make changes to their tickets, they’ll be among the last customers to board and their fare credits will expire in six months, compared with 12 months for other ticket classes.
In another change, the airline is ending its Wanna Get Away fare, which was the lowest tier ticket before the changes.

What about assigned seats?

Southwest has been known for its open-seating model for decades. Loyalists often obsessively check in a day before their flight in hopes of scoring a favorable boarding slot.
But later this year, Southwest says it will start selling tickets for flights in 2026 that will have seat assignments. It is also outfitting its planes with extra legroom seats, like many of its competitors, that fetch higher prices.

Can Southwest handle it?

Southwest executives have told staff that they expect passengers to carry on more luggage (those policies for free carry-ons aren’t changing) and have said the airline is installing larger overhead bins on its Boeing fleet, which should help with an influx of carry-on bags.
Executives have also said staff will get mobile bag-tag printers at gates and airport lobbies to assist customers.

Are people mad?

Southwest can hardly post on social media — even about babies and puppies on board — without getting angry comments about the changed baggage policy.
But CEO Bob Jordan told CNBC last month that the policy change announcement the company made on March 11 hasn’t deterred customers.
“We have seen no book-down on that day or after that day,” he said on “Squawk on the Street” on April 24. More

The deal includes 40% increases in “total economic improvements” in the first year.
United Airlines’ flight attendants had pushed for better pay, scheduling and other quality of life improvements.
The deal must still be approved by membership.

United Airline flight attendants picketed outside Terminal B at Logan Airport Thursday morning seeking a new contract.
John Tlumacki | Boston Globe | Getty Images

United Airlines reached an “industry-leading” tentative labor deal for its 28,000 flight attendants, their union said Friday.
The deal includes “40% of total economic improvements” in the first year and retroactive pay, a signing bonus, and quality of life improvements, like better scheduling and on-call time, the Association of Flight Attendants-CWA said.

The union did not provide further details about the deal.
United flight attendants have not had a raise since 2020.
The cabin crew members voted last year to authorize the union to strike if a deal wasn’t reached. They had also sought federal mediation in negotiations.

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U.S. flight attendants have pushed for wage increases for years after pilots and other work groups secured new labor deals in the wake of the pandemic. United is the last of the major U.S. carriers to get a deal done with its flight attendants.
The deal must still face a vote by flight attendants, and contract language will be finalized in the coming days, United said. More

Boeing and the Justice Department reached a deal that would allow the aircraft maker to avoid prosecution for a fraud charge tied to two 737 Max crashes, which killed 346 people.
Crash victims’ family members have repeatedly called for more accountability and for Boeing officials to stand trial over the crashes.
Boeing had a three-year agreement with the Justice Department in the last days of the first Trump administration that shielded it from prosecution from a fraud charge over the Max aircraft’s development.

Ethiopian Federal policemen stand at the scene of the Ethiopian Airlines Flight ET 302 plane crash, near the town of Bishoftu, southeast of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia March 11, 2019.
Tiksa Negeri | Reuters

The U.S. Justice Department said Friday that it has reached a deal with Boeing that will allow the aircraft maker to avoid prosecution over two crashes of its 737 Max planes that killed 346 people.
The non-prosecution agreement would allow Boeing, a major military contractor and top U.S. exporter, to avoid being labeled a felon. The decision means Boeing won’t face trial as scheduled next month, as crash victims’ family members have urged for years.

The Department of Justice met with crash victims’ family members last week to discuss the potential deal.
In a court filing Friday the DOJ said it “is the Government’s judgment that the Agreement is a fair and just resolution that serves the public interest.”
The agreement “guarantees further accountability and substantial benefits from Boeing immediately, while avoiding the uncertainty and litigation risk presented by proceeding to trial.”
The DOJ said it intends to file a motion to dismiss the case once the “agreement in principle” is finalized, by no later than the end of next week.
Under the agreement, Boeing will have to “pay or invest” more than $1.1 billion, the DOJ said in its filing in federal court in Texas on Friday. That amount includes a $487.2 million criminal fine, though $243.6 million it already paid in an earlier agreement would be credited. It also includes $444.5 million for a new fund for crash victims, and $445 million more on compliance, safety and quality programs.

Boeing declined to comment.
The company has been trying for years to put the two crashes of its best-selling Max planes — a Lion Air flight in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight less than five months later — behind it. The Maxes were grounded worldwide for nearly two years after the second crash, a pause that gave rival Airbus a head start in recovering from the Covid pandemic.
But families of the crash victims have criticized previous agreements as sweetheart deals for Boeing, called for more accountability from the company and said its executives should stand trial. In 2022, a former chief technical pilot for Boeing was acquitted on fraud charges tied to the Max’s development.
Several of the victims’ family members issued a statement through their lawyer shortly after the court filing was released criticizing the deal and saying it set a troubling precedent for other large companies.
“This kind of non-prosecution deal is unprecedented and obviously wrong for the deadliest corporate crime in U.S. history. My families will object and hope to convince the court to reject it,” said the families’ lawyer, Paul Cassell.
The Justice Department said relatives of more than 110 crash victims told the government they support the non-prosecution agreement or “support the Department’s efforts to resolve the case pre-trial more generally,” but added that others said they want the U.S. to take Boeing to trial and that they would litigate to dismiss the deal.
The aerospace giant reached a settlement in 2021 in the final days of the first Trump administration that shielded it from prosecution for three years.
Under that deal, Boeing agreed to pay a $2.51 billion fine to avoid prosecution. That included a $243.6 million criminal penalty, a $500 million fund for crash victims’ family members and $1.77 billion for its airline customers. The new fund will be on top of the $500 million that was already established.

Rescuers work at the scene of an Ethiopian Airlines flight crash near Bishoftu, or Debre Zeit, south of Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, Monday, March 11, 2019.
Mulugeta Ayene | Reuters

That 2021 settlement was set to expire two days after a door panel blew out of a nearly new 737 Max 9 operated by Alaska Airlines on Jan. 5, 2024, after the aircraft left Boeing’s factory without key bolts installed.
But last year, U.S. prosecutors said Boeing violated the 2021 settlement, accusing the company of failing to set up and enforce a compliance and ethics program to detect violations of U.S. fraud laws.
Last July, toward the end of the Biden administration, Boeing agreed to plead guilty to the criminal fraud charge in a new settlement. A federal judge later rejected the plea deal, citing concerns with diversity, equity and inclusion requirements for choosing a corporate monitor.
Under that 2024 deal, Boeing would have faced a fine of up to $487.2 million, though the Justice Department recommended that the court credit Boeing with half that amount it paid under the previous agreement.

Family members hold photographs of crash victims lost in two deadly Boeing 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people as Boeing CEO Dennis Muilenburg testifies before a Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee hearing on aviation safety and the grounded 737 Max, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Oct. 29, 2019.
Sarah Silbiger | Reuters

The U.S. had accused Boeing of conspiracy to defraud the government by misleading regulators about its inclusion of a flight-control system on the Max that was later implicated in the two crashes.
“Boeing’s employees chose the path of profit over candor by concealing material information from the FAA concerning the operation of its 737 Max airplane and engaging in an effort to cover up their deception,” then-acting Assistant Attorney General David Burns of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division said at the time of the 2021 deferred prosecution agreement.
Messages revealed in an investigation into the Max’s development showed the former top Boeing pilot who was found not guilty of fraud in 2022, Mark Forkner, told the FAA to delete the flight-control system known as MCAS from manuals and, in a separate email, he boasted about “jedi-mind tricking” regulators into approving the training material.
Lawyers for victims’ family members railed against last year’s preliminary plea deal, equating it to a slap on the wrist for the corporate giant, which recently won a contract worth billions to build the next-generation fighter jet and works on other military programs including outfitting two new presidential jets. More