Southwest Just Made This Major Change For Future Flights - Best Life

Among all of the U.S. carriers, Southwest Airlines has always been known as an outlier. Unlike the other major airlines, Southwest has never charged a fee to check bags, to change your ticket, or to select a seat (after all, it boards in groups using a first-come, first-served approach). But now the airline is making a switch from one of the longstanding policies that has always set it apart from the others. Read on to find out what change Southwest recently made.

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For the first time Southwest has begun offering tickets for booking through Kayak.

That is to say only some users will be able to book that way. These flights are only available through the the niche platform, Kayak for Business, which you can only use if you have a corporate or business email address.

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Southwest had previously stated that it chose to sell its own seats exclusively as a way of ensuring better customer service.

The booking change isn’t the only reason Southwest has been in the news recently—for better or for worse. The carrier recently announced the plan to resume alcohol sales on its flights beginning Feb. 16 after a break that neared two years, according to a corporate statement. The long pause was due to the spike of in-flight disruptions among unruly passengers.

Some passengers are enthusiastic about the reversal. “Customers have expressed a desire for more beverage options, so we’re delighted to restore additional on-board offerings as a part of the Southwest hospitality that our customers know and love,” said Tony Roach, Southwest’s vice president of customer experience and customer relations, said in the statement.

But flight crews expressed dismay. The union that represents Southwest Airlines’ flight attendants called the shift “both unsafe and irresponsible,” according to Reuters. Lyn Montgomery, president of TWU Local 556, told Reuters that her union was “outraged” over the move. “We have adamantly and unequivocally informed management that resuming sales of alcohol while the mask mandate is in place has the great potential to increase customer non-compliance and misconduct issues,” she said.

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