Southwest Airlines quietly adds policy forcing more gate-checked bags

Southwest Airlines has been doing a lot of unpopular things lately. Perhaps the most unpopular of those has to do with the airline's rules for baggage.

Southwest was very famous for its Bags Fly Free policy for checked luggage. That was the brand's main differentiator. People would pay more for Southwest or prioritize it over other carriers because you did not get hit with bag fees when you went to the airport. You were simply allowed to take your stuff with you.

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Pretty much everyone knows by now that the days of Bags Fly Free have come to an end, though. The airline has joined the herd in charging you if you want to bring a bag aboard.

“For reservations booked and ticketed and/or voluntarily changed on or after May 28, 2025, checked baggage fees apply,” the Southwest Airlines website reads.

Unsurprisingly, people are mad about this. While other airlines charge for checked bags, and it's mostly a minor annoyance, customers expected Southwest to be different, so now the company has lost a lot of goodwill with its change.

Unfortunately, that wasn't the end of the modifications Southwest has made. It's also implementing another policy that could make gate-checked bags more likely.

Since customers don't exactly love when their carry-on bag is seized at the gate, that's not going to do a whole lot to improve customer opinions of the new Southwest.

Southwest Airlines keeps finding new ways to make passengers mad.

Image source: SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images

Southwest could end up gate-checking more bags thanks to this policy

After Southwest changed its free-bags policy, it's inevitable that more people are going to try to bring carry-ons on board the flight. Sadly, the company is dealing with this in a way that could cause more headaches for passengers.

“We’re using a machine learning tool that predicts the number of gate-check bags needed for each flight, which enables our teams to act early and keep the operation running smoothly,” Chief Operating Officer Andrew M. Watterson said in a recent Southwest earnings call for the second quarter.

Of course, if the airline is predicting early when it is going to need to gate-check bags, this could mean people have their bags snagged by an airline official and forced into being gate-checked, even if the overhead bins are not yet full.

There's very little that infuriates passengers more than having their bags taken while boarding the flight, and then getting on the plane and finding empty overhead bins where they easily could have placed the luggage.

Passengers are already complaining about Southwest Airlines gate-checking bags

Southwest passengers have already experienced this issue with bags being gate-checked, despite there being plenty of room on board.

View from the Wing reported on several passengers tweeting their anger over the last few weeks of July, with one X user, Steve Schoenherr, tweeting out, “Is this a new policy or a control issue to check bags for flights with many empty seats and compartments completely open at takeoff?”

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Unfortunately, this is inevitably going to keep happening, as machine learning isn't perfect.

Since many passengers may be toting carry-ons because of Southwest's unpopular shift away from free checked bags, having their bag gate-checked involuntarily is only going to make them more dissatisfied with the airline's customer service.

This is just yet another way that Southwest is blowing up their brand, and it seems like this is going to have unpleasant consequences down the road.