Southwest rolls out new conditions for plus-size passenger refunds

Southwest Airlines is adding rules when it comes to “customers of size.”

Starting Jan. 27, when flights with assigned seating begin taking off, plus-size passengers “should proactively purchase the needed number of seats prior to travel to ensure the additional, adjacent seat is available,” the airline says on its website.

“I just hope that consumers are aware of this change and I wonder if plus size people will skip out on flying with them at all because of them not knowing if the flight is sold out or not,” Jeff Jenkins, founder of plus-size travel blog Chubby Diaries, told USA Today. “It’s just more anxiety to an already high anxiety experience.”

In order to advise potential customers considering whether they need an extra seat, Southwest’s website lists the seat widths on the Boeing 737 models it flies from 15.5 inches at the narrowest, to 17.8 inches at the widest. The airline says the definitive seat boundary is the armrest. 

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“We are updating many policies as we prepare our operation, Employees, and Customers for assigned seating on January 27, 2026. To ensure space, we are communicating to Customers who have previously used the extra seat policy they should purchase it at booking,” Southwest Airlines said in a statement to FOX Business. 

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Passengers who purchase an extra seat may be eligible for a refund if the passenger’s flight departed while having at least one open seat on the plane (or with passengers traveling on space-available tickets), both seats purchased are the same fare class and the refund request is made within 90 days of the date of the flight.

The airline previously encouraged plus-size passengers to purchase two seats, but had fewer refund restrictions.

Plus-size customers traveling on itineraries with Southwest partner carriers must purchase an additional, non-refundable seat directly through the partner carrier, the airline’s website says.