Airlines know exactly what passengers want. They also know how to use those wants as a way to make more money.
Want to check a bag? You have to pay for it. Prefer to choose your seat before your flight? That’ll cost you, too. Want a bigger seat? Pay up. Budget airlines make it even worse – many make you pay for a carry-on bag and wasn’t Ryanair once floating the idea of charging for lavatory use?
All that being said, sometimes airlines will introduce a new feature because it makes them look better, or at least helps them “keep up with the Joneses” (the Joneses being, of course, other airlines). Delta did that when they finally began introducing free high speed Wi-Fi (albeit with a catch), and remember that time when an airline quietly increased its max bag size, for free?
In that same vein, Southwest has recently announced two upcoming features to their planes that will make flying with them more pleasant.
USB charging ports
So much of the airplane experience encourages the use of your cell phone nowadays. You can check in using your app. You can browse the internet (sometimes for free, sometimes for a price). Some airlines allow you to watch their in-flight movies on your device. Heck, United won’t even let you order food or beverages unless you use the app. And that doesn’t even include if you want to use your laptop on your flight. Over the course of a day, or even a decently long plane ride, any and all of that is going to suck up a lot of battery.
If you’re smart and thought ahead, you have a power bank with you. But if not, you may find yourself with a dead or nearly-dead phone by the end of the flight.
Many airlines are now offering in-flight power ports and Southwest is finally going to do so, as well. The airline is working on updating its planes so they offer charging ports. In fact, Ryan Green, Southwest’s Chief Marketing Officer, said that 250 planes will be equipped with charging ports by the end of 2023, out of Southwest’s fleet of nearly 800 planes. So it won’t be an immediate change, but eventually their entire fleet should have USB ports.
So yay for that.
Bigger overheads
Older planes tend to have older-fashioned overhead bins, where typical 22 x14 x9 carry-on bags can only fit wide side down, and long side out. Much like the brown bag below:
Then airlines discovered if they designed their planes so the overhead was just a few inches deeper, carry on bags could be loaded into the overhead “wheels first.” Much like the dark-colored bag at the far left side of the photo above. This allowed at least 1 more bag into the overhead.
THEN they noticed if they made the overheads a few inches taller, not only could they get carry on bags to go in “wheels first,” but they could be loaded narrow side down, which, again, would give more inches of space for carry ons. Like this:
PC: Boeing
So anyway, Southwest recently announced they’re going to start having these most recent types of overhead spaces in their planes. From their website:
We want to help you keep your carryon bags closer. That’s why, alongside our famous bags fly free® promise that provides every Customer onboard a Southwest® flight the option to check two bags for free, we’re making room in the cabin for carryon items with larger overhead bins that also bring easier access to store and retrieve luggage onboard. Aircraft with larger overhead bins have already been received from Boeing, and we will continue to install them on future aircraft deliveries.
So there ya go. plugs, plus more space for bags in the overhead. Both are good things for Southwest passengers.
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