Largest Las Vegas Airport Carrier to Start Charging for Bags

Posted on: March 11, 2025, 12:49h. 

Last updated on: March 11, 2025, 01:00h.

Corey Levitan Read More
Expertise: Commercial Gaming, Entertainment, Expert Insight, Las Vegas, Restaurants, Las Vegas Myths.
  • Southwest Airlines will start charging passengers to check their bags on May 28
  • Southwest previously announced it will also end its open-seating tradition, charging for assigned seats beginning later this year

Starting May 28, the only baggage you can fly with for free to Las Vegas will be emotional. That’s the date, Southwest Airlines announced on Tuesday, that it will start charging passengers to check their bags. The largest carrier of passengers to Harry Reid International Airport was the last holdout on the free-bag front.

AI renders a photo of a Southwest plane taxiing at Harry Reid. Las Vegas’ largest airline carrier has added free bags to the list of good things about it that it plans to eliminate to increase shareholder profits. (Image: GROK3)

With this change, Southwest breaks with an extremely popular 54-year tradition — but not its first ….

Last July, the airline announced that it would start monetizing its open-seating plan, which also debuted along with the airline in 1971. It’s expected to start selling assigned seating in the second half of 2025 for flights starting in early 2026.

Frequent Southwest flyers with “A-List Preferred” status will get two bags free. “A-List” level members and Southwest credit card holders will get one bag free.

Southwest didn’t reveal what its new per-bag charge will be.

Barf Bags Still Free

Other changes coming for the airline’s passengers include extra legroom options and ticket availability via Expedia instead of exclusively through Southwest’s website.

In a news release, Southwest President/CEO Bob Jordan said the changes will help the airline “return to the levels of profitability that both we and the shareholders expect.”

Perhaps not coincidentally, Southwest cut its unit revenue growth forecast on Tuesday, citing weaker discretionary spending amid tariff fears and government uncertainty.

Southwest provides Harry Reid International Airport with about 38% of its 58.4 million passengers each year (21.6 million in 2024). The airport’s second-biggest airline, Spirit, brought it fewer than half as many passengers (9.34 million, or 16%) last year.