Southwest Will Open Its First Airport Lounges, Starting With These 4 Cities

The biggest of the four new lounges will be in Nashville, Tennessee. Photo: Joseph D Washburn/Shutterstock The lounges are being built in partnership with Chase, with access available through a new Southwest Rapid Rewards-branded credit card Chase plans to launch in 2027. The design, dining, and amenities will be based off of the current lounges in the Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounge Network — the airport lounges already in existence for Chase’s Sapphire Reserve credit card holders. The move will bring Southwest in line with America’s only other major carriers — Delta, American and United — all of which have run branded lounges for years. Combined, United, American and Delta have 57.8 percent of the airline market share in US. With Southwest, that figure climbs to 75.8 percent. The brand is trying to take market share from its competition, especially with fewer major airlines to undercut its prices since Spirit folded in May 2026. Southwest’s own CEO confirmed that when speaking at the Semafor World Economy Summit in April. “We’re going to keep making product changes because we want to, over time, give you fewer and fewer and fewer reasons to have to go to a competitor,” he said, as reported in Flying Mag. It’s not a coincidence that the first four cities to host airport lounges are Southwest’s key markets. It flies more passengers through Austin, Baltimore and Nashville than any other carrier, though Honolulu remains an outlier. But it could be a sign that the airline hopes to increase its presence in the Hawaiian Islands. The Nashville lounge will be 30,200 square feet — fairly large for a domestic airport lounge, while Baltimore and Austin’s will be 30,000 and 19,500 square feet, respectively. The end of the budget era The new lounges will put Southwest in line with the US’s other three major carriers. Photo: YAKOBCHUK VIACHESLAV/Shutterstock The lounges are another step in an ongoing process to change the budget-first airline model Southwest spent decades developing. The airline ended its “Bags Fly Free” policy in May 2025 and now charges $45 for a first checked bag and $55 for a second on most flights. It retired open seating in January 2026 with a multi-group boarding order more similar to other US airlines and extra-legroom seats with up to five more inches of space for an extra fee. It also created new bundled ticketing tiers (Basic, Choice, Choice Preferred and Choice Extra), and began listing its fares on sites like Expedia and Google Flights. In late May at an industry conference, CEO Bob Jordan laid out plans to cater to premium passengers specifically, including ideas for possible first-class seating and long-haul international flights, some of which will be funded by revenue from the new Chase credit card. Southwest reported a 7.4 percent year-over-year increase in operating revenue in the fourth quarter of 2025. For the full year, the company said increased passenger revenue was driven primarily by bag fees. No details have been announced about the cost of the new credit card, whether memberships will be available, or whether day-use access will be available to certain premium flyers. More like this