{"id":398,"date":"2026-09-02T18:10:32","date_gmt":"2026-09-02T18:10:32","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/?p=398"},"modified":"2026-09-02T18:10:32","modified_gmt":"2026-09-02T18:10:32","slug":"southwest-announces-its-1st-lounges-at-these-4-airports","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/?p=398","title":{"rendered":"Southwest announces its 1st lounges at these 4 airports"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/s3.amazonaws.com\/syndication.abcaudio.com\/files\/2026-09-02\/Getty_SouthwestAirlines_090226.jpg\" alt><figcaption>Southwest Airlines airplanes sit on the tarmac at the Baltimore\/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Nov. 26, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. (Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>(NEW YORK) &#8212; For the first time ever,\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">Southwest Airlines<\/span>\u00a0is joining the airport lounge race with plans to open lounges in four cities next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The airline announced Wednesday it will open lounges in Austin (Austin-Bergstrom International Airport), Baltimore (Baltimore\/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport), Honolulu (Daniel K. Inouye International Airport) and Nashville (Nashville International Airport) in 2027.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">At least seven more lounges are expected to open over the next several years, according to Southwest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The Dallas, Texas-based carrier is partnering with Chase on the lounges, and travelers will need to have a Southwest credit card to access them.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">The card, the Southwest Rapid Rewards Credit Card issued by Chase, will also launch in 2027, according to Southwest.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In opening lounges, Southwest is keeping up with competitors like American and Delta Airlines that already offer lounge access for travelers who hold certain credit cards.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">With airline-specific credit cards, the airlines get a cut of the profit from purchases on the credit card, and the cards help build brand loyalty to the airline.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">Earlier this year, Southwest made another\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">change\u00a0<\/span>that also put it in line with competitors when it switched to assigned seats on its planes instead of using boarding zones.<\/p>\n<p class=\"p1\">In 2025, the airline also\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">ended<\/span>\u00a0its longstanding policy of free checked bags, charging customers $35 for their first checked bag and $45 for their second checked bag.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright \u00a9 2026, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Southwest Airlines airplanes sit on the tarmac at the Baltimore\/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport on Nov. 26, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. (Anna Moneymaker\/Getty Images) (NEW YORK) &#8212; For the first time ever,\u00a0Southwest Airlines\u00a0is joining the airport lounge race with plans to open lounges in four cities next year. The airline announced Wednesday it will open [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":795,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-398","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=398"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/398\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/795"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=398"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=398"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.kcfj570am.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=398"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}