Southwest adds Business Priority for corporate travelers in 2027, with new booking links for agencies

Southwest Airlines wants more business travelers, and it is adding perks and booking options to win them. On August 3, the airline announced two changes for its corporate travel arm, Southwest Business. The first is a new product called Business Priority. The second is a set of new ways for travel agencies and booking tools to sell Southwest fares.

What Business Priority is

Business Priority launches in early 2027. It is not something you can buy on your own. Instead, companies can choose to add it to their corporate travel agreements with Southwest, if they qualify.

Employees of those companies will get three kinds of day-of-travel help, according to Southwest:

• Preferred reaccommodation. If your flight is canceled or badly delayed, you should be among the first moved to a new flight.
• Standby benefits. You should get better treatment when you try to fly standby on an earlier or later flight.
• Boarding benefits. You should board sooner.

Southwest has not shared the fine print. It has not said exactly where Business Priority travelers will sit in the standby list or boarding order compared with A-List members or passengers who buy extra-legroom seats. It also has not said how many trips a company must book to qualify. Ask your travel manager if your company plans to add it.

For travelers, the rebooking perk is likely the most valuable. When storms hit and flights cancel, being near the front of the line can mean getting home tonight instead of tomorrow.

New ways to book Southwest

The second change is more technical, but it matters if your company books through an agency or an online booking tool.

Southwest is adding support for New Distribution Capability, or NDC. NDC is an industry standard that lets airlines send richer fare content, such as seat choices and fare bundles, to travel agencies. Southwest is doing this in two ways:

• A direct connection. Southwest is updating its own in-house API so partners can link straight to it. Southwest expects this to be ready by the end of 2026.
• Amadeus. Southwest picked Amadeus Altéa NDC, which will let agencies on the Amadeus Travel Platform book Southwest's fares and seats. This option is due later in 2027.

In plain terms, your company's booking tool should soon show the same Southwest fares and seat options you see on Southwest.com, including assigned and extra-legroom seats.

Why now

Southwest has spent the past two years reshaping itself to appeal to people who fly for work. Aileen Furlong, Southwest's vice president of sales, listed many of those changes in the announcement: assigned seats, extra-legroom seats, in-seat power, Starlink Wi-Fi on some planes, larger overhead bins and new international airline partners.

Business Priority and NDC fill a gap. Corporate travel managers want their employees to get good treatment when things go wrong, and they want to book every airline in one place. Southwest says the new links will make its fares and seats easier to reach in the tools agencies already use.

What it does not include

Business Priority does not include lounge access. Southwest has no lounges today. Its first four are under construction in Austin, Baltimore, Honolulu and Nashville and are due to open in late 2027. Southwest has said access will come through a new premium Chase card, and it has not tied lounge access to corporate deals.

If you fly Southwest for work and want a lounge before then, you will need a card or membership that covers lounges at your airport. At Baltimore, for example, The Club BWI takes Priority Pass. Members of Rapid Rewards should watch for news on the new Chase card in 2027.

You can learn more at Southwest.com/aboutbusiness, or read Southwest's announcement in full.