Copyright Men's Journal
Southwest Airlines has been rolling out various new initiatives throughout 2025, with another one announced on Tuesday. The company has unveiled its latest international partnership. Southwest is now teaming up with Philippine Airlines, which provides service throughout the Philippines, Asia, Australia, and the Middle East. Southwest is the second American partner for Philippine Airlines, which teamed up with Alaska Airlines earlier this year. “Each airline partnership brings unique and incremental reach to places around the globe for both carriers and gives more consumers an opportunity to begin or end their journey with Southwest,” said Southwest COO Andrew Watterson. “With nearly 90 flights a day in our schedule that touch the Hawaiian Islands and as California’s largest air carrier, Southwest is positioned like no other airline in serving Philippine Airlines’ passengers arriving or departing the United States.” Overall, this is Southwest’s fourth tie-in with an international airline, joining China Airlines, EVA Air and Icelandair. Where will Southwest’s latest partnership be based out of? The Southwest Airlines/Philippine Airlines pairing will officially operate out of four West Coast airports, including two in California and one in Honolulu, Hawaii. The four locations are as follows. Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) San Francisco International Airport (SFO) Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) Daniel K. Inouye International Airport (HNL) You can book flights on Philippine Airlines’ official website, as well as third-party booking sites. Will these flights count toward Southwest Rapid Rewards? At the moment, no, but according to Sean Cudahy of The Points Guy, the opportunity should be coming sooner rather than later. “However, Southwest executives have said they hope to expand many of these international partnerships in the near future to allow both earning and redemption, as a way for customers to use Southwest points on a global scale,” Cudahy wrote. “So, this partnership (and others like it) will likely be a far more attractive option to Southwest loyalists — at least from a points perspective — in the future.” Southwest’s year of new continues Overall, Southwest has been making some major changes to its business practices throughout 2025, not limited to opening new international airline partnerships. Some of the new initiatives include: Ending its popular “Bags Fly Free” and open seating policies Expanding its international flight offerings Tapping Peet’s Coffee as its official in-flight coffee partner Transitioning from its usual point-to-point flight model to the more traditional hub-and-spoke arrangement Adding free in-flight Wi-Fi for all premium rewards members Teaming up with Priceline to give travelers more booking options for trips Launching its in-house vacation service, Southwest Getaways We will learn soon enough what else is in store in 2026.
