As a new-hire flight attendant for Southwest Airlines, one of the first things you need to get your head around is how the carrier’s crew bases actually work. Where you end up based shapes almost everything about the job: Your commute, how quickly you come off reserve, and what your day-to-day working life actually looks like.
Your assigned base is not a minor detail, and, understandably, it can cause a fair amount of stress and anxiety, not knowing where you might end up being based.
This guide covers all 13 Southwest Airlines flight attendant bases: how base assignment and bidding actually work, what’s currently happening at each base, how transfers and seniority work once you’re flying, and what commuting to a base really involves.
How Base Assignment Actually Works
Southwest currently operates 13 flight attendant crew bases:
- Atlanta (ATL),
- Austin (AUS),
- Baltimore (BWI),
- Chicago Midway (MDW),
- Dallas (DAL),
- Denver (DEN),
- Houston (HOU),
- Las Vegas (LAS),
- Los Angeles (LAX),
- Nashville (BNA),
- Oakland (OAK),
- Orlando (MCO),
- and Phoenix (PHX).
You don’t get to choose your base outright, but you do get to pick your preferences. New hires bid for their preferred base in rank order within their training class, and Southwest makes the final call based on where it actually needs flight attendants at that moment.
Southwest posts base vacancies monthly, showing which bases are adding or losing flight attendants, and the vacancy always closes at the end of that month. The date it closes is also the date new base awards come out across the whole department, not just for new hires.
That has a direct, and slightly odd, knock-on effect on when you actually find out where you’re going: it depends entirely on where your training date lands in the calendar. Some classes find out their bases as early as week one or two of training, simply because the transfer vacancy closed and awards came out while they were still in the classroom. Others don’t find out until graduation day itself.
Southwest’s base map has moved more in the last two years than in most of its history, and Austin is the clearest example of how quickly a base’s status can change. Southwest closed its Austin satellite base in July 2025 as part of a wider cost-reduction push, relocating the flight attendants stationed there to other bases.
Less than a year later, however, the airline announced a brand new, full-size crew base at Austin-Bergstrom, opening in the first quarter of 2026 and expected to add more than 2,000 pilot and flight attendant roles over time. Austin went from closed to one of the airline’s growth priorities within about six months.
Base by Base Overview
Atlanta (ATL) – One of Southwest’s largest bases historically, but also the clearest example of where the airline has been pulling back. Southwest cut roughly a third of its Atlanta departures through early 2025, affecting around 200 flight attendant positions. This was followed by a further 43% reduction in March 2026 compared with the same month the year before. Crew-reported patterns describe Atlanta as a senior base where lines are hard to hold as a new hire, and the recent cuts make that dynamic even more pronounced.
Austin (AUS) – Southwest’s newest base in its current form, having reopened in the first quarter of 2026 after the airline closed the Austin satellite base in mid-2025. Austin is one of the bases new hires are being sent to most often right now, alongside Denver and Baltimore, though which bases are actively hiring shifts month to month depending on where vacancies open.
Baltimore (BWI) – A major East Coast base and long one of Southwest’s busiest operations on that side of the country. Baltimore is also one of the bases seeing regular new hire placements at the moment, and it’s been named as the airline’s most likely long-haul international gateway (the launch of any long-haul flights isn’t expected until 2032 at the earliest, and plans are yet to be confirmed).
Chicago Midway (MDW) – One of Southwest’s original and most iconic bases, sitting at what has long been one of the airline’s busiest airports. Crew-reported patterns commonly describe Midway as one of the more junior bases in the network currently, meaning newer flight attendants have historically found it easier to build a workable line here than at some of the airline’s older, more entrenched bases.
Dallas (DAL) – Southwest’s home base, headquarters city, and the spiritual home of the entire airline, right down to its LUV ticker symbol. Being the base of record for so much of Southwest’s senior workforce, Dallas is commonly described as a senior base where transfer competition is stiff, and turnover is low.
Denver (DEN) – One of the bases receiving the largest share of new hires right now, and widely reported as one of the fastest-growing bases in the network more broadly, with new gates and new routes translating into stronger opportunities for junior flight attendants than at many of Southwest’s longer-established bases. While Atlanta has been scaled back, Denver is growing. That said, new hire placement patterns shift over time as vacancies open and close elsewhere, so don’t just assume you’ll end up being sent to Denver.
Houston (HOU) – An established, senior base, and also the home turf of United Airlines, a useful landmark if you’re weighing offers between the two carriers. Crew-reported patterns describe Houston in similar terms to Dallas and Atlanta: senior, stable, and competitive to transfer into.
Las Vegas (LAS) – Commonly described by crew as one of the more junior bases in the current network, giving newer flight attendants a reasonable shot at building a decent line sooner than at Southwest’s oldest bases. If you can survive Las Vegas as a base, you’ll find the rest of Southwest’s network a walk in the park.
Los Angeles (LAX) – A major West Coast base and one of Southwest’s higher cost-of-living locations by some distance. Southwest doesn’t publish base-specific staffing targets the way some rivals have, so treat any claim about LAX being especially over or understaffed with caution.
Nashville (BNA) – One of Southwest’s newest bases, having opened in 2024, and a city that’s seen a broader tourism and relocation boom in recent years. Too new to have an established crew-reported reputation yet, but worth watching given the pace of Southwest’s other 2025 and 2026 base moves.
Oakland (OAK) – Serves the wider Bay Area and is commonly described by crew as a junior base offering faster seniority progress than some of Southwest’s oldest bases. The local cost of living is, however, among the highest anywhere in the network.
Orlando (MCO) – An established, senior base with strong, consistent year-round leisure travel demand supporting it. Crew-reported patterns place it alongside Dallas, Atlanta, and Houston as a base that’s harder to transfer into than to leave.
Phoenix (PHX) – Historically one of Southwest’s most important operational centres and another established, senior base where crew-reported transfer competition runs high.
Understanding Reserve and Holding a Line
“Holding a line” means you have a fixed, published monthly schedule awarded through bidding, rather than sitting reserve and waiting to be assigned trips with comparatively short notice. Southwest pays flight attendants under a Trip For Pay (TFP) system rather than a straightforward hourly wage, where one TFP credit works out to roughly 243 nautical miles, or about 55 minutes of flying. Reserve flight attendants are scheduled for a minimum of 78 TFP credits a month, rising to a minimum of 80 TFP credits once you hold a dedicated line, but the real difference isn’t the minimum, it’s the predictability. A held line means you know your schedule in advance, whereas reserve means you’re on call at short notice.
Your ability to come off reserve and hold a line comes down to seniority within your specific base, relative to every other crew member at the base. This is why what base you are assigned matters so much: a newer, growing base with fewer senior flight attendants already holding lines can mean coming off reserve considerably faster than a larger, more established base with an entrenched senior workforce, even if that established base is bigger overall.
Denver and Austin are two examples of the kind of base where this dynamic currently favours newer flight attendants; Atlanta, Dallas, Houston, and Orlando are commonly cited as the opposite.
Changing Bases: Transfers and Seniority
Base transfers run entirely on seniority under Southwest’s collective bargaining agreement with TWU Local 556. When an opening becomes available at a base, it’s awarded to the most senior flight attendant who has bid for it, not the one who’s been waiting longest or wants it most.
Flight attendants on probation can bid to change bases monthly, so you’re not locked into your assigned base for the length of probation. But bidding monthly and winning a transfer are different things. Moving to a popular, senior base can take a long time, potentially years, since you’re competing against everyone more senior who wants the same opening. Moving to a base that’s currently growing or under-resourced, the way Austin and Denver are right now, can happen considerably faster, simply because Southwest actively wants more crew there rather than fewer.
Relocation and Commuting
Southwest does not pay for relocation to your assigned base. Moving costs, wherever you end up, are entirely your own responsibility.
Commuting to your base rather than living there is allowed, and Southwest describes its commuter policy as one of the most generous in the industry. But the airline makes it clear that commuting isn’t encouraged, and the pitfalls of commuting are down to you to deal with alone.
Southwest also has extensive attendance requirements, and a missed commute that causes you to be late or unavailable for a trip is treated the same as any other attendance issue. Commuting is a genuine option, not a workaround, but it works best for flight attendants who’ve thought through the logistics rather than those defaulting to it because they didn’t want to relocate.
What This Means for Your Application
You can’t request a base on your application, and you shouldn’t expect an interviewer to ask which one you’d prefer. What you can do is go in with realistic expectations: you may not be assigned your preferred base or even a base on the same coast where you currently live.
Go in with an open mind and don’t immediately dismiss a base that you might not have thought is a great fit for you.
This page is part of our ongoing coverage of Southwest Airlines flight attendant recruitment, covering pay, the application process and what to expect at each stage. If you're getting ready to apply, here's where to go next.
