Southwest Airlines is mocked over new seats that look ‘paper thin’ and ‘rock hard’ after proudly unveiling its redesigned cabin

Southwest Airlines proudly unveiled its new cabin design, but was ridiculed for its “paper-thin” seats that were likened to “garden chairs” and “granite slates.”

The company announced the redesign of its new Boeing 737-800 and 737 MAX-8 aircraft last week, saying the updated interiors and customer experience improvements will debut in 2025.

Southwest worked with design firm Tangerine to create the sleek new cabins, which feature USB-A and USB-C charging stations, larger overhead bins and holders for personal electronic devices.

The interior also features sleek seats from RECARO, an airline and car seat brand based in Germany.

“The new RECARO seats feature a multi-adjustable headrest cushion for improved head and neck support, an intuitively designed seat for ultimate comfort while maximizing seat width and overall support,” said the press release.

Southwest noted that the redesign was “based on extensive research into customer and employee perceptions of color, comfort and their aspirations for the overall onboard experience.”

The airline shared a video of the cabin interior on TikTok, including close-ups of the seats and headrests with embossed Southwest hearts.

‘New fitness check!’ the company wrote in the caption.

‘Introducing our updated cabin design and new seats! You can see this interior on new aircraft deliveries starting early next year. Not to mention our continued rollout of adding larger overhead bins and seat power outlets to our current aircraft!”

The 19-second clip has been viewed 8.9 million times and received more than 15,000 comments since it was posted on February 2.

However, the response appeared to be largely negative, with critics insisting that the new seats look ‘uncomfortable’ and ‘narrower’ than those in the current cabins.

“What I see are rock hard chairs,” someone responded.

‘Love it. I’ve always wondered when airlines would start serving people like us who like to relax on granite slates,” someone else joked.

“So we get thinner, more uncomfortable chairs with a heart on them,” another added.

Others wanted to know what Southwest thought and said the revelation made them want to switch airlines.

“You just earned a Delta customer,” said one viewer.

“The best Delta ad I’ve seen,” someone else agreed.

‘Didn’t you do one focus group on this?!’ asked another.

The backlash carried over to X, formerly Twitter, where people also outraged Southwest over the redesign.

“Southwest is introducing new wafer-thin seats, and Americans are just having to deal with it because the domestic airline has lobbied against high-speed rail so successfully that we’re left with no other options,” wrote Hayden Clarkin, known as “The Transitman.”

“That Southwest upgrade reveal was so stupid. The seats are already rock hard and now they are thinner (and) they look even less comfortable,” Toni Childs said.

Someone else shared a photo of a lawn chair and said Southwest Airlines “revealed their new seats.”

This is what a spokesperson for Southwest said SFGoes that the company conducted “multiple comfort tests with hundreds of participants” for the new seats before finalizing the design.

“We worked with RECARO to develop a more ergonomic custom pillow by using different foam technologies and densities and adding more padding to certain areas of the headrest, backrest and bottom cushion,” they said.

‘The seat material selected for these new chairs not only feels softer, but makes the foam technology stand out better.’

The airline insisted that the new seats would have the same width, legroom and armrest size as the current seats on the Boeing 737-800 and 737 MAX-8 aircraft.

The spokesperson also dismissed concerns that the new interior design would include more rows, saying Southwest has “no plans” to add more seats in the cabin.

DailyMail.com has reached out to Southwest Airlines for comment.