Prior to the January 27, 2026, transition to assigned seating, I noticed Southwest would swap 737-800 aircraft with 737-Max8 aircraft (and vice-versa) all the time. Just based on very casual observation, it seems this practice has somewhat stopped post-1/27? As in if you see a flight assigned to an -800, you generally do get that -800, and if it's assigned to a Max, you get a Max.

Can anyone confirm if swaps between these aircraft are still happening? The seating count seems to be the same, but I'm not sure if there are differences in the seat map that make swaps more difficult now.

Thank you for your insight!