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If you've paid attention to the AwardWallet Blog long enough, you've likely seen several mentions of Seats.aero. As frequent award travelers, it's one of the tools we appreciate the most. Seats.aero makes searching for award availability far easier than digging around various airline websites in the hopes of stumbling across a bookable seat.
Better yet, Seats.aero continues to expand by adding new features such as live searches and searchable airlines. The latest updates include the addition of a new tracked program — Qatar Airways Privilege Club — a “Points or Cash” calculator, and more. Consistent improvement makes an already valuable tool even more indispensable.
For those looking to add another tool to their award travel arsenal — or replace one that's not working as before — this beginner's guide has everything you need to know about Seats.aero.
Page Contents
What Is Seats.aero?
Seats.aero is an award search tool with various features that simplify award travel planning. In short, it allows you to accomplish three primary things:
- Explore 23 airline frequent flyer programs for award availability between select regions with useful filters.
- Search award availability on a specific route — including live availability for Pro subscribers.
- Create specific award alerts for specific routes, dates, airports, and more.
What does Seats.aero cost — and what does a subscription get you?
You can access the majority of Seats.aero's offerings for free — no subscription required. As a non-paying user, you can enjoy the following benefits:
- Search award availability across 23 frequent flyer programs for travel within the next 60 days.
- Create unlimited alerts for flight availability (email only).
However, there are plenty of reasons to sign up for a Pro account — which costs $9.99 per month or $99.99 if paid annually. As a paying subscriber, you can:
- Search up to one year of cached award availability across 23 frequent flyer programs.
- Create unlimited alerts for flight availability — with alerts via SMS and/or email.
- Advanced filters.
- Request specific routes for Seats.aero to track.
- Access a private Discord channel.
- Use beta features like the new Seat Map Viewer and Fare Class Finder
If you frequently book award travel, it's worth considering a Pro subscription. Accessing a year's worth of award availability is a valuable feature. Moreover, your support keeps Seats.aero's servers running.
Click here to sign up for a Seats.Aero Pro account.
How To Use Seats.aero
Seats.aero is relatively easy to use — even more so if you have familiarity with airlines and their alliances, airport codes, and how transfer partners work. Having some knowledge of this landscape will make for a seamless Seats.aero experience.
But if you're starting from scratch, we'll cover the basics.
What airline frequent flyer programs does Seats.aero track?
Seats.aero scrapes 23 airline frequent flyer programs for award availability. The list of programs includes:
- Aeromexico Rewards
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France/KLM Flying Blue
- Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- American Airlines AAdvantage®
- Azul TudoAzul
- Copa ConnectMiles
- Delta SkyMiles
- Emirates Skywards
- Ethiopian ShebaMiles
- Etihad Guest
- GOL Smiles
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Lufthansa Miles & More
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- SAS EuroBonus
- Saudia AlFursan
- Singapore KrisFlyer
- Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
- United Airlines MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- Virgin Australia Velocity Frequent Flyer
Chances are high that this list includes an airline frequent flyer program that you use — or that will show awards bookable with the mileage currency you have, even if that airline isn't directly listed.
For example, Seats.aero doesn't show award space bookable with British Airways Avios. However, you can see Oneworld partner space (and even British Airways award space) by exploring American Airlines AAdvantage and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.
Explore
Seats.aero's Explore page allows you to search for bookable award seats by program. After hovering over “Explore” with your cursor, you'll see a dropdown menu highlighting the 23 frequent flyer programs Seats.aero tracks.
You'll also see airlines' transferable rewards partners to the right of the program name. This visual is helpful if you're unsure of what currencies transfer to which airline programs.
By clicking on an individual program, you can explore itineraries bookable with points or miles. You can parse the results by sorting; hold the shift key to sort multiple columns.
Pro subscribers can create filters for region, departure and arrival airport, airlines, seats available, and more. For instance, you can filter to view flights from North America to Europe in business class. Filters are valuable if you're looking for a specific award operated by a particular airline, for example.
Pro and non-Pro subscribers can enter one or more basic parameters in the search bar. This can be a date (or partial date), a three-letter airport code, or even the expected award cost. Sometimes, this rudimentary filter is all that's necessary to locate a specific award.
If you want to filter more specifically, scroll to the bottom of the page. There, you will find boxes that will let you filter each individual column — whether that's the departure date, departure or arrival airport, or the price of an award.
Booking a flight from the Explore section is simple. After you've found a flight or itinerary that works for you — direct flights are green, and indirect flights are blue — click on the information icon to the right of the listing. You'll see the flight option, the cabins you can book with points, and the list of booking options.
By clicking “Book via…,” you'll navigate directly to the booking page for your chosen airline program. Sometimes, multiple programs can be booked through, so it's worth comparing if you have transferable rewards points handy.
Live award search
Seats.aero's Search feature allows you to search multiple programs simultaneously for an award between specific places and within a string of dates. It's a great option to get a bird's-eye view of the bookable options instead of searching program by program.
For example, you can search for award flights between New York (JFK) and London (LHR) on June 1, 2025 — give or take up to seven days for free subscribers and 180 days for Pro subscribers. Alternatively, you could search “LON” for all airports in the London metropolitan area, or try “UKD” for all large airports in the United Kingdom.
You'll (hopefully) see several results, which you can sort and filter. And like all the other Seats.aero pages, you can click on the information icon to navigate to the booking page.
One of Seats.aero's newer features include live search availability, which is unique to Pro subscribers. Instead of cached results, Seats.aero will add real-time search results between your entered origin and destination airports — even if the route isn't one it tracks directly.
Getting a live look at bookable space makes Seats.aero competitive with other live award search tools, such as Point.me, PointsYeah, and Roame.Travel.
Related: Point.Me, Roame.Travel, PointsYeah: Which Flight Award Availability Search Tool Is Best?
Routes
The Routes page shows all the routes Seats.aero tracks for each of the 23 frequent flyer programs. You can view the bookable seats for a specific route by clicking “Find availability.” Free subscribers can view results 60 days out, and Pro subscribers can see up to a year in advance.
Compared to Explore, the benefit of using the Routes page is that you can hone your search into one specific route without applying multiple filters. The Routes page is a great place to start your award search if you know where you're departing from and where you're going.
Pro subscribers have extra benefits on the Routes page. Members can request that Seats.aero track new direct or non-stop routes and view statistics on the number of available seats and the average cost by day.
Tools
Searching for coveted award space — think Qatar Airways Qsuite or Lufthansa First Class — presents another challenge for prospective travelers. However, Seats.aero makes finding some of these awards easy. Under the “Tools” dropdown menu, you'll see several options that are worth your attention:
- Air Canada eUpgrade Finder
- ANA First Class Finder
- Delta One Finder
- JAL First Class Finder
- Lufthansa First Class Finder
- Qatar Qsuites Finder
- United PlusPoints Finder
Utilizing these tools takes the guesswork out of finding specific unicorn awards or locating flights for which you can cash in PlusPoints, eUpgrades, or upgrade/earn miles based on fare class. And like the other Seats.aero pages, you can filter (with a Pro subscription), sort, and keyword search to narrow down the results. Then, click on the information icon to navigate directly to the booking page.
Outside of airline-specific tools, you'll also have a handful of other tools available at your disposal, including:
- Fare Class Viewer — See the bookable fare classes of any scheduled flight on supported airlines.
- Seat Map Viewer — View the seat map of any scheduled flight on supported airlines.
- Great Circle Map — Find the distance between airports (helpful for mileage runs).
- Points or Cash Calculator — Helps you decide which currency to use to book your flight.
- Timatic — Get up-to-date information on passport, visa, and health requirements.
Creating alerts
Sometimes, the award you're looking for might not currently be available. That's where creating alerts is handy, as you can have Seats.aero notify you via email or SMS (Pro subscribers only) when there's a new bookable seat.
For example, say you want to check out Qatar Airways Qsuite product between Doha (DOH) and Dallas–Fort Worth (DFW). If you've come up empty using the Qsuite finder, you can create an alert for a specific route and date or for a particular departure or arrival airport. In this instance, the route and date option is sufficient.
Creating an alert requires filling out a form. You'll specify your preferred contact method, the mileage programs you wish to use, your departure/arrival airport, and the departure date. Pro subscribers can select a range of dates or pick the all-encompassing “any date” option. The last step is choosing your preferred cabin and hitting “Create alert.” You'll follow similar steps if you create alerts to or from a specific airport.
And when the alert fires, you can quickly click through the link to book your award. This is a fantastic feature for premium cabin awards, which don't stick around for long. Pro members can view and delete alerts in the “Manage Alerts” subpage.
Additionally, you can create United upgrade alerts if you pay for Pro. These alerts will inform you when United makes select fare classes available — those eligible for upgrades, whether through PlusPoints, mileage upgrades, or saver space.
Final Thoughts
Seats.aero is an invaluable tool for finding award availability. Moreover, it's worth familiarizing yourself with it as you dive deeper into the world of award travel. Even if you seldom book awards, you can still use Seats.aero to simplify the booking process; it'll help you save time and locate your ideal award.
If you sign up for a Pro subscription, you'll have even better tools and functionality at your fingertips. Plus, the tool is easy to navigate once you know the basics. That's valuable in and of itself.
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