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You might think the title is hyperbole, but no, really, Seats.aero is hands-down the best tool for hunting for award space. Actually, I think it’s an essential tool that anyone who books award space should be paying for.
Most of the features discussed below are only available with the Pro subscription. The free version allows you to look for award space up to 60 days out and set basic email alerts. Seats.aero Pro costs $9.99 USD per month or $99 USD per year. You can also pay in Canadian dollars at $12.99 CAD monthly or $129.99 CAD annually.
Our affiliate link to Seats.aero Pro
What is Seats.aero
Seats.aero is a powerful award flight search service that lets you search entire regions at once, set alerts for award space, and view dedicated search results for specific redemptions. It’s for the points nerds who already know what they’re doing and just need to look for space. Seats.aero does not walk you through transferring points or making the redemption.
Search entire regions at once
Seats.aero supports 20+ frequent flyer programs. It’s very comprehensive, since award space usually matches across partner airlines. British Airways Avios is not a supported program, but you can choose American AAdvantage or Qatar Airways Privilege Club instead.
Set Award Space Alerts
The best feature of Seats.aero is its ability to set alerts for when award space opens. You can set alerts for both email and SMS, with SMS being best for rare award space where booking speed is essential.
A cool feature when setting alerts is the ability to pick not just frequent flyer programs, but also points currencies you hold. For example, if you have Amex MR Canada, you can select “Amex Canada” without having to pick Aeroplan and Flying Blue separately.
Select “Alliance” or “Transferable Points”
The “Advanced Filters” are a must, allowing you to select a minimum number of seats, a maximum points price, and a maximum number of stops. There are even more filters, but the above are the ones I use most.
You can even search for specific flights using the flight number
If you have the mobile app, alerts will also come in as an in-app notification. Email notifications are always on, and then SMS if you select that option.
Qatar Qsuites, anyone?
The “Explore” Function
If you ever see me sitting around doing nothing, I’m clicking around the “Explore” tab on Seats.aero. It makes it easy to stay on the ball when it comes to general availability patterns.
You can select an award program and it will show a list of currently available award space. At the top of the list, select your search regions. Then there are endless filters and customizations, with green prices indicating direct flights and blue prices indicating flights with connections.
I like to click the arrows next to “Business” to surface flights with business class availability first. I also enter specific dates in the bottom-left tab when needed. The bottom tabs are very handy as you can also enter the exact airport you’re searching for.
“Explore” shows lots of results, then filter as desired
In practice, I use the “Explore” tab more than “Search.” The Explore tab shows results across an entire program first, and then I can refine the filters as needed. The Search tab, by contrast, applies narrow filters right from the start. Of course, the ideal situation is that “Search” works by finding exactly what you want. However, given how scarce award space can be, I’m more likely to find something useful by searching all of Asia rather than just Tokyo.
“Explore” is the best way to book award flights at saver prices if you are flexible on product, destination, or both.
Product-Specific Award Tool
Seats.aero has very handy award tools for aspirational flights like ANA First Class and Qatar Qsuites.
Aspirational, but also practical like Air Canada eUpgrade Finder (temporarily down)
Clicking one of these shows all available flights featuring that product.
JAL First Class Finder
Other Seats.aero Features
The above are what I consider the major reasons to pay for Seats.aero, while there are a few other “nice to haves”.Seats.aero also has a Routes tool where you can track a specific route across all dates within a frequent flyer program.
“Routes” tool
Seats.aero also has a hotel award space tracker called Rooms.aero, working similarly to flights. Just this week, I got alerts for standard room award space at Courtyard Ginza, which means I won’t need to stay at the Moxy Kinshicho (both are bookable with 35,000-point Marriott Free Night Awards).
Rooms.aero alert
Seats.aero is Not Perfect
But then again, what is? Like Thrify Traveller, Seats.aero does miss things. It’s not searching every route continuously, so some award space will inevitably be cached and no longer available when you try to book it. (seats.aero does say when it was last seen).
The other issue is that alerts aren’t searching constantly so it’s possible that award space opened up and was booked between Seats.aero searches, and you never receive a text at all. That’s why at PMB, we stress the importance of tracking award space release patterns for yourself to increase your odds, in addition to using alert tools like seats.aero.
Takeaway
Seats.aero is one of the most powerful tools available for finding award space, and it’s a service I’ve happily paid for over the years. The ability to search entire regions at once, monitor availability across multiple frequent flyer programs, and set alerts when space opens makes it far easier to book hard-to-find redemptions.
It’s truly one of those tools where once you have it, you wonder how you lived without it.
Our affiliate link to Seats.aero Pro
