When it comes to locating award seat availability, there are two ways: the easy way and the hard way. The hard way, which is what one has to follow half the time, is to locate reward seat availability manually. But some tools make the other half easy for some popular programmes. One of them is Seats.Aero, which is an award search engine on the rise.

What is Seats.Aero?

Seats.Aero is an award search engine that helps subscribers find award availability on flights and hotels (using its sister website, Rooms.Aero). The tool employs a different approach to finding reward seats. Instead of searching for “fresh” data every time someone requests it, the tool scans for available award space on a large number of routes and loyalty programmes, and caches it. That means results are available to be instantly searched, sorted, and filtered.

Free v/s Pro

There is a free version of Seats.aero, which provides you with an award space update within the next two months and does not require a login. The results are available in a format that allows for quick searching and filtering, making it convenient to find close-in award availability. For instance, through the free version, you can search for direct flights (and their availability) on a certain set of flexible dates later in the year (up to two months).

The Pro version allows for search results to be displayed much farther into the future and enables various alerts. If you like to sign up for the Pro version, it costs USD 9.99 per month or USD 99.99 per annum. In Indian Rupees, the monthly cost is INR 599, and the annual subscription costs INR 5,999. This is already cheaper than the US Dollar pricing.

However, using the code LIVEFROMALOUNGE, you can get a 30% discount for the first month or first year of subscription for a limited time.

The Pro version provides you with uncapped availability alerts throughout the year and also sends SMS alerts. You can also join the Seats.Aero discord community, where alerts appear when award availability jumps. You can also add a request to track a previously untracked route.

Mileage Programmes on board

Seats.Aero currently supports 22 loyalty programs. Search results don’t just include flights operated by the loyalty programme’s own airline, but also partner flights that can be booked through that programme. Here are the programmes that are available for now:

1. Aeromexico Club Premier
2. Air Canada Aeroplan: Air Canada Aeroplan has access to Star Alliance Awards and other Air Canada partners such as Emirates.
3. Air France/KLM Flying Blue: Flying Blue is great for finding redemption flights on Air France and KLM and for finding availability on other SkyTeam partners. It also offers access to Virgin Atlantic, which costs more in points but less in surcharges.
4. Alaska Mileage Plan: Mileage Plan is a good programme for finding oneworld availability and Singapore Airlines.
5. American Airlines: Useful for finding oneworld awards
6. Azul TudoAzul
7. COPA ConnectMiles
8. Delta SkyMiles: Useful to find award availability on the SkyTeam Alliance, apart from Delta itself.
9. Emirates Skywards: Useful for finding Emirates awards, all the way up to First Class
10. Etihad Guest: Useful for finding Etihad awards and partners KLM/ Air France.
11. Ethiopian ShebaMiles
12. GOL Smiles
13. JetBlue TrueBlue: Useful to find JetBlue awards, but also Qatar Airways and Japan Airlines award availability
14. Qantas Frequent Flyer: Useful to find Qantas award availability, oneworld as well as partners such as Emirates, El Al and others.
15. Lufthansa Miles&More: Useful for finding availability on Lufthansa Group carriers, including Lufthansa, Swiss, Brussels, and other group carriers. You can also find Star Alliance Availability.
16. Saudia Al Fursan: Useful for finding availability in Saudia and in SkyTeam carriers.
17. Turkish Miles&Smiles: Useful to find Star Alliance award availability
18. SAS EuroBonus: Useful to find SkyTeam award availability
19. Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer: Useful to find Suites availability, and also Star Alliance award availability
20. United MileagePlus: Useful for finding Star Alliance award space and other UA partners.
21. Virgin Atlantic Flying Club: Useful for finding Virgin Atlantic award availability and other SkyTeam saver awards
22. Virgin Australia Velocity

For instance, here is some availability for non-stop flights from India (DEL) to Europe over the next few days (a feature exclusive to Pro clients) using the Flying Blue programme.

And here is some non-stop availability from the US to India using United MileagePlus on United.

Other product features

If you only want to search a specific route, you can start with the Routes tab in Seats.Aero.  For example, let’s assume you only want to fly from Mumbai to London on Virgin Atlantic.

Here is some availability.

The free version of the Search function is valuable when you’re not looking for a specific carrier but are willing to search based on a route. From there, you can add filters as and when needed. For example, I look up award space from Delhi to Dubai (direct) across cabins.

With the Pro version, for example, you can limit your search to show results with a minimum number of seats, select a specific carrier to see results only for that one, and add a cabin or aircraft filter as well.

Aspirational Products

With all the filters built in, some of the more aspirational products can also be separately filtered. For instance, if you want to book Qatar Airways’ QSuites only, you can head to the QSuites Finder. Then there is the Lufthansa First Class finder, the JAL First Class finder, the Emirates Upgrade Finder and so on.

Set Alerts on Pro

On Seats.Aero, you can also set alerts for specific airports, cabins, and dates.

For instance, this is just me creating an alert for an open seat from Bengaluru to London Heathrow later in the year on a specific date. I have time to buy right now, so I can wait for availability to be opened up. When something I need appears, the alert will trigger an SMS or Email (depending on my preference), and then delete the alert.

Limitations

While the site is a fantastic resource for finding award space, it comes with some limitations. To keep system resources reasonable, the site retrieves data periodically rather than on every query (as listed above). That means, by the time you act on the information you see, it might have changed. Secondly, it operates on a route basis, which means that not every airport or route is covered. So I am unable to find availability between Delhi and Tahiti, for instance (a completely unreasonable ask, I know).

Signing up for Seats.Aero Pro, which also comes with Rooms.Aero Pro included complimentary, will cost you just USD 6.99 (INR 594) for the first month or USD 69.99 (INR 5950) for the first year when you sign up here and apply coupon code LIVEFROMALOUNGE. When you use the INR pricing, it costs INR 420 for one month and INR 4,200 for one year. 

What has been your experience with Seats.Aero, and how have you been using it?

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