Factors and miles are straightforward to earn, however in the event you’ve been struggling to redeem them, significantly for premium-cabin flights, you could learn about this instrument that would prevent lots of — if not 1000’s — of minutes, miles and {dollars}.
Over the previous few years, many third-party redemption availability platforms have sprung up, promising that can assist you discover real-time award seats quicker with out visiting totally different airline loyalty web sites.
I’ve tried virtually all of them, and whereas none are excellent, I’ve discovered Seats.aero is by far probably the most helpful. It is now my go-to useful resource when searching for award seats throughout greater than a dozen of my favourite airline loyalty packages, which is a large time-saver when deciding the place to switch my bank card factors.
Seats.aero affords each a free and a paid “Professional” model and isn’t affiliated with any airline. The free model reveals seats for the subsequent 60 days, whereas the Professional model reveals a full 12 months of availability and superior filters and alerts for $9.99 month-to-month or $99.99 for a 12-month subscription. I’ve a Professional model that has paid for itself many occasions over.
Here is why Seats.aero has revolutionized how I redeem my factors and miles.
Associated: Greatest frequent flyer packages for US vacationers
Search 19 airline loyalty packages on all dates and routes
Seats.aero at the moment helps outcomes from 19 totally different airline loyalty packages, and this quantity is steadily rising. On the time of publication, you should use this instrument to verify availability by means of the next packages:
- Aeromexico Rewards
- Air Canada Aeroplan
- Air France-KLM Flying Blue
- Alaska Airways Mileage Plan
- American Airways AAdvantage
- Azul Brazilian Airways Fidelidade
- Copa Airways ConnectMiles
- Delta Air Strains SkyMiles
- Emirates Skywards
- Etihad Airways Visitor
- Gol Airways Smiles
- JetBlue TrueBlue
- Lufthansa Miles & Extra
- Qantas Frequent Flyer
- Singapore Airways KrisFlyer
- Turkish Airways Miles&Smiles
- United Airways MileagePlus
- Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership
- Virgin Australia Velocity
For example of the facility of this instrument, Air Canada’s Aeroplan program is my favourite Star Alliance loyalty program because of its wonderful companion redemption charges and lengthy checklist of airline companions each inside and out of doors of Star Alliance. It is also a switch companion of a number of bank card packages.
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So, say I wish to redeem Aeroplan factors to fly enterprise class to Europe this summer season. I choose Aeroplan from the “Discover” tab in my Professional account after which set the outcomes to point out a full 12 months of flights from North America to Europe.
This returns a whopping 88,468 ends in seconds, far too many to comb by means of.
However utilizing the instrument’s helpful and highly effective filter choices, I can slim down the outcomes by solely displaying flights leaving in July 2025, coming into “2025-07” within the date column, and solely leaving from New York’s John F. Kennedy Worldwide Airport (JFK), coming into the three-letter airport code within the “Departs” discipline, and setting a value of 70,000 factors within the column for enterprise class.
This reduces the outcomes to a extra manageable 187 choices. Which means for the month of July 2025, there are 187 flights out there to ebook in enterprise class to Europe from JFK for simply 70,000 Aeroplan factors.
That is probably as much as six totally different flights per day with at the very least one seat out there within the peak summer season season, which is a really beneficiant quantity for anybody who has struggled to attain a lie-flat seat to Europe for such an inexpensive value.
Associated: The most effective methods to journey to Europe utilizing factors and miles
However for example you want 4 seats to take the entire household to Europe and nonetheless need lie-flat seats. Adjusting the “Seats” filter from one to 4 reveals 60 totally different flights in July with at the very least 4 seats.
Right here is only a choice.
Nonstop flights are proven in inexperienced whereas connecting choices are proven in blue. You’ll be able to click on the knowledge button on the suitable to see particulars of the flight time, service(s) and any connections. Let’s examine what the choice to Vienna Airport (VIE) on July 30 says.
Because the “Final Seen” column reveals that this seat consequence was final seen 18 hours in the past, there’s an opportunity the seats have been already booked and are now not out there, as dwell availability modifications continuously. To not worry: If you click on on the knowledge button, Seats.aero will run a dwell verify for Professional members of that route on that date to substantiate what continues to be out there.
There are a number of choices out there from New York to Vienna on that day which might be nonetheless out there — the primary three are a mixture of Lufthansa and Austrian Airways flights, whereas LOT Polish Airways operates the final two, and you’ll see the codes for the connecting airports.
The numbers in parentheses characterize the variety of seats out there. The primary two choices solely have one seat at that value, whereas the third choice, which conveniently solely has one connection, has a formidable six seats out there to ebook with Aeroplan factors (plus the charges, taxes and surcharges listed).
For Aeroplan search outcomes, the money fee required is listed in Canadian {dollars} as it is a Canada-based loyalty program, however you should use Google for a fast forex conversion. Typically, this instrument will not be 100% correct with the charges and taxes, so double-check on the airline’s web site to substantiate.
Associated: A assessment of Air Canada enterprise class on the Boeing 787 Dreamliner from Montreal to London
If you’d like extra particulars about connection occasions, distance flown and plane sorts, click on on the 2 downward blue arrows in your most well-liked itinerary.
The instrument additionally has a (beta) seat map perform, which reveals the plane’s structure for every flight. This perform is nice for securing an airline’s finest product, like Qatar Airways’ Qsuite or British Airways’ Membership Suite.
You may also see what number of seats are occupied and resolve which seat you may like to pick out earlier than you decide to redeeming your factors for the flight.
You may nonetheless want to pick out your seats on the working airline’s web site earlier than or after you ebook, however it is a helpful instrument for checking the seat configuration and which seats are occupied earlier than reserving.
Search all 19 packages throughout a number of routes and dates directly
Say you have got transferable bank card factors, like American Specific Membership Rewards factors, and also you wish to ebook a business-class flight to Europe in July from New York.
Nonetheless, you are not tied to at least one switch companion, alliance or airline, however you wish to journey on a particular day (for example the primary Friday in July). You could have flexibility round which European airport you fly into, offered you possibly can fly from New York on July 4 for an inexpensive variety of factors or miles.
Utilizing the “Search” tab quite than the “Discover” tab, you possibly can search all 19 packages concurrently to your most well-liked date or date vary. You’ll be able to set a particular origin and vacation spot or seek for a spread of airports by coming into the three-letter codes individually or utilizing the helpful “EUR” airport code, which captures all main European airports.
The identical shortcut can be utilized to look to or from all U.S. airports: Use the airport code “USA.”
The search outcomes present all flights from JFK to European airports July 4. The flights are listed once more as nonstop in inexperienced and connecting in blue.
You probably have Amex factors to redeem, you possibly can filter the outcomes by airline loyalty packages to which you’ll be able to switch Membership Rewards factors. You’ll be able to choose whichever packages you want to use you probably have transferable rewards in a number of bank card packages, with Bilt Rewards, Capital One miles, Chase Final Rewards and Citi ThankYou Rewards additionally supported.
The airline loyalty packages are additionally listed within the search outcomes. For instance, you can fly nonstop from JFK to London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR) on July 4 in enterprise class for 61,200 Qantas factors or 80,000 Etihad Visitor miles — each are American Specific Membership Rewards switch companions.
Whereas the Qantas choice looks as if a greater worth as a result of fewer Amex factors are required, at all times click on the knowledge button to verify carriers, flight occasions and costs, taxes and surcharges.
On this case, the Etihad Visitor redemption choice flying JetBlue could be a greater deal than the American Airways AAdvantage choice flying British Airways as a result of JetBlue (and Etihad Visitor) don’t cost massive carrier-imposed surcharges.
The search perform can be helpful if you wish to fly on a particular route however have versatile dates. Let’s take a look at one other area.
Flying to Australia in enterprise class utilizing factors and miles is notoriously troublesome.
Should you dwell close to San Francisco and wish to use your Chase Final Rewards factors to fly to Sydney Airport (SYD) subsequent winter, you can use the search perform to look a month on both aspect of Jan. 1, 2026, solely on that route and solely in enterprise class, and set the “Switch Companions” filter to point out solely Chase switch companions.
The search outcomes present that you can fly this route on many dates in December and January for 115,000 Air Canada Aeroplan factors.
You’ll be able to select which date works finest for you, switch your Chase factors to Aeroplan and ebook the flights.
Create alerts when your most well-liked flight turns into out there
If the flight you need is unavailable when looking, you possibly can set alerts to be notified if it does develop into out there. And you are not restricted to at least one route or date while you set an alert — you possibly can choose which factors and miles you wish to use, in addition to a number of departing and connecting airports, date ranges and lessons.
Associated: The holy grail of award tickets: Flying Lufthansa firstclass on the Boeing 747-8
You probably have a Professional membership, you possibly can set extra filters to refine your journey decisions even additional, together with:
- What number of seats on the flight you want to see out there
- The utmost variety of factors or miles you want to use
- The utmost quantity of charges, taxes and surcharges you want to pay
- What number of connections you’d be prepared to take (or in the event you solely wish to see nonstop flights)
- Particular flight numbers you wish to deal with
You may also disable dynamic pricing outcomes in the event you solely wish to pay the bottom saver-level costs.
If the product I’m hoping for is not out there after I’m looking, I usually redeem my factors or miles for one thing “acceptable” that’s out there on the time. I then set alerts in case one thing higher comes up, and I might be notified by e-mail (without cost accounts) or SMS (for Professional accounts) in order that I can improve my journey and ebook a greater flight as shortly as potential.
Useful instruments to your most well-liked program and product
Seats.aero has a rising variety of helpful instruments. Listed below are among the most helpful:
- ANA firstclass finder: With one click on, each first-class award seat operated by Japanese service All Nippon Airways out there to ebook with companion program miles is proven. That is particularly helpful in case you are searching for seats to ebook with Virgin Atlantic Flying Membership factors, as these don’t present on Virgin Atlantic’s personal web site. You should use Seats.aero to seek out the out there seats, then name Virgin Atlantic to ebook them at a lot decrease charges than United MileagePlus or Velocity prices.
- Lufthansa firstclass finder: Lufthansa releases some unsold first-class seats to companion loyalty packages as much as 14 days earlier than journey, although most seats are added only a few days earlier than journey. This instrument reveals all out there seats by route and date and the charges the supported packages cost. Aeroplan is normally the best choice to ebook Lufthansa firstclass following the Avianca LifeMiles devaluation.
- Qatar Qsuite finder: I fee Qatar Airways Qsuite as one of the best business-class product I’ve flown, nevertheless it’s not put in on all planes and routes. Somewhat than combing by means of seat maps or searching for seat descriptions on Google Flights, this Seats.aero instrument will present you which ones flights function the product and have availability to ebook along with your most well-liked mileage forex in addition to the costs and dates. You’ll be able to filter to solely present flights to and out of your most well-liked areas, reminiscent of from the USA to Hamad Worldwide Airport (DOH).
- United improve/PlusPoints finder: Should you maintain Premier Platinum, Premier 1K or World Providers elite standing in United’s MileagePlus program and wish to use your PlusPoints to improve a United flight, this instrument will present you all flight routes and dates with PZ and PN house, which is essential for redeeming these PlusPoints. You’ll be able to then use the search perform to filter to your most well-liked airport, date or flight quantity.
How does Seats.aero examine to different third-party instruments?
A number of unbiased instruments have been created to assist vacationers discover award seats extra simply, particularly after they have transferable factors and are overwhelmed by the switch choices out there.
I’ve tried out numerous different instruments and every has it personal strengths and weaknesses, specifically:
- ExpertFlyer (owned by TPG’s guardian firm, Crimson Ventures): Many airways are now not supported, and you’ll solely search one route at a time and over seven days.
- Level.me: Whereas this platform searches much more packages than the 19 supported by Seats.aero, the search outcomes take a very long time to load, and you’ll solely search one route at a time and just one date (after which the day earlier than and after).
- Factors Path: Solely works throughout the limitations of Google Flights.
- Roame: The free model solely helps 11 airline loyalty packages and you’ll solely search one route at a time.
Backside line
Seats.aero will not be excellent. I want it have been a little bit higher about remembering my preferences, reminiscent of at all times eager to see the utmost variety of flights listed within the search outcomes (quite than solely 25 per web page). It is also lacking some high-profile airline loyalty packages, notably an Avios choice. Nonetheless, given the velocity at which the platform has added instruments and extra airline packages, I am hopeful it’ll proceed to evolve and add additional options and advantages.
It has revolutionized how I discover award availability each day due to its unimaginable capability to look throughout a complete 12 months in seconds — no extra clicking daily, week by week, or month by month. In contrast with the opposite (additionally modern) third-party instruments created to help vacationers, I’ve discovered Seats.aero is by far probably the most helpful and best to make use of.
You probably have transferable bank card factors and wish to get one of the best worth, whether or not your dates and routes are fastened or broad open, Seats.aero can immediately present you finest redeem your factors and miles and ebook probably the most snug seat on the lowest value.
