Seats.aero: Ultimate Guide to Mastering Your Points

Here at Life of Points we are all about redeeming our points and miles. Therefore, we’ve found the best tools for travelers to maximize their rewards and streamline the booking process. One of the biggest challenges in the points and miles world is the time-consuming task of searching across all the various airline websites for deals and itineraries that work for you. 

That is where our preferred points search engine steps in. Seats.aero is a powerful web-based tool that allows users to search for flights, track availability, and set alerts for when a new redemption option becomes available. 

Whether you’re a seasoned points traveler or just starting your journey into the world of points and miles, this guide will teach you how to use Seats.aero to its fullest potential. 

Explore

Seats.aero’s Explore function can be accessed from the home page and allows users to search for flights with their preferred airline mileage program. Each airline program’s transfer partners are also conveniently displayed so you won’t have to memorize or spend time searching for these details. 

If you’re using the free-version of the tool you’ll be limited to flights within the next 60 days, and you will not have access to the filters on the page. Free-users will only be able to use the search function, or sort by clicking the column headers.

Paid “PRO” users can refine their search by specifying departure and arrival airports, number of seats needed, maximum points for redemption, preferred days of the week, and direct flights only. Additionally, PRO users have access to results up to a year in advance.

In the image above you will see two flights leaving out of Montréal-Trudeau International Airport (YUL). Results and their corresponding point cost can be found on the right in a simple color-coded system. Blue indicates the route includes layovers, and green indicates the flight is direct.

For more information, you can click on the gray info button on the right of the page. This will prompt you with the popup seen below. In the resulting popup, important information such as flight time, point cost, taxes, and operating carrier can be found.

A nice feature of Seats.aero is that it displays results of airlines’ alliance partners. In the example below we searched the United MileagePlus program and got a result operated by Air Canada. This flight being operated by Air Canada is bookable using your United MileagePlus points. Clicking the blue Book via United MileagePlus button will initiate the booking process on United’s website.

Search

Users frequently rely on the Search function to plan trips since it offers precise filters tailored to individual needs. This tool provides the flexibility to search across multiple airports and includes filters for loyalty programs, alliances, transfer partners, and more.

One of the more handy features of the Search function is the integration of Multi-Airport codes. These allow users to use one code to search a broader area or an airline’s major hubs. You can view these codes by clicking the grey Multi-Airport Codes button at the top of the screen. A snippet of the codes can be seen below.

Example using Search function

Let’s begin with a hypothetical trip itinerary. For this search, we’ll assume we want to depart from the Miami area for a European vacation. Let’s also assume that we have a stash of American Express and Chase points.

We begin the search by entering QMI as our origin airport, which represents the Miami Metropolitan Area airports (MIA, FLL, and PBI). We use EUR as our destination airport which represents all large European airports.

After clicking search, the filters will appear. Because we have American Express and Chase points I will narrow our search to include flights only bookable with these two point currencies. 

The narrowed-down results are shown below. 

We see that the results show a mix of direct and non-direct flights and range from 12,500 points in economy-class up to 107,700 points in first-class. As we learned earlier, clicking the info button on the right-side of each result will display important details about each flight.

In this example, Miami to London (MIA-LHR) with Virgin Atlantic costs 12,500 points and $152.80. The $152.80 consists of a government imposed charge and an airline imposed surcharge. Always be aware of what the taxes are on award flights as they can occasionally be prohibitively expensive. 

Create Alerts 

The last of the main Seats.aero functions is the ability to create alerts. If your search doesn’t yield any results or the available options don’t align with your travel plans, you can set up an alert to be notified when new options become available. Creating alerts is a powerful feature that ensures you don’t miss out on new redemption opportunities that fit your travel plans.

Below is a screenshot of an example alert for our sample trip:

Note that SMS notifications and ability to choose a range of days are restricted to PRO users.

Conclusion

Seats.aero is an invaluable tool for travelers looking to maximize their points and miles. Whether you are searching for flights, or setting alerts for new redemption opportunities, Seats.aero simplifies the process and saves you time.

With features tailored to both free and PRO users, it offers flexibility and precision in planning your trips. By mastering Seats.aero, you can make the most out of your rewards and enjoy seamless travel experiences!

If you’re unsure how to maximize your points and miles or need advice on planning your trip, join our Discord server and ask away!