SeatSpy Review: Finding Reward Flight Availability [AA, Etihad, Virgin, and More]

Finding award seat availability is one of the most frustrating aspects of using points and miles. After you’ve saved enough rewards for a big trip, the bigger task becomes tracking down the flights you want. Searching day by day and paging through airline calendars can take up a lot of time and deliver inconsistent results.

There’s only so much you can do manually, but award search tools such as SeatSpy can help automate your search. Instead of searching for a date at a time, you can scan up to a full year of award inventory simultaneously and get the results in a calendar view. You can see which days seats are available without repeating searches.

If you value flexibility or if you’re chasing competitive award space, seeing the award inventory laid out can save you hours of effort, and finding low-mile award seats can save you thousands of miles. With customizable alerts, you can get notified when new seats are available.

Let’s explore the SeatSpy service, including what it does, how much it costs, and the best features you can take advantage of as you search for award seats.

What Is SeatSpy?

SeatSpy is an award search engine that you can use to find airline award seats faster and easier on select carriers. As with similar services, such as seats.aero, point.me, and ExpertFlyer, you enter your information, such as the airline, origin, and destination, to start your search.

Though it works a lot like other services, SeatSpy is unique because you don’t have to enter dates. With SeatSpy, you get results for a year of award seat inventory delivered in a calendar format. No more clicking day-by-day fare calendars to find the right combination, just a full year of results in a single search, including outbound and inbound flights.

This year-at-a-glance view can save you hours of searching, especially if you’re flexible about when you can take an award flight. Knowing when award seats are and aren’t available can help you plan your travel dates, even on peak-season busy routes like New York (JFK) to London (LHR), where award space is quickly snapped up.

SeatSpy’s alert system allows you to set up notifications for your preferred route and cabin, and the site monitors availability for up to a year. When there’s an award seat available, you can get an alert via email, text, or WhatsApp so you can book it right away.

Hot Tip:

SeatSpy specializes in nonstop flights on supported airlines, so there may be additional options beyond what you find in SeatSpy results. For example, if you’re willing to take a connecting flight or can fly with a different airline.

Available Airlines

SeatSpy currently works for the following airlines:

Using SeatSpy for Codeshare Flights

SeatSpy searches for direct flights operated by the airline you select, not flights on partner airlines. However, codeshare flight inventory may be included in your SeatSpy search results if the flight is marketed under your selected airline.

You shouldn’t rely on SeatSpy to find full partner-carrier award space, but it can be handy if it helps you nail limited or rare award space marketed under the airline you searched.

For example, if you’re searching American Airlines routes, you may see partner flights from Oneworld carriers, such as Japan Airlines and Qatar Airways. The same applies to SkyTeam searches, as Air France-KLM results may include Delta award seats.

Bottom Line: Despite SeatSpy’s limitations, it’s a great tool for award searches.

SeatSpy Pricing

You can start searching without registering for an account, but information is fairly limited without a paid plan.

SeatSpy offers Premium and First Class plans, which have different features.

• Premium is $3.32 per month when paid annually.
• First Class is $8.33 per month when paid annually.

These are the features you get:

Hot Tip:

If you want to poke around and see how SeatSpy works, you can do limited searches. To expand your search, you’ll be prompted to start a 14-day free trial.

How SeatSpy Works

It’s easy to use SeatSpy to find award seat availability. Let’s walk through the steps of getting from dreams to reality using SeatSpy’s award search.

First, sign up for an account. Though you can do limited searches without an account, a paid subscription allows you to do all the searches you want and set up alerts and other features.

Once you’ve created an account, you can begin searching for flights.

Search for Award Flights

First, select your airline, one-way or round-trip flight, and the outbound and inbound airports. You may notice that some airports don’t populate the search box, as the website automatically limits routing choices based on what’s in the system. If you know the airline flies a route and SeatSpy doesn’t have data for it, you can request a route addition via email.

SeatSpy’s search starts off simple, so you don’t enter dates, classes, or the number of seats you need. You can filter for those in the search results.

View Reward Flight Search Results

The search results include a full year of award seats. In the filters on the left, you can add passengers (up to 6), select your preferred cabin, peak or off-peak fares, and how many points you’re willing to spend. The heat map function shows which dates are cheapest or most expensive. Green is lower, and red is higher.

You can scroll down to see award availability up to a year out. Hover over a day, and you’ll see the cabin, whether it’s peak or off-peak, the number of seats available, points cost, and applicable taxes.

Book the Reward Flight

Once you’ve found the availability you’re looking for, some airlines have a direct link you can click to be redirected to its website.

This link should take you to a page that will display your search results. This works for some airlines, but for others, you’ll end up on the carrier’s landing page and have to enter your information again.

Once you’re on the airline’s website, you can book the seats you want.

Bottom Line: Searching for award flights using SeatSpy is fast and easy, especially because you can see a full year of results at once.

Seat Alerts

It’s nice to see seat availability for a full year, but the reality is that award availability doesn’t always go out that far or your plans may extend past a year. SeatSpy allows you to set up alerts so you know when the seat you want becomes available.

For example, if you want to take your family of 4 to London next summer, you can set up an alert for 4 seats in business class on Virgin Atlantic. SeatSpy will notify you if 4 award seats on the same flight come available.

With the Premium subscription, you can set up 4 active alerts and get an alert up to an hour after SeatSpy discovers availability. It has up to 60 Telegram alerts and 30 WhatsApp alerts. You can get alerts at a single email.

With the First Class subscription, you can get unlimited active and instant alerts. First Class allows you to receive emails at a second address, unlimited Telegram alerts, 30 WhatsApp alerts, and 30 SMS alerts. Both tiers offer alerts for all future airlines.

If you want to set up an alert, first search for the award you want. Then scroll to the end of the calendar of search results, where you’ll see the Create an Alert box. You can select preferences, including date ranges, the number of passengers, and time ranges for the flights.

SeatSpy sets up alerts for outbound and inbound flights when you select a round-trip flight. That way, you can book them separately if either flight becomes available.

On your account page, you can set up your contact information for alerts. Enter your email address, Telegram username, and mobile phone number.

Where Can I Go?

Another neat feature of SeatSpy is Where Can I Go?, which allows you to search all routes from a destination on a particular airline with a starting date range.

The results are shown on a map highlighting all the destinations you can visit. You can select the fare class, number of passengers, and the maximum points per passenger. Below, you’ll see a list of destinations with colored dots indicating the fare class.

Is SeatSpy Worth It?

SeatSpy’s strength is its time-saving abilities. Seeing an entire year of award availability is a great improvement over day-by-day searches on airline websites, and its alert system can let you know as soon as an award seat opens on your chosen route.

If you’re a frequent flyer of airlines that SeatSpy supports, it can be an invaluable tool. It’s especially helpful for families and groups, as you can search for multiple seats at once on the same flight.

But like any award search tool, SeatSpy isn’t perfect. It’s limited to nonstop flights. If you’re flying from a smaller regional airport, you need to find positioning flights connecting you to a hub with a separate search. You may see partner or codeshare flights in results, but SeatSpy isn’t designed to track all partner availability. You still need to use airline websites or other tools for full coverage.

With a low monthly cost, SeatSpy offers a good value. Frequent award bookers and those chasing hard-to-find seats can get useful insights from a paid subscription with alerts and notifications.

Final Thoughts

SeatSpy is a useful award search tool, offering a full year of availability in a clear calendar view. Combined with customizable alerts, SeatSpy is a smart addition to any points and miles strategy.

While SeatSpy won’t solve every challenge, like connections from smaller airports or partner awards, it can take a lot of the frustration out of finding award seats with the airlines it supports. SeatSpy is worth trying, whether you’re a seasoned traveler or just dipping your toes in award travel. The low-cost subscription can pay for itself with a well-timed redemption — or you can use the free trial to find your flight and cancel before the bill comes due.