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We’re big fans of SeatSpy here at Upgraded Points, thanks to the website’s ability to search for award availability on a variety of airlines across an entire year.
Now, the site has added the ability to search several more airlines — though they’re still in beta mode.
Here’s what you should know.
SeatSpy is a paid service that will allow you to search for reward seats and set alerts that will notify you when new ones become available.
In a way, it works like other services — with the distinction that you can set alerts ranging all the way to the end of the award calendar. If you’re a flexible traveler, this gives you a much greater chance of success when looking for awards, especially on those hard-to-find routes.
The cost of SeatSpy will depend on which plan you choose:
In the past, SeatSpy supported searches for the following airlines:
And now, the site has added beta support for these airlines:
Savvy travelers will note that all of these airlines belong to Star Alliance, which may make it a little less appealing. However, there is an airline that sticks out here for the potential of snagging some of the most sought-after seats in award travel: Lufthansa first class.
Everyone wants to try out first class on Lufthansa thanks to its spacious seats and top-tier service. However, the airline is notoriously stingy when it comes to releasing award space.
Although you can pretty reliably find award availability for business class, Lufthansa doesn’t release first class award space to partners until 30 days before flying. This can make it very difficult to plan a trip, especially one with a lot of moving parts.
Hot Tip: You can always complete economy searches for free, though the site limits these for non-members.
SeatSpy’s inclusion of Lufthansa award inventory makes it much easier to keep up with first class seats. SeatSpy searches availability for Lufthansa-specific awards, which tend to be more generous than what the airline releases to its partners.
Adding this inventory to SeatSpy should make it much easier to see — at a glance — when first class seats are available. Even better, you can set an alert to be informed immediately when they drop, so you can then go and check to see if the seats are bookable through any of Lufthansa’s Star Alliance partners.
Here’s an example of a search from Houston (IAH) to Frankfurt (FRA) on SeatSpy. The red markings denote first class availability:
Heading over to Avianca Lifemiles, we can see the corresponding seat available for booking:
And just like that, you can book yourself one of the best first class seats in the sky!
SeatSpy is a highly useful website for those looking to book award seats. Although it doesn’t support searches for all airlines, the addition of several new carriers should provide even more value to customers.
