SeatSpy: A tool for finding non-stop awards. Why is that useful?

If you don't find what you're looking for, you can set an alert.

What is SeatSpy good for?

SeatSpy works differently with each airline, so I have covered each airline separately.

Air France & KLM

SeatSpy shows awards availability almost every day, but it's not very useful since the awards will be overpriced on most days.

When setting up Air France or KLM alerts, you can't specify the maximum points, so you're likely to get too many results.

Air France and KLM do not release the same award space to partners as they do for their own members and so you can't rely on SeatSpy results to show you when you can book Air

The summary of Air France and KLM.

• Use SeatSpy to find good award prices on Air France or KLM flights using Air France / KLM Flying Blue miles.
• Don’t use SeatSpy alerts with Air France or KLM flights because you cannot limit the maximum number of points of interest when setting up your alerts.
• Don’t use SeatSpy to find Air France or KLM awards bookable with partner airline miles (such as Virgin Atlantic miles).

American Airlines

SeatSpy shows that awards are available almost every day, but they are overpriced on most days.

SeatSpy sometimes includes flights on partner airlines when they fly the same route.

SeatSpy doesn't allow you to specify the maximum points or the only awards you're interested in.

The summary is from American Airlines.

• Use SeatSpy to find good award prices on AA flights using AA miles.
• Use SeatSpy to find AA MileSAAver awards that are bookable with partner miles.
• Watch out for routes that are served by British Airways in addition to AA because SeatSpy won’t limit results to only AA (and British Airways flights usually incur large cash surcharges).
• Don’t use SeatSpy alerts with AA flights because you cannot limit the maximum number of points of interest or limit to MileSAAver awards when setting up your alerts.

British Airways

SeatSpy was originally created for British Airways awards and it still works well.

SeatSpy can be used to find flights that are upgradeable.

The summary is from British Airways.

• Use SeatSpy to find award availability regardless of whether you plan to book with British Airways Avios or with partner miles.
• Use SeatSpy to find upgrade space (since it’s the same as award space with BA)
• Don’t forget that British Airways imposes very large surcharges on business and first class flights and so just because an award is available doesn’t mean that it’s a good deal!

Etihad Airways

When I tested SeatSpy on routes where I confirmed that awards were available, it returned no results.

Miles & More (Austrian, Brussels, Croatia, LOT Polish, Lufthansa, Swiss)

SeatSpy supports a number of airlines that have the Miles & More loyalty program.

The summary is for Miles and more.

• Use SeatSpy to find award availability for any of these airlines as long as you plan to book with Miles & More miles.
• Don’t use SeatSpy to find awards bookable with partner airline miles (such as United, Air Canada, or Avianca)

United Airlines

This is awesome because these are awards that are bookable with United's partners, and some partner offers incredible bargains for booking United flights.

• Newark to Honolulu
• Newark or Washington DC to Cape Town, South Africa
• San Francisco to Auckland, New Zealand
• Houston to Sydney, Australia

The summary is from United Airlines.

• Use SeatSpy to find award availability for flying United even if you want to book with a partner airline’s miles.
• Use SeatSpy alerts to find and snag otherwise impossible to get United award flights.

Virgin Atlantic

Virgin Atlantic doesn't have dynamic award pricing and so the existence of an award is important.

Virgin Atlantic does not differentiate between award space and upgrade availability.

The summary is from Virgin Atlantic.

• Use SeatSpy to find award availability for booking with Virgin Atlantic points.
• Use SeatSpy to find upgrade space (since it’s the same as award space with Virgin Atlantic)
• Don’t rely on SeatSpy to find Virgin Atlantic awards bookable with partner miles (such as Air France / KLM Flying Blue or Delta SkyMiles)
• Don’t forget that Virgin Atlantic imposes very large surcharges on business and first class flights and so just because an award is available doesn’t mean that it’s a good deal!

SeatSpy Pricing

SeatSpy is free for economy award searches, but you'll have to pay to search for premium awards or to receive alerts.  Here are the pricing details: SeatSpy offers a "Cancel Subscription" button within their website so it is very easy to cancel if you decide that it's not worth the cost. Note: Frequent Miler has an affiliate relationship with SeatSpy. If you click through from our site to sign up, we will earn a small commission.

Using SeatSpy

Basic SeatSpy Search

When you click the Search button, a full year of results will appear very quickly.

Modify SeatSpy Search Criteria

SeatSpy allows you to deselect cabin classes that you don't want to fly in.

View Seats Available

Clicking on any date of interest will show you the number of seats available in each class.

Example US to Africa award search

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic were only supported by SeatSpy.

I was wondering if SeatSpy could help me find an award flying 2 adults in business or first class from New York City to South Africa in October for two weeks.

We would be routed through London with both Virgin Atlantic and British Airways.

SeatSpy doesn't allow searching for itineraries with connections.

I searched for both JFK-LHR and EWR-LHR for Virgin Atlantic.

Outbound: New York to London

Business class awards from New York to London are open in October.

Outbound: London to Johannesburg

Since Virgin Atlantic awards are only available at the end of the month and I want a two week trip within October, I will have to use British Airways.

At least two business class seats were available departing New York on October 5th and leaving London on October 6th.

• BA: 112.5K Avios + $ 1,027
• AA: 75K per person + $1,027
• Cathay: 90K per person + $606

You can save points by booking these flights with AA miles, but you'll still have to pay taxes.

There are better and cheaper ways to get from the US to Africa in business class.

Return: Cape Town to London

Return: London to New York

Since there was a Virgin Atlantic flight from London to New York on October 26th, I decided to take it.

I had to look for each flight separately on Virgin Atlantic's website.

• Virgin: 105K plus $875
• Air France: 145.5K plus $713
  • CPT-LHR: 86.5K plus $193
  • LHR-JFK 59K plus $520
• Delta: 145K plus $378

Air France charges more miles for the same Virgin Atlantic flights.

There are cheaper ways to get from Africa to the US in business class.

British Airways and Virgin Atlantic have new suites that are marketed as suites. Seat Spy makes it easy to try these out.

British Airways’ Club Suite

The new Club Suites are available on all of British Airways' aircraft.

When you pick out a route, use SeatSpy to find award availability and then double check on BA.com to see if the flight numbers you are looking for are available as awards.

Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class Suite

The Upper Class Suites are only available on the A350 aircraft.

There are a lot of business class award space available from JFK to London.

I was able to confirm that award space was available on March 9th using Virgin Atlantic's website.

The 10PM flight is available to book as an award in Upper Class and there is a small indicator that it is a new plane.

The price for this flight is great, but the fees are excessive.

Air France charges a fee for this flight.

Greg’s take on SeatSpy

SeatSpy only searches for awards with specific airlines and only works on non-stop flights.

SeatSpy isn't for everyone, but if you need it, it may be for you.