| name | seats-aero |
| description | Search award flight availability across 27 mileage programs via Seats.aero Partner API. Find cheapest award flights, compare programs, and get booking links. |
| category | flights |
| summary | Award availability across 27 mileage programs. |
| api_key | Seats.aero Pro/Partner |
| license | MIT |
Seats.aero Skill
Search cached and live award flight availability across 27 mileage programs (including Spirit Free Spirit and Frontier Miles, added April 2026). Find the cheapest award flights, compare programs, and get booking links.
Source: seats.aero | API Docs | Knowledge Base
Authentication
Set SEATS_AERO_API_KEY in your .env file. Get from Settings > API tab (Pro account required).
All requests use the Partner-Authorization header. Pro users get 1,000 API calls per day for non-commercial use.
API Base
https://seats.aero/partnerapi
Key Concepts
Saver vs Dynamic Pricing
Award seats fall into two categories:
- Saver (fixed price): Set, predictable miles cost. Often the ONLY type bookable through partner programs. Best value. Always shown on Seats.aero.
- Dynamic: Price changes based on demand (like cash fares). Can be reasonable or extremely expensive. Seats.aero filters out overpriced dynamic awards by default.
Dynamic Price Filter Thresholds
Awards exceeding these per-hour thresholds are hidden automatically:
| Program | Economy | Prem Econ | Business | First |
|---|
| American | <100K total | <100K total | <150K total | <200K total |
| United | 7,500/hr | 10,000/hr | 14,000/hr | 20,000/hr (max 10h) |
| Delta | 10,000/hr | 15,000/hr | 20,000/hr | N/A |
| Aeroplan | 7,500/hr | 10,000/hr | 12,500/hr | 15,000/hr |
| Flying Blue | 5,000/hr | 10,000/hr | 15,000/hr | 15,000/hr |
| Alaska | <150K total | <150K total | <150K total | <150K total |
| Aeromexico | 10,000/hr (max 10h) | 15,000/hr | 20,000/hr | N/A |
| Etihad | 10,000/hr (max 10h) | 15,000/hr | 20,000/hr | N/A |
| JetBlue | 10,000/hr | 15,000/hr | 20,000/hr | N/A |
| Qantas | 7,500/hr | 10,000/hr | 20,000/hr | 25,000/hr |
To see ALL dynamic pricing (including expensive): pass include_filtered=true on cached search/bulk, or disable_filters=true / show_dynamic_pricing=true on live search.
Phantom Availability
Sometimes a flight shows bookable but no seat actually exists. Causes:
- Cached/stale results: Check
ComputedLastSeen for freshness.
- Syncing delays: Seats taken but partner systems haven't updated.
- Partner feed glitches: Programs incorrectly show space on partners.
Always verify on the airline's own site before transferring points. Compare multiple programs in the same alliance. Call to confirm and hold if possible.
Foreign Program Caveats
Some programs (Smiles, TudoAzul, etc.) may require local tax IDs, local payment methods, or are only available in the local language. They still appear in results because they can serve as signals: if Azul TudoAzul shows United saver space, that same space is likely bookable through Aeroplan or other Star Alliance partners you CAN access.
Award Release Dates
Airlines release award seats at different advance windows (e.g., Aeroplan releases up to 358 days out). Check seats.aero/tools/releases to see the maximum days out for each airline by program. Useful for planning when to start searching.
Availability Objects
Each result from Cached Search / Bulk Availability is a summary that groups all flights for one route/date/program into a single object. For example, if Alaska shows 3 different SFO>LAX flights on Mar 16, they all appear in one availability object. The MileageCost fields show the cheapest option. The RemainingSeats fields show the maximum across all flights. Use Get Trips to see individual flight details.
Mileage Program Sources
| Source | Program | Cabins | Seat Count | Trip Data | Taxes |
|---|
eurobonus | SAS EuroBonus | Y/J | Yes | Yes | Yes |
virginatlantic | Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | Y/W/J | Yes | Yes | Yes |
aeromexico | Aeromexico Club Premier | Y/W/J | Yes | Yes | Yes |
american | American Airlines AAdvantage | Y/W/J/F | Low seats only* | Yes | Yes |
delta | Delta SkyMiles | Y/W/J | Yes | Yes | Yes |
etihad | Etihad Guest | Y/J/F | Yes | Yes | Yes |
united | United MileagePlus | Y/W/J/F | Yes | Yes | Yes |
emirates | Emirates Skywards | Y/W/J/F | No | Partial** | Yes |
aeroplan | Air Canada Aeroplan | Y/W/J/F | Usually*** | Yes | Yes |
alaska | Alaska Mileage Plan | Y/W/J/F | Yes | Yes | Yes |
velocity | Virgin Australia Velocity | Y/W/J/F | Yes | Yes | Yes |
qantas | Qantas Frequent Flyer | Y/W/J/F | No | Yes | Yes |
connectmiles | Copa ConnectMiles | Y/J/F | No | Yes | Yes |
azul | Azul TudoAzul | Y/J | No | Yes | Yes |
smiles | GOL Smiles | Y/W/J/F | Yes | Yes | Yes |
flyingblue | Air France/KLM Flying Blue | Y/W/J/F | Yes | Yes | Yes |
jetblue | JetBlue TrueBlue | Y/W/J/F | Yes | Yes | Yes |
qatar | Qatar Privilege Club | Y/J/F | No | Yes | No |
turkish | Turkish Miles & Smiles | Y/J | No | Yes | No |
singapore | Singapore KrisFlyer | Y/W/J/F | No | Yes | No |
ethiopian | Ethiopian ShebaMiles | Y/J | Yes | Yes | Yes |
saudia | Saudi AlFursan | Y/J/F | Yes | Yes | Yes |
finnair | Finnair Plus | Y/W/J/F | Yes | Yes | Yes |
lufthansa | Lufthansa Miles&More | Y/J/F | Yes | Yes | Yes |
frontier | Frontier Airlines | Y | No | Yes | Yes |
spirit | Spirit Airlines | Y | Yes | Yes | Yes |
* AA provides seat counts only when remaining seats are low. Otherwise shows 0.
** Emirates connection flights may have missing fields.
*** Aeroplan seat count is typically available but may be 0 in rare cases.
Cabin codes: Y = economy, W = premium economy, J = business, F = first
Cached Search (Primary Endpoint)
Search for award availability between specific airports and date ranges across all programs. Use this for targeted route/date searches.
curl -s -H "Partner-Authorization: $SEATS_AERO_API_KEY" \
"https://seats.aero/partnerapi/search?origin_airport=SFO&destination_airport=NRT&start_date=2026-08-01&end_date=2026-08-31" | jq '.'
Parameters
| Param | Required | Description |
|---|
origin_airport | Yes | Comma-delimited airport codes: SFO,LAX |
destination_airport | Yes | Comma-delimited airport codes: NRT,HND |
start_date | No | YYYY-MM-DD format |
end_date | No | YYYY-MM-DD format |
cabins | No | Comma-delimited: economy,business |
sources | No | Comma-delimited program filter: aeroplan,united |
only_direct_flights | No | Boolean. Only direct flights. |
carriers | No | Comma-delimited airline codes: DL,AA |
order_by | No | Default: date+cabin priority. lowest_mileage for cheapest first. |
include_trips | No | Boolean. Include flight details in response (slower, larger). |
minify_trips | No | Boolean. When combined with include_trips, returns fewer fields per trip for better performance. |
include_filtered | No | Boolean. Show expensive dynamic awards that were filtered out. |
take | No | Results per page. 10-1000, default 500. |
skip | No | Pagination offset. |
cursor | No | Cursor from previous response for consistent pagination. |
Response Fields (Availability Object)
Each result summarizes all flights for one route/date/program:
| Field | Description |
|---|
ID | Availability ID (use with /trips/{id} for flight details) |
Route.OriginAirport | Origin airport code |
Route.DestinationAirport | Destination airport code |
Date | Departure date |
Source | Mileage program |
YAvailable, WAvailable, JAvailable, FAvailable | Cabin availability booleans |
YMileageCost, WMileageCost, JMileageCost, FMileageCost | Cheapest points cost across all flights (string) |
YRemainingSeats, WRemainingSeats, JRemainingSeats, FRemainingSeats | Max seats remaining across all flights |
YAirlines, WAirlines, JAirlines, FAirlines | Operating carriers |
YDirect, WDirect, JDirect, FDirect | Direct flight available |
ComputedLastSeen | When availability was last verified |
Get Trip Details
Get flight-level information from an availability object. Returns individual itineraries with segments, booking links, and coordinates.
curl -s -H "Partner-Authorization: $SEATS_AERO_API_KEY" \
"https://seats.aero/partnerapi/trips/{availability_id}" | jq '.'
Parameters
| Param | Required | Description |
|---|
id | Yes (path) | The availability object ID |
include_filtered | No (query) | Include expensive dynamic results filtered out |
Response Fields (Trip Object)
| Field | Description |
|---|
Cabin | economy, premium, business, first |
MileageCost | Points cost (integer) |
AllianceCost | Cost through alliance partner programs (integer) |
TotalTaxes | Taxes in cents (divide by 100 for dollars) |
TaxesCurrency | Currency code (empty = USD) |
RemainingSeats | Seats left |
Stops | Number of stops |
TotalDuration | Minutes |
Carriers | Operating airlines |
FlightNumbers | Flight number string |
DepartsAt | Departure (local airport time) |
ArrivesAt | Arrival (local airport time) |
AvailabilitySegments | Array of individual flight legs |
Source | Mileage program |
The response also includes:
booking_links[] with label, link, and primary boolean for direct booking URLsorigin_coordinates and destination_coordinates (Lat/Lon)
Trip Segment Fields
Each segment in AvailabilitySegments:
| Field | Description |
|---|
FlightNumber | e.g., "TK800" |
AircraftCode | e.g., "77W" |
AircraftName | e.g., "77W" |
OriginAirport | Segment origin |
DestinationAirport | Segment destination |
DepartsAt | Departure time (local airport) |
ArrivesAt | Arrival time (local airport) |
FareClass | Booking class letter (e.g., "I", "X") |
Distance | Segment distance in miles |
Order | Segment order (0-indexed) |
Bulk Availability
Retrieve large result sets from one mileage program. Use for broad regional exploration (e.g., "all United business class from North America to Europe").
curl -s -H "Partner-Authorization: $SEATS_AERO_API_KEY" \
"https://seats.aero/partnerapi/availability?source=united&origin_region=North%20America&destination_region=Europe&cabin=business&start_date=2026-08-01&end_date=2026-09-30" | jq '.'
Parameters
| Param | Required | Description |
|---|
source | Yes | Single mileage program |
cabin | No | economy, premium, business, first |
start_date | No | YYYY-MM-DD |
end_date | No | YYYY-MM-DD |
origin_region | No | North America, South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, Oceania |
destination_region | No | Same as above |
include_filtered | No | Boolean. Show filtered-out dynamic pricing. |
take | No | 10-1000, default 500 |
skip | No | Pagination offset |
cursor | No | From previous response |
Get Routes
List all monitored routes for a mileage program. Useful for understanding what city pairs have cached data.
curl -s -H "Partner-Authorization: $SEATS_AERO_API_KEY" \
"https://seats.aero/partnerapi/routes?source=united" | jq '.'
Returns an array of route objects:
| Field | Description |
|---|
OriginAirport | Origin code |
DestinationAirport | Destination code |
OriginRegion | Region name |
DestinationRegion | Region name |
NumDaysOut | How far ahead this route is scanned |
Distance | Route distance |
Source | Mileage program |
Live Search
Real-time search for ANY city pair (not limited to monitored routes). Commercial agreement required. Not available to Pro users via API.
5-15 second response times. Build proper error handling with exponential backoff.
curl -s -X POST -H "Partner-Authorization: $SEATS_AERO_API_KEY" \
-H "Content-Type: application/json" \
-d '{"origin_airport":"SFO","destination_airport":"NRT","departure_date":"2026-08-15","source":"united","seat_count":2}' \
"https://seats.aero/partnerapi/live" | jq '.'
Parameters (JSON body)
| Param | Required | Description |
|---|
origin_airport | Yes | Single airport code |
destination_airport | Yes | Single airport code |
departure_date | Yes | YYYY-MM-DD |
source | Yes | Single mileage program |
seat_count | No | 1-9, default 1 |
disable_filters | No | Disable ALL filters (dynamic pricing + mismatched airports) |
show_dynamic_pricing | No | Disable only dynamic pricing filter, keep airport filtering |
Important: IDs returned from live search are NOT real and cannot be used with other Seats.aero APIs (Get Trips, etc.). Live results are ephemeral.
Pagination
All list endpoints use skip + cursor. On first call, omit both. From the response, save the cursor value. On subsequent calls, pass cursor and increment skip by the number of results received.
The cursor is a Unix timestamp. Treat it as opaque. Rare duplicates are possible across pages. Deduplicate by ID.
Useful jq Filters
... | jq '[.data[] | select(.JAvailable == true) | {date: .Date, origin: .Route.OriginAirport, dest: .Route.DestinationAirport, miles: (.JMileageCost | tonumber), seats: .JRemainingSeats, airlines: .JAirlines, source: .Source, direct: .JDirect}] | sort_by(.miles)'
... | jq '[.data[] | select(.JAvailable == true) | {date: .Date, miles: (.JMileageCost | tonumber), source: .Source, type: (if (.JMileageCost | tonumber) < 80000 then "likely_saver" else "dynamic" end)}]'
... | jq '[.data[] | select(.YAvailable == true and .YRemainingSeats >= 2) | {date: .Date, origin: .Route.OriginAirport, dest: .Route.DestinationAirport, miles: (.YMileageCost | tonumber), seats: .YRemainingSeats, source: .Source}] | sort_by(.miles)'
... | jq '[.data[] | {date: .Date, origin: .Route.OriginAirport, dest: .Route.DestinationAirport, source: .Source, economy: (if .YAvailable then .YMileageCost else null end), business: (if .JAvailable then .JMileageCost else null end), first: (if .FAvailable then .FMileageCost else null end)}]'
... | jq '[.data[] | select(.JAvailable == true and .JDirect == true) | {date: .Date, miles: .JMileageCost, airlines: .JAirlines, source: .Source}]'
... | jq '[.data[] | {date: .Date, source: .Source, last_seen: .ComputedLastSeen}]'
Workflow: Trip Planning Search
- Cached Search across multiple airports and date ranges to see what's available
- Compare programs: check which
source has the cheapest miles for the same route
- Identify saver vs dynamic: low prices (e.g., 57.5K J for AA transatlantic) = saver. High prices (100K+) = dynamic.
- Get Trip Details on promising availability IDs for flight times, connections, and booking links
- Verify freshness: check
ComputedLastSeen. If stale (hours old), the availability may be phantom.
- Cross-reference: check the airline's own site or call to confirm before transferring points
- Use booking_links from trip response to book directly on each program's site
- Cross-reference with AwardWallet balances to confirm enough points
Why Results May Be Empty
- No saver space released. Most programs only show saver awards to partners. Check the airline's own site.
- Elite/status restrictions. Some seats only visible to elite members or cardholders.
- Route not monitored. If the route isn't in Get Routes, cached search won't have it. Live search can check any route.
- Search window limits. Airlines release awards at different advance windows. Check release dates tool.
- Already booked. Award space changes constantly. Set alerts for notification when it opens.
Specialized Tools (Web UI Only)
These tools are available on the seats.aero website but not via the Partner API:
- Alaska Upgrade Finder (seats.aero/alaska/upgrades): Find confirmable upgrade space for Alaska elites using Atmos Gold Guest Upgrade certificates. Dedicated tool for scanning upgrade availability.
- Etihad First Class Finder (seats.aero/etihad/first): Dedicated tracker for newly available Etihad First Class seats. Etihad F is rare and highly sought after. This tool surfaces new availability faster than general search.
- Price History: Fare trends over time are available on the web UI but not via API. Use the
seats-aero-web skill (Patchright browser automation) to access price history charts.
Alert Features
When creating alerts on seats.aero:
- Time filters: Departure and arrival time ranges are available as alert filters. Useful for avoiding red-eyes or ensuring morning arrivals.
- Cabin, route, and program filters: Standard alert parameters.
- Alerts notify via email or push when matching availability appears.
Third-Party Integrations
Pro account holders can connect seats.aero to third-party apps via the "Connect seats.aero" button on the website.
- aeroconnections.app (by @wavydavy): Visualization tool that shows available connections from specific airports. Log in with your Pro account to see current award space mapped visually. Useful for exploring routing options you wouldn't think to search.
Notes
- All times in responses are local airport times.
TotalTaxes is in cents (divide by 100 for dollars).MileageCost in availability objects is a string. In trip objects it's an integer.AllianceCost in trip objects shows what booking through an alliance partner would cost.- Dynamic pricing filters are on by default. Pass
include_filtered=true to see everything.
- Availability data is cached, not live. Check
ComputedLastSeen for freshness.
- Pro users: 1,000 API calls/day. Failed live searches don't count.
- Free users can only search 30 days ahead. Pro unlocks 60+ days.
- Post-search filters (max points, stops, duration, etc.) now apply directly to flight detail results, not just the search results list.
