Finding redemption space is hard, so having the right tools to make it easier are essential.
A new website was launched at the end of 2019 which looks set to be the leading way to find many airline redemptions.
The website is called Seat Spy. The website is currently working in beta mode but will launch in full on Monday 27 May. They have recently added KLM and Air France availability alongside British Airways and Virgin Atlantic.
In this post:
How does it work?
You can either go to the SeatSpy website or use our widget on the right-hand side of this page. I really liked that you could search for all classes of travel at once, unlike Reward Flight. Finder. Here are the results for that Holy Grail, London to Sydney. The fact that you can also search two segments for Sydney at once is very useful.
By hovering over the dates it will show you the number of seats available and in which class.
If there is no availability for what you want, you can set up an alert for seats being released, providing you have signed up for an account.
There is also a feature that I have found very handy if you are not sure where to go. You simply add the origin and the dates you wish to travel and it will show every Avios destination with seats for that date. This can be useful if you can’t find exactly what you want and want to find an airport with availability near to your intended destination.
New SeatSpy features and a special offer
Up until now, SeatSpy has been completely free. From today, Monday 27 April 2020, when visiting seatspy.com you will be invited to choose the service level you want from the following three subscription levels:
The good news is that all users will still be able to search and create unlimited alerts for BA award flights for free. For other airlines and some other features (like priority alerts and SMS alerts) you will need to subscribe in order to access them from now on.
SeatSpy has also introduced a limited-time introductory offer that will run between 27 April and 27 May 2020. Anyone who signs-up to a paid membership will receive a lifetime discount as shown in the table above as a Founder Member deal. The first 3 months on the Premium tier will be free and then after that users will only pay £1.99 per month vs the regular rate of £2.99, and the First Class deal will cost only £2.99 per month vs the regular rate of £7.99 – a saving of over 60%.
If we compare what you get and the pricing to other websites like Reward Flight Finder, then SeatSpy is a much better deal. I used to pay for Reward Flight Finder but had switched to SeatSpy. With Reward Flight finder that costs £3 a month but only for hourly email alerts and just BA seats, the SeatSpy deal for “First Class” is much better value. You get instant alerts by email or SMS, with What’s app coming soon. Plus you can get an unlimited number of alerts which can be handy if you are planning a complex trip or a number of options.
If you feel like you want to book a trip but are a bit nervous about when travel will return to normal, award flights are probably the best way forward. Award flights are changeable or cancellable, and there is currently an unusually high amount of award seat availability.
SeatSpy plan to add additional features in the coming months including major US airlines. They will also be adding other functionality to the site including WhatsApp alerts and hotel VIP experience alerts, so the value of memberships will continue to grow, while founder users will have locked in the discounted rates.
You can sign up for the special offers and find more details on the SeatSpy website here.
3 comments
Brilliant. Signed up immediately…many thanks.
Has seatsp-y managed to fix it’s false-positives for BA F? If not then imho it’s in no position to be charging.
Pre meltdown I think I phoned BA 6 odd times to book F based on SS’s data only to be told there was none( so asked for the following day / day +2,3,4 to get the same answer) and that’s not counting the times it would show availability of 9 J & 9 F on multiple routes and dates which obviously ( for F at least) is literally NEVER going to happen.
Yey for the service expanding but unless things like that have been eradicated then it’s not worth anyones money.
Hi I’d be very concerned about any inaccurate data on the site. I’d ask that if anyone found any examples of this please, let me know, with the route and dates, via the support option on the SeatSpy site. The link to support is on the left hand edge of every page on desktop and on mobile. If I get the info via support I’ll see it very quickly and will be able to confirm where data issues are before anything gets updated.
There was an issue with BA reporting incorrect availability for First Class for quite a while. Some of BA’s apps and sites would report different availability to other BA apps and sites but I have not heard of this for a few weeks now.
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