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

.env

All requests use the

Partner-Authorization

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:

To see ALL dynamic pricing (including expensive): pass

include_filtered=true

disable_filters=true

show_dynamic_pricing=true

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

RemainingSeats

Mileage Program Sources

eurobonus

virginatlantic

aeromexico

american

delta

etihad

united

emirates

aeroplan

alaska

velocity

qantas

connectmiles

azul

smiles

flyingblue

jetblue

qatar

turkish

singapore

ethiopian

saudia

finnair

lufthansa

frontier

spirit

* 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

origin_airport

SFO,LAX

destination_airport

NRT,HND

start_date

end_date

cabins

economy,business

sources

aeroplan,united

only_direct_flights

carriers

DL,AA

order_by

lowest_mileage

include_trips

minify_trips

include_trips

include_filtered

take

skip

cursor

Response Fields (Availability Object)

Each result summarizes all flights for one route/date/program:

ID

/trips/{id}

Route.OriginAirport

Route.DestinationAirport

Date

Source

YAvailable

WAvailable

JAvailable

FAvailable

YMileageCost

WMileageCost

JMileageCost

FMileageCost

YRemainingSeats

WRemainingSeats

JRemainingSeats

FRemainingSeats

YAirlines

WAirlines

JAirlines

FAirlines

YDirect

WDirect

JDirect

FDirect

ComputedLastSeen

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

id

include_filtered

Response Fields (Trip Object)

Cabin

MileageCost

AllianceCost

TotalTaxes

TaxesCurrency

RemainingSeats

Stops

TotalDuration

Carriers

FlightNumbers

DepartsAt

ArrivesAt

AvailabilitySegments

Source

The response also includes:

• booking_links[]

  with

  label

  ,

  link

  , and

  primary

  boolean for direct booking URLs

• origin_coordinates

  and

  destination_coordinates

  (Lat/Lon)

Trip Segment Fields

Each segment in

AvailabilitySegments

FlightNumber

AircraftCode

AircraftName

OriginAirport

DestinationAirport

DepartsAt

ArrivesAt

FareClass

Distance

Order

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

source

cabin

start_date

end_date

origin_region

destination_region

include_filtered

take

skip

cursor

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:

OriginAirport

DestinationAirport

OriginRegion

DestinationRegion

NumDaysOut

Distance

Source

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)

origin_airport

destination_airport

departure_date

source

seat_count

disable_filters

show_dynamic_pricing

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

cursor

cursor

skip

The

cursor

ID

Useful jq Filters

# Business class availability sorted by cheapest miles
... | 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)'

# Saver vs dynamic detection: if miles < threshold, likely saver
# AA: J saver ~57.5K for transatlantic, dynamic 100K+
# United: J saver ~60-80K for transatlantic, dynamic 100K+
... | jq '[.data[] | select(.JAvailable == true) | {date: .Date, miles: (.JMileageCost | tonumber), source: .Source, type: (if (.JMileageCost | tonumber) < 80000 then "likely_saver" else "dynamic" end)}]'

# Economy availability with 2+ seats
... | 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)'

# All available cabins for a date range
... | 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)}]'

# Direct flights only in business
... | jq '[.data[] | select(.JAvailable == true and .JDirect == true) | {date: .Date, miles: .JMileageCost, airlines: .JAirlines, source: .Source}]'

# Check data freshness (stale = potential phantom)
... | jq '[.data[] | {date: .Date, source: .Source, last_seen: .ComputedLastSeen}]'

Workflow: Trip Planning Search

1. Cached Search across multiple airports and date ranges to see what's available
2. Compare programs: check which

   source

   has the cheapest miles for the same route
3. Identify saver vs dynamic: low prices (e.g., 57.5K J for AA transatlantic) = saver. High prices (100K+) = dynamic.
4. Get Trip Details on promising availability IDs for flight times, connections, and booking links
5. Verify freshness: check

   ComputedLastSeen

   . If stale (hours old), the availability may be phantom.
6. Cross-reference: check the airline's own site or call to confirm before transferring points
7. Use booking_links from trip response to book directly on each program's site
8. Cross-reference with AwardWallet balances to confirm enough points

Why Results May Be Empty

1. No saver space released. Most programs only show saver awards to partners. Check the airline's own site.
2. Elite/status restrictions. Some seats only visible to elite members or cardholders.
3. Route not monitored. If the route isn't in Get Routes, cached search won't have it. Live search can check any route.
4. Search window limits. Airlines release awards at different advance windows. Check release dates tool.
5. 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.