Easily Find Qantas & Velocity Reward Availability with Seats.aero

Qantas and Virgin business side by side
Seats.aero can help you to find reward seats using your Qantas points or Velocity points.

Finding reward seat availability can be one of the most difficult and frustrating aspects of collecting frequent flyer points. It’s relatively easy to earn points, but redeeming them to fly when and where you want can be a bit more of a challenge.

Luckily, there are now lots of award search tools that can make it easier to find that elusive award availability!

In addition to the original award search tools – the likes of KVS Tool, Award Nexus and ExpertFlyer – there are now some rather nifty next-generation tools such as:

There’s now a lot of competition for tools that help with award searches, and they seem to be getting better and better. But my personal favourite award search tool at the moment is Seats.aero.

Why I like Seats.aero

With Seats.aero, you can see award availability across many different routes and dates on a single page. You don’t have to search for one route at a time.

With a free account, you can instantly see award availability across the next two months. And with a Pro subscription, you can view available seats over the next year.

When searching with Seats.aero, the results are almost instant. You can then easily sort and filter your results to find options that you really want. You can also set up award seat alerts, and instantly view flights to or from any airport that’s covered by the site.

This is a seriously powerful award search tool, and one that I personally use. It has saved me a lot of time.

Seats.aero now supports Qantas and Velocity Frequent Flyer

Seats.aero shows award seats that are available to book online through 12 frequent flyer programs. This includes programs across the Oneworld, Star Alliance and SkyTeam alliances. It also supports programs like Emirates Skywards and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, which both partner with Amex Membership Rewards in Australia.

This has already been a useful tool for Australians for a while. But it became infinitely more useful a few weeks ago, when Seats.aero added support for Velocity Frequent Flyer and Qantas Frequent Flyer. This means you can now use it to instantly identify award seats that are available for booking as Velocity Reward Seats on the Virgin Australia website, and Classic Flight Rewards on the Qantas website.

The Qantas international Airbus A330-200 Business Class suite
Seats.aero can help you to find Qantas Business Classic Reward seats. Photo: Matt Graham.

Which other frequent flyer programs does Seats.aero support?

Here’s a full list of the frequent flyer programs supported by Seats.aero, and the airlines for which availability is shown when searching via those programs:

Frequent Flyer ProgramAirlines covered
Aeromexico Club PremierAeromexico + Delta, Air France & KLM
Air Canada AeroplanAll Star Alliance airlines + Aeromar, Air Dolimiti, Bamboo Airways, Emirates, Etihad, Gulf Air, Juneyao Airlines, Virgin Australia, Vistara
Air France/KLM Flying BlueAir France, KLM, WestJet, Japan Airlines & various other partners
Alaska Mileage PlanSelected routes on Oneworld airlines, Aer Lingus, Air Tahiti Nui, Condor, El Al, Fiji Airways, Hainan Airlines, Iberia, Icelandair, Korean Air, LATAM, Singapore Airlines & Starlux (only use if you wish to redeem Alaska miles, as availability may be different to other programs)
American Airlines AAdvantageAll Oneworld airlines + Etihad, Fiji Airways, Air Tahiti Nui & Hawaiian Airlines (international & inter-island flights only)
Avianca LifeMilesMost Star Alliance + Aeromexico & GOL (only use if you wish to redeem LifeMiles as other Star Alliance programs may show better availability)
Delta SkyMilesMost SkyTeam airlines
Emirates SkywardsEmirates (best used if you wish to redeem Skywards miles as both Saver & Flex Plus awards are shown)
Qantas Frequent FlyerAll Oneworld airlines + Air France, China Airlines, China Eastern, El Al, Emirates, Fiji Airways, Jetstar, KLM & LATAM
United MileagePlusAll Star Alliance airlines + Aer Lingus, Air Dolomiti, Azul, Eurowings, Eurowings Discover, Edelweiss, Juneyao Airlines, Virgin Australia & Vistara
Virgin Atlantic Flying ClubVirgin Atlantic + Delta, Korean Air, Air France & KLM
Virgin Australia VelocityVirgin Australia + United, Air Canada, Etihad, Qatar Airways & Singapore Airlines

How to use Seats.aero

Here’s an overview of how to get the most from Seats.aero…

The Explore feature

In the “Explore” mode, you can search for award availability using any of the frequent flyer programs listed above. In the example below, we’ll use Qantas Frequent Flyer.

You can view flights from anywhere to anywhere, or filter by region (Oceania, Asia, Europe, etc.). If you have a free account, you’ll then see any award availability that matches this criteria for departure dates within the next two months. If you have a Pro account and tick the “Show extended availability” box, you’ll see availability for the next year.

The minimum number of Qantas points required to book a seat on that route and date will be shown for each cabin class with availability. Results shown in green are direct flights, while blue boxes indicate indirect flights. You can hover your mouse over the box to see which airlines have availability.

Seats.aero website screenshot showing explore search from Oceania to anywhere
Using the Seats.aero “Explore” mode, you can view award availability on Qantas and its partner airlines, filtering by origin, destination, date, cabin class and more.

Note that Seats.aero uses IATA airport codes such as “AKL” for Auckland and “SYD” for Sydney. If in doubt, you can always look up the airport codes or consult our guide to IATA airport codes.

By default, the search results are in order by departure date, with direct flights also shown before indirect options. But you can use other criteria to sort the results by clicking on the relevant heading. For example, if you want to show flights with Premium Economy availability at the top, click on “Prem Economy”.

Seats.aero screenshot filtering by Premium Economy
You can click on any of the cabin classes to show options in that cabin at the top of the results, such as Premium Economy flights in this example.

There may be one or more flights with award seats available on each date and route shown in the search results. To view more information about the available flights, simply click on the “i” box to the right. This will then bring up a box with more details about the flight times and pricing:

Seats.aero flight details screen
Click on the “i” button to view more details about any of the options found on your Seats.aero search.

If you have Velocity points and you’re looking for Business award availability to North America, for example, you can select “Virgin Australia Velocity” from the Explore menu. Then, adjust the drop-down options to show flights from Oceania to North America. This should then display all United and Air Canada availability from Australia or New Zealand to the USA or Canada.

When viewing Velocity availability, you can even see the number of seats available in each cabin class by hovering over the green (or blue) box.

Seats.aero screenshot showing Velocity availability Oceania to North America
Seats.aero also shows flights that appear on the Virgin Australia website for Velocity reward seat bookings.

Looking for seats to/from specific airports

If you’re looking for award availability to or from a specific airport, such as Darwin, simply type the IATA code for that airport into the search box. In this instance, typing “DRW” (for Darwin) on a Virgin Australia Velocity search for flights from Oceania to Asia brings up options from Darwin to Singapore on Singapore Airlines.

Example of a Seats.aero search for Velocity availability to/from DRW
If you want to only view results to/from a specific airport, simply search for that airport code in the “search” box.

Search feature

If you have points available with multiple different airlines – or a flexible credit card rewards program – you can also use the “Search” feature to look for flights between specific airports using any of the supported frequent flyer programs.

Seats.aero SYD-SIN flight search
You can also conduct a search for a specific route/date that combines results for all of the frequent flyer programs that Seats.aero covers.

Creating alerts

Seats.aero also lets you create alerts for award availability on specific routes and cabin classes with any of the supported programs. You’ll then receive an email or SMS if Seats.aero identifies any award availability that matches your search criteria in the future.

Seats.aero award alert setup example
You can also use Seats.aero to set up award flight alerts.

ExpertFlyer also has a popular award alert feature. But with ExpertFlyer, you can only set this up for one individual flight and cabin class at a time.

Other features

Other Seats.aero features include a Lufthansa First Class award finder and a tool for finding Qatar Airways Qsuite redemptions.

Lufthansa A380 first class
Lufthansa A380 First Class cabin. Photo: Lufthansa.

Once you’ve found a flight you’re happy with, you can go directly to your airline’s own website to complete the booking.

Some limitations to keep in mind

Although Seats.aero works pretty well, there are some limitations.

One slight problem is that the results are cached. So by regularly checking for availability in the background, Seats.aero is able to show the results of any search very quickly. But you’ll generally be looking at information that could be up to 8 hours old. The good news is that it does actually tell you when the seats shown were last checked. If you click on the “i” box beside any of the results, it will do another verification check on the spot to make sure the seats are still there in real-time.

Another limitation is that Seats.aero doesn’t (yet) cover all routes. For example, it doesn’t cover most Qantas domestic routes other than a few of the most popular ones (such as Melbourne-Perth, Brisbane-Perth and Sydney-Lord Howe Island). It also doesn’t cover every partner airline route, so it will potentially miss some options that do actually exist. That said, Pro members can request new routes to be added – and I’ve found Seats.aero to be very responsive in adding suggested routes.

Seats.aero won’t show award seats on airlines that don’t appear on your frequent flyer program’s own website. For example, reward seats on Virgin Atlantic, Hawaiian Airlines and South African Airways don’t appear on the Virgin Australia website. So you’d still need to use other methods to find seats on those airlines before calling Velocity Frequent Flyer to book.

Availability on specific flights can differ according to your status & frequent flyer program

If using the Qantas Frequent Flyer search function, you should also keep in mind that Seats.aero won’t necessarily take into account your Qantas Frequent Flyer status. If you have Qantas Silver, Gold, Platinum or Platinum One status, you may have access to increased award availability that you would be able to see when searching on the Qantas website. But those extra seats wouldn’t appear on Seats.aero (nor on most other third-party tools, other than KVS Tool which searches using your personal account details).

You should also keep in mind that award availability can differ depending on which frequent flyer program you’re using to book. For example, Singapore Airlines is a Star Alliance member and partners with Virgin Australia. But the availability of Singapore Airlines award seats could be different for members of KrisFlyer, Aeroplan, Velocity, Avianca LifeMiles and United MileagePlus.

Nonetheless, this is a very useful tool for quickly getting an overview of award availability. It can identify flights you may not have otherwise found (or thought to look for)!

Air Canada Boeing 787 at Vancouver Airport
Seats.aero can find award seats you wouldn’t have thought to look for yourself. Photo: Matt Graham.

Seats.aero membership options

Anyone can use Seats.aero for free, without creating an account. This gives you access to information about award seats on flights within the next 60 days. You’ll also be able to set up a limited number of email alerts.

If you choose to purchase a Pro account, you can get access to more features. These include:

  • Search for award availability up to a year in advance
  • Access advanced filters including direct flights and minimum number of seats (this works with most but not all programs)
  • Create unlimited award seat alerts
  • The option to receive SMS notifications, rather than just emails
  • Access route-level statistics
  • Use the United PN/PZ Finder (United’s special fare classes for upgrade availability)
  • Access the Seats.aero Discord server

A Pro plan costs USD9.99 (~AU$15) per month or USD99.99 (~AU$150) with an annual subscription. The annual subscription works out to be around 16% cheaper.

See the Seats.aero website for more information or to register.

Disclosure: As seats.aero is an affiliate partner, Australian Frequent Flyer may receive a commission if you sign up through links on this page. Thank you for your support.

The editor of Australian Frequent Flyer, Matt's passion for travel has taken him to over 90 countries… with the help of frequent flyer points, of course!
Matt's favourite destinations (so far) are Germany, Brazil & Kazakhstan. His interests include economics, aviation & foreign languages, and he has a soft spot for good food and red wine.

You can connect with Matt by posting on the Australian Frequent Flyer community forum and tagging @AFF Editor.
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Community Comments

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Another benefit that I just stumbled across:
If you’re searching for seats available through one program (say QFF), the results also show the points & $’s required by other programs that can deliver the same seat.

e.g.

View image at the forums

Reply 8 Likes

But it looks like there’s also another fault…
It appears that even in Pro Mode, it can’t distinguish how many seats are available via QFF program. So, for someone searching for 2 seats (like me), it’s going to throw up a lot of false positives…

refer:

View image at the forums

Reply 5 Likes

Another benefit that I just stumbled across:
If you’re searching for seats available through one program (say QFF), the results also show the points & $’s required by other programs that can deliver the same seat.

e.g.
View attachment 338066

Noticed this as well. Booking QF metal with AA points often considerably cheaper than with QF points. Wasn't aware of that.

Reply Like

Noticed this as well. Booking QF metal with AA points often considerably cheaper than with QF points. Wasn't aware of that.

Booking anything to anywhere is almost always considerably cheaper with any other airline compared to Qantas Frequent Flyer Program. True for both Points and carrier charges as well.

Reply 5 Likes

So much for a year in advance, a search for Qantas Oceania to Europe only yields results up to November. 🙁

Reply Like

It saved my bacon with some Avianca LifeMiles I bought a week ago.

I'd intended to fly YYZ-DEL-MEL on AI in F and J, but that proved to be a phantom award, leaving me saddled with 100K Lifemiles. Then booked YYZ-DEL-SIN in a panic as that was what bookable after buying more miles, but didn't really want that itinerary given it would've required me to book a separate SIN-MEL award.

Once I'd calmed down, I bought a seats.aero sub, and managed to dig up IAD-AMS in Y on UA (using the North America to Europe field - there was IAD-BRU in J on SB, but this would have required buying more miles and I wanted to extricate myself from Lifemiles given its poor J availability). It also found AMS-BKK in J on BR (using a Europe to Asia search) and BKK-MEL in Y (using Asia to Oceania).

While much of the itinerary is in Y (and thus not the best use of the points I bought), it got me out of a bind, and in hindsight, I should have purchased it before my initial purchase.

Reply 1 Like

click to expand...

So much for a year in advance, a search for Qantas Oceania to Europe only yields results up to November. 🙁

seats.aero is set up to search segment by segment; it doesn't really 'do' married segments. Your best bet is to search Oceania to Asia and Asia to Europe.

Reply 3 Likes

So much for a year in advance, a search for Qantas Oceania to Europe only yields results up to November. 🙁

You have to pay for the pro version to get a year in advance.

Reply Like

Yes, I get that. This was using pro.
I found that it wasn't populating more than one page, however if I start inputting a date i.e. 2024-03 it would start populating around this criteria.

Reply 1 Like

I tried searching flights from Oceana to Europe on velocity but it came up with nothing ? Does show availability to North America though.

Reply Like