Where to Find Accurate Airline Seat Maps in 2024

Websites that provide detailed airline seat maps are very useful for flyers.

Whether you’ve already booked a flight or you’re deciding between airlines, a comparison of seat and cabin features will help you choose the seat that best fits your needs. But only if the airline seat maps are accurate….

SeatGuru was once the go-to tool, but is no longer being updated

SeatGuru has been the go-to resource for years, with a large database of seat maps for 175 airlines. Many people like the colour-coding where red means bad seat, green means good, and yellow raises questions.

Another feature is customer reviews of individual seats, but their accuracy is questionable when reviews are linked to an outdated layout of the aircraft cabin.

Unfortunately, SeatGuru stopped updating its seat maps at the start of the pandemic. As a result, the maps on SeatGuru don’t reflect changes made to aircraft configurations or new aircraft that have entered service since then.

Emailing the website to report an inaccuracy returns a form response: “Currently we are not making additional updates to our content on the site and are unable to provide other support. – SeatGuru.”

This does not inspire user confidence. So, what are the alternatives?

AeroLOPA has the most accurate airline seat maps

LOPA is an acronym for Layout of Passenger Accommodation and that’s what aeroLOPA is all about. Each airline seat map is drawn to scale, showing details even down to the exact position of the windows!

One thing that’s missing is that there is no grading of best/worst/questionable seats. You decide based on an accurate depiction of the cabin. This will appeal if you prefer to judge a seat based on your own criteria.

On websites such as SeatGuru or SeatMaps you can search for a seat map by entering your flight number, route and date. On aeroLOPA you search by airline and aircraft so need to research this information elsewhere.

The aeroLOPA database of 85 airlines is significantly smaller but includes the big internationals and most maps include the date of the latest update.

Seatmaps.com covers a wide range of airlines

Launched in 2020 by a German data company, Seatmaps.com boasts an impressive database of airlines (even Aussie newcomer Bonza!) and “2,917 updated aircraft.”

Their seat maps use the same system of colour-coding as SeatGuru and you click on a seat for details such as seat pitch and width, recline, in-flight entertainment systems and WiFi. Some aircraft feature 3D views for an extra level of detail.

While the database is comprehensive and the website clean and easy to navigate, the information provided on airlines and cabins is generic at best, and comedically inaccurate at worst.

ExpertFlyer offers real-time data

ExpertFlyer is a subscription-based service with a raft of useful tools for frequent flyers. Seat maps are available to view for free and you can see which seats are available on specific flights in real time. If an airline operates more than one configuration on the same aircraft type, this is also a way to check which one is scheduled to operate any given flight.

Seat attributes are imported from SeatGuru. Subscribers can set up alerts for specific seats and ExpertFlyer will notify you if/when a seat becomes available.

Other websites with airline seat maps

Other options out there include SeatMaestro, whose Qantas A380 seat map is the old layout, and Seatlink.com, which aims to show the best-rated seats according to flyers.

Bronwyn Turner

Bronwyn is a journalist and author whose passion for points collecting and travel planning led her to the Australian Frequent Flyer community. As a consultant with Award Flight Assist she helps clients travel better and further using their frequent flyer points. As a traveller she enjoys using points for the same benefits.

Bronwyn posts on the AFF forum as @BriarFlyer.