If you travel by air with any frequency, you probably know that not all airplane seats are created equal, even within the same cabin. Everyone has different preferences, and when it comes to airplane seating arrangements, knowledge is power.
Fortunately there are a couple of great websites that can help you make the best choice, so in this post, I’d like to go over both of them. Specifically, I’m talking about aeroLOPA and SeatMaps. With SeatGuru now officially having been sunsetted, I figure this topic is worth taking a look at, for those seeking a new site for this purpose.
In this post:
SeatGuru recently shut down, after 25 years
For nearly 25 years, SeatGuru was the go-to website that many people referenced when choosing seats. The website had seat maps for hundreds of aircraft belonging to dozens of airlines, and these pages shared details like seat pitch, and which seats should be chosen and which should be avoided.
Unfortunately over the years, SeatGuru went downhill. TripAdvisor had acquired SeatGuru in 2007, clearly viewing it as a valuable way to attract visitors to the site, as part of a larger overall investment in being a well-rounded travel site.
However, over the years, SeatGuru became less and less of a priority for TripAdvisor. Since the start of the pandemic, we hadn’t seen the SeatGuru site updated at all, and as of recently, SeatGuru was fully shut down. So it has gone from the best source of seat map information, to an outdated source of seat map information, to… well, nothing.
It kind of amazes me that things worked out that way. You’d think this would be a valuable marketing tool and that it’s not that expensive to maintain, but clearly they just couldn’t figure out how to monetize it correctly.
aeroLOPA is my favorite tool for airline seat maps
If you ask me, aeroLOPA is the best website for airline seat maps nowadays. For those curious about the name, LOPA is an airline industry term that means “layout of passenger accommodations.” In other words, it’s a description of how an airplane cabin is configured. For those working in the industry, it’s common to use the term “LOPA,” though admittedly it probably hasn’t caught on as much with the general public.
Not only is aeroLOPA a more modern and cleaner looking website than SeatGuru, but honestly, it’s just generally a more useful website than SeatGuru was:
- aeroLOPA shows the exact location of windows in the cabin, which SeatGuru never did; that’s great for those of us who like to choose seats with well aligned windows
- aeroLOPA doesn’t make a judgment call as to which seats are “good” or “bad” (as SeatGuru did), but rather just gives you all the information about where galleys and lavatories are, so that you can make your own selection
- aeroLOPA seat maps are drawn to scale, in terms of legroom, the relative location of seats, etc., and I find that to be useful
- aeroLOPA shows exact details of seats that SeatGuru never showed, so it’s much more detailed
- aeroLOPA does an excellent job updating the seat maps for new aircraft, and removing the seat maps for planes that airlines no longer fly
- aeroLOPA has all kinds of useful information about inflight entertainment, Wi-Fi, charging capabilities, and more, when you scroll down
So, what are the downsides to aeroLOPA? Well, there’s no option to enter your flight number or route to determine the seat map, but instead, you have to know what you’re looking for. Furthermore, aeroLOPA is lacking when it comes to some airlines, and you won’t find the detailed descriptions of seats for all airlines.
SeatMaps is a great alternative that some will prefer
Another great website for airline seat maps is SeatMaps… I suspect that’s a name that doesn’t need an explanation. 😉 I’d say SeatMaps is more of a direct replacement for SeatGuru than aeroLOPA is.
The advantages of SeatMaps is that the website has a massive library of seat maps, you can enter your route or flight number and have the seat map populate, the website provides recommendations as to which seats are good, and there are even often real pictures of what seats look like.
The downsides, meanwhile, are that it’s not quite as geeky as aeroLOPA, if you ask me. For example, I love how aeroLOPA shows the exact position of windows, details of the seat manufacturer and charging ports, etc. So which site is better depends on what you’re looking for, and if anything, the two actually supplement one another quite nicely (SeatMaps for the general overview, and aeroLOPA for more of the geeky details).
Bottom line
While SeatGuru has officially been discontinued, the good news is that there are other websites that act as good replacements — namely aeroLOPA and SeatMaps.
aeroLOPA is my favorite, thanks to having the most realistic and detailed seat diagrams you can find, down to the location of seats in relation to windows. SeatMaps, meanwhile, is the most direct replacement for SeatGuru, and lets you search seat maps based on the flight you’re booked on, makes seat recommendations, and more.
What’s your go-to website for looking up airline seat maps? Do you prefer aeroLOPA or SeatMaps?
Hey @Ben - have you seen the announcement on AeroLOPA’s home page? Looks like they are about to launch a revamped website with new features:
Announcement
We are excited to share that we have been busy building a brand-new AeroLOPA website from the ground up. You might not realise it, but the current website sits on an image-hosting service originally designed for landscape photographers. While it has served us tremendously well, it prevents...
Hey @Ben - have you seen the announcement on AeroLOPA’s home page? Looks like they are about to launch a revamped website with new features:
Announcement
We are excited to share that we have been busy building a brand-new AeroLOPA website from the ground up. You might not realise it, but the current website sits on an image-hosting service originally designed for landscape photographers. While it has served us tremendously well, it prevents us from adding the advanced functionality we have been craving. So, we got to work. We are now fast approaching the end of 2025 and are just a few weeks away from launch day.
On the surface, the new site appears as a cosmetic refresh, but under the hood lies a brand-new, custom-made engine and with this sturdy foundation in place, we can generate a wide array of new features that we will roll out in phases throughout 2026.
Part of this expansion will include peer-to-peer seat ratings and heat maps to highlight the best (and worst) seats. We are also excited to welcome those of you who have migrating to AeroLOPA from SeatGuru. We will be adding its most popular features so you can feel more at home here.
The new site will introduce "Favourites" (or "Favorites" — we are still debating the spelling!), allowing you to build a personal portfolio of your preferred LOPAs. This feature will expand later in 2026 to include side-by-side comparisons.
Finally, we’d like to extend our special thanks to all our supporters; your passion for the details is what keeps us building.
The AeroLOPA team
Curious if we’re heading toward “AI layer on top of seatmaps” next as its all data and customer feedbtack. Tools like SeatCompare.ai (not affiliated) feel like the direction of travel — not replacing aeroLOPA/SeatMaps, but distilling the messy bits (variants, swaps, inconsistent seat labels) into something readable.
To whom it may concern, please be advised that I am not posting as:
“My annual income is EIGHT FIGURES”
One might like to ask Eskimo though?
While you might possibly be Tim Dunn's alter ego.
We all know that this fake lawyer isn't and his post are obviously much more intellectual than yours, even with all the sarcasm.
The main downside of Seatplan is the gushing text, for example: "Travelers aboard economy class can expect a functional and inviting environment..... The crew remains attentive and dedicated, ensuring a seamless and enjoyable flight experience." Pretty much all the descriptions are like this one, which is for a LCC.
While you might possibly be Tim Dunn's alter ego.
We all know that this fake lawyer isn't and his post are obviously much more intellectual than yours, even with all the sarcasm.
My apologies, right content wrong location.
The minute I found aeroLOPA several years ago, I never went back to SeatGuru. I love the scale drawings and find them to be generally accurate. AeroLOPA may not provide commentary or customer feedback, but do you really need a website to tell you that a seat by the galley will be noisy?
I never heard the term,”LOPA” during my 32 years as a passenger-facing agent at the airport , but I’ve been retired for 20 years. Nonetheless, none of my still active friends have mentioned it either, on FB forums or anywhere else. And believe me, there’s plenty of technical ralf regarding procedures there. I see no mention of passenger feedback,which SestGytonposted for particular seats, which I found interesting. Some of which was nothing more than whining.
Never heard the term,”LOPA” during my 32 years as a passenger-facing agent at the airport , but I’ve been retired for 20 years. Nonetheless, none of my still active friends have mentioned it either, on FB forums or anywhere else. And believe me, there’s plenty of technical ralf regarding procedures there. I see no mention of passenger feedback,which SestGytonposted for particular seats, which I found interesting. Some of which was nothing more than whining.
Like you correctly should unlikely have heard CASM RASM PRASM.
You're not in fleet or network.
Same as TechOps people wouldn't understand FLIFO FIM FQTV ZED.
As an architect who is also an aviation geek, I totally agree with Ben on the clarity and utility of the aircraft plans on aeroLOPA. But, as I have commented here before, my main problem with aeroLOPA is that it is very difficult to toggle between aircraft variants of the same airline. So, if I'm say on the Cathay Pacific 77J page (with Aria suites), having reached it directly through a Google search, in order...
As an architect who is also an aviation geek, I totally agree with Ben on the clarity and utility of the aircraft plans on aeroLOPA. But, as I have commented here before, my main problem with aeroLOPA is that it is very difficult to toggle between aircraft variants of the same airline. So, if I'm say on the Cathay Pacific 77J page (with Aria suites), having reached it directly through a Google search, in order to compare it to other 77W variants I have to navigate all the way back to the airline search, scroll quite a bit on the page to find CX, then find the other variant on the intro page. In SeatGuru there was an easy side panel listing other variants, and I see now that it's even easier on SeatMaps, with tabs for other variants on the very same page.
I also miss the user reviews of individual seats on SeatGuru, that were easy to search and often very valuable in choosing a specific seat.
I always was amused by the British readers moaning on SeatGuru about everything, especially the 'coffin' business seats, which BA has featured for many years.
They closely resembled the contents of a sardine can IMO!
Actually I find the historical seat maps of say Pan Am’s 747’s the most interesting part of the aeroLOPA site. Nice to be reminded of the days it was still civilized to fly.
@Ben, The question is one of reliability -- how reliable and accurate is the information provided? When SeatGuru began, they were the only game in town. You sort of had to believe them; you didn't have a choice.
--> Fans of aeroLopa, such as yourself, often point to the "window feature" as being of crucial importance. But both SeatGuru and SeatMaps detail, in print rather than graphically, a missing or misaligned window. Two ways...
@Ben, The question is one of reliability -- how reliable and accurate is the information provided? When SeatGuru began, they were the only game in town. You sort of had to believe them; you didn't have a choice.
--> Fans of aeroLopa, such as yourself, often point to the "window feature" as being of crucial importance. But both SeatGuru and SeatMaps detail, in print rather than graphically, a missing or misaligned window. Two ways of presenting the same information.
--> Even fans of aeroLopa admit detailed information as to seat pitch, width and recline are not always present (versus SeatMaps, where they are).
The REAL question comes when the information differs between the two; which site do you believe? Case in point: Condor 330-900neo. On aeroLopa, "Seats 1E, 1F, 2A, and 2K are branded as Prime Seats and offer more space plus a larger 23.6" touch screen display. Row pitch: 76". Seat width: 19"." On aeroLopa, it shows the restrooms at the back of Business class and the galley + closets at the front. On SeatMaps, it lists the seat pitch at 78" and the seat width at 21," but it doesn't recommend the seats as they are close to the restrooms. The former agrees with Condor, but the latter does not.
The answer is you check out everything and blindly trust neither one.
Windows aren’t aligned - I think aerolopa just makes it up. Similarly the bulkhead legroom is not to scale. I was just on a Hawaiian airlines 717 on which aerolopa led me to believe I’d be sharing half of two windows. In reality I had them both to myself.
Someone obviously got their seat numbers mixed up …. a bit like their inflated income numbers, YES Arps?
Haha! I was wondering if the user name is due to wealth envy or income insecurity.
Ni, please be assured that the subject bragger (one time Arps, login) is all the worst things of which you enquired.
Who to trust?
Google flights say ams-icn in june 2026 is a 777 but seatmaps say 787-10…
Andrew, have you consulted the obvious …. the actual airline?
We're all trying to help each other here. How about a more positive post such as "I'd suggest checking the airlines's website and see what that says."
Absolutely Steve, you state the obvious, thank you.
It’s a real shame TripAdvisor gave up on SeatGuru (Ben, did we ever learn exactly ‘why’? Like, did airlines lobby to kill it off? Honestly, wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t want us peons commenting on their sometimes great, somethings awful charts), because it really was the best; if SeatMaps or any other competitor is gonna included feedback, that’s superior to AeroLOPA in my opinion, because notes from other travelers on whether a bulkhead is...
It’s a real shame TripAdvisor gave up on SeatGuru (Ben, did we ever learn exactly ‘why’? Like, did airlines lobby to kill it off? Honestly, wouldn’t be surprised if they didn’t want us peons commenting on their sometimes great, somethings awful charts), because it really was the best; if SeatMaps or any other competitor is gonna included feedback, that’s superior to AeroLOPA in my opinion, because notes from other travelers on whether a bulkhead is actually good or bad (noise, light, tight on feet/knees, etc.) like that’s value information.
Noise sucks on AA A321 Transcon and UA 757-200 lie flat seat 1A. (Same seat on both airlines.) Chatter in the gallery by flight attendants has disrupted my sleep. I don’t wear earplugs due to a Eustachian tube issue.
If you had checked SeatMaps seat write ups, you would have known to expect those facts numpty. If you cannot get the basics right how do you expect anyone to believe your other boasts?
Please let's be civil.
Calling someone stupid doesn't make you seem smart. That comes from posting information that is insightful and helpful.
Try "check the SeatMaps write ups. You'll find the information there."
Steve, I’m all for civility, though, please note that both ‘Guest’ Aeros and 8-figures are all the same guy, using different usernames, and he’s just playing around with me, so, no offense taken. That said, anyone is welcome to call me whatever names you/they wish. I can take it.
1990, CORRECTION if you please.
AeroB13a (diamond) is definitely not posting as “8-figures” using different usernames.
Ben, can surely confirm this fact if asked in a civilised manner.
Clearly ninetyFord, you appear to have forgotten that SeatMaps provides a link to the website of a seat reviewer. If one chooses a flight/airline/seat type of interest then (in the case of an OMAAT review) after reading the article one can continue to read the reader comments (feedback) too …. YES?
Can somebody explain why all the bloggers like AeroLopa which gives basically the same information as airline websites' seat maps, when Seatmaps.com is clearer, easier to use and provides useful information in what seats are good or bad?
PaulS, personally I like both and use both platforms. I do find that SeatMaps provides a couple of additional features which I value; links to in-flight reviews, actual photographs and some 360° cabin views too.
@ PaulS -- I tried to explain it in the post, but let me try again. :-) I appreciate the level of detail that aeroLOPA provides, which is completely different than what you'll find on an airline website.
Let me give the most basic example. If you were to go to American's website and look up the 777-200ER seat map, you'd see that the forward cabin has 20 seats, spread across five rows, in a...
@ PaulS -- I tried to explain it in the post, but let me try again. :-) I appreciate the level of detail that aeroLOPA provides, which is completely different than what you'll find on an airline website.
Let me give the most basic example. If you were to go to American's website and look up the 777-200ER seat map, you'd see that the forward cabin has 20 seats, spread across five rows, in a 1-2-1 configuration. American's website would have you believe that those seats are actually aligned, so if you were a family, you'd think you might want to choose all four seats in the same row.
Meanwhile take a look at the aeroLOPA seat map:
https://www.aerolopa.com/aa-772-2
As you can see, the rows are actually completely unaligned. If you wanted to all sit across from one another in business class, you'd want to select center seats that are actually one row behind the window seats, in terms of row numbers.
So rather than selecting 1A, 1D, 1H, and 1L, you'd select 1A, 2D, 2H, and 1L. That's a pretty major difference.
Does that make sense? :-)
Actually, I do believe that Ben, has provided an excellent example of why one should consult the likes of AeroLopa and SeatMaps when choosing our seats …. don’t trust the airlines blurb …. :-)
Thank you Ben.
Thanks!! It does. I'll probably use both.
Agree 100%. AeroLopa has an awful UI and the information is just flat out wrong sometimes.
Seatmaps is so much more useful for me and I find it strange that bloggers all love Aerolopa.
That's not true. Aerolopa shows you exactly where the windows are. How many airline websites do the same? I know that my seat on the last AA 789 IN 1A had two windows. Aerolopa let's me know that I'll have just one in 1A on their 789P for the next leg. Of great importance? Not to me, but to some. Seatmaps warns on 1A has partial or missing window.