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.
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 So it has gone from the best source of seat map information, to an outdated source of seat map information, to… well, nothing.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?
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