SeatGuru Alternatives: Where to Check Seat Maps Now

The best SeatGuru alternative in 2026 is aeroLOPA for accurate, to-scale cabin drawings, with ExpertFlyer for seat alerts and SeatMaps.com for passenger reviews and cabin photos. SeatGuru went dark on October 31, 2025, and the old bookmark now lands on Tripadvisor. The three replacements split its job into parts, and each does its part better than SeatGuru did in its last years.

SeatGuru’s shutdown on October 31, 2025

SeatGuru launched in 2001, became part of Expedia in 2007 and stayed with Tripadvisor after the 2011 spin-off. Its mobile app was pulled from the stores around 2020, and its maps aged as airlines retrofitted cabins faster than the site updated them. By the end, a green “good seat” could sit next to a wall with no window, because the drawing showed a configuration the airline had retired.

The closure removed a habit more than a resource. Plenty of travelers still typed the name out of muscle memory. The data that replaced it is better, but it lives in several places.

aeroLOPA: to-scale maps and window alignment

aeroLOPA draws each cabin to scale from the layout of passenger accommodation, the technical document airlines use. Seats, windows, galleys, lavatories, bassinets and exits sit where they actually are, and each seat gets a rating of Good, Be Aware or Avoid, with pitch, width, recline, power and Wi-Fi details.

The website remains free. The mobile app, launched in September 2026 for iOS and Android, costs $5 a month or $29 a year after a 14-day trial. It adds route searches across airlines, offline maps, alerts when the aircraft on your flight changes, and a “Sunny Side” view that shows which side of the cabin faces the sun on your route. SeatGuru founder Matt Daimler joined the aeroLOPA team at the same time.

ExpertFlyer: seat alerts and award space

ExpertFlyer is the tool for people who already know which seat they want and can’t get it. Set an alert on a specific seat, an exit row, any window, any aisle or two seats together, and it emails you when one opens. The same account searches award and upgrade space, which is why frequent flyers keep it.

Prices rose in March 2026. A free account exists with limits. Basic is $6.99 a month or $71.88 a year with 50 alerts; Premium is $12.99 a month or $131.88 a year with 250 alerts; Elite at $19.99 a month adds an American Airlines systemwide-upgrade search. Seat maps on every tier now draw on aeroLOPA data, so the picture matches.

SeatMaps.com: reviews, photos and 360° views

SeatMaps.com looks the most like the SeatGuru people remember. Search by flight number or route, pick the aircraft, and read reviews from passengers and travel writers next to the layout. It claims coverage of more than 800 airlines, with cabin photos and 360° views for many of them, plus light and dark modes and imperial or metric units.

The reviews are its strength and its weakness. One traveler’s “cramped” is another’s “fine,” so read three or four before deciding a seat is bad.

Three tools compared: price and purpose

Tool	Price	Best for	Seat alerts
aeroLOPA	Website free; app $5/mo or $29/yr	Accurate layouts, window alignment	Aircraft-change alerts in the app
ExpertFlyer	Free tier; Basic $6.99/mo; Premium $12.99/mo	Getting a specific seat, award space	Yes, up to 250
SeatMaps.com	Free	Reviews, photos, cabin views	No

Pitch, width and window alignment

A useful seat map answers four questions, in roughly this order of importance on a long flight:

• Window alignment. On most narrowbodies, a row or two near the wing has a blank wall where the window should be, because air-conditioning ducts run through that section. Some rows get one and a half windows; some get none.
• Pitch. The distance from one seat back to the next. Economy on major US airlines usually runs 30 to 32 inches; ultra-low-cost carriers go lower. Exit rows add several inches but often have fixed armrests and a narrower seat because the tray table lives in the armrest.
• Width and recline. Measured between armrests. A 17-inch seat and an 18-inch seat feel different after four hours. Rows in front of an exit row often don’t recline.
• What’s nearby. Galleys and lavatories bring light, noise and lines. Bassinet positions at bulkheads mean babies.

Window seats over the wing are also the smoothest ride in turbulence, since the wing sits near the center of gravity. The tail moves more.

Finding the exact aircraft on your flight

A seat map is only as good as the aircraft you match it to. “Boeing 737” is not enough; a 737-800 and a 737 MAX 9 at the same airline can have different rows, galleys and seats, and one airline may fly two versions of the same model with different cabins.

Start with the airline’s booking page or app, which names the type. Google Flights shows it in the flight details, so you can check while you’re still hunting for cheap flights. For more precision, look up the flight number in Flightradar24 or another of the flight tracking apps: the history shows which registration flew the route on recent days. Search that registration on a photo site and the aircraft photos often show the winglets, engines and cabin windows that confirm the subtype.

I do this for any flight over three hours. It takes two minutes, and it’s the only way to know whether row 12 on your flight is the row 12 on the map.

Business class and long-haul layouts

Seat maps matter most where the cabin is least uniform. In lie-flat business class, seats in a staggered layout alternate between “true window” seats pushed against the fuselage and seats closer to the aisle with a console between you and the window. Herringbone and reverse-herringbone cabins angle every seat, so one side faces the window and the other faces the aisle. A map that draws the seats as plain rectangles hides all of that; aeroLOPA’s drawings show the angle and the console.

On a widebody in economy, the 3-3-3 or 3-4-3 grid looks simple, but the last rows often narrow as the fuselage tapers, and a pair of seats can replace a row of three. Couples hunt for those pairs. I look for them first on any overnight flight, then check the map for a lavatory right behind the seat back.

Premium economy is where airlines differ the most. Some sell a wider seat with a leg rest; others sell an economy seat with an extra three inches of pitch and a better meal. The map, the pitch number and the photos together tell you which product you are buying.

Equipment swaps and seat changes

When an airline changes the aircraft, it reassigns seats by algorithm. You keep a seat with the same letter if one exists, but a paid extra-legroom seat can turn into an ordinary one. If that happens, you are owed a refund for the seat fee, since the service you paid for wasn’t provided. Ask at the gate or file it with the airline after the trip.

aeroLOPA’s app and ExpertFlyer’s alerts both catch swaps early. Without them, the airline’s app is the place to look: open the reservation the day before and check that the seat map still matches what you expected.