AeroLOPA's New App: The Seat-Selection Tool SeatGuru Users Were Waiting For

When SeatGuru shut down in late 2025, it left a gap that every frequent flyer felt immediately: detailed, architecture-level cabin maps that showed not just seat position but the real story of which seats to avoid and why. AeroLOPA has been the most credible heir to that role — and a new paid mobile app now brings the platform’s depth to on-the-go booking decisions.

Why the Category Matters

Seat selection has always been asymmetric information. Airlines know exactly which seats have proximity to engines, overhead bin shortfalls, or fixed armrests that can’t lift — but that data isn’t disclosed in booking flows. Frequent flyers built workarounds through SeatGuru’s community-sourced maps, and when that resource disappeared, the workaround disappeared with it. AeroLOPA was founded by Gregor Milne, an architect who started the platform as a personal project and built it into the most accurate source of aircraft cabin schematics available. The free website fills some of the gap. The new app is where the actionable features live.

What Makes It Different

The Sunny Side feature is the most immediately practical addition: for any specific flight and date, the app shows which aircraft side receives direct sunlight, letting window-seat travelers avoid glare on long-hauls. The Super Schedule goes further — comparing every aircraft flying between two airports on a given day, displaying Wi-Fi speeds, cabin layouts, and lavatory configurations for each option. For passengers with schedule flexibility, this makes aircraft type a genuine factor in booking decisions.

Tail number predictions within 24 hours of departure surface the likely specific aircraft, which matters when airlines swap equipment late. Push alerts notify passengers when the aircraft changes, giving travelers time to re-evaluate their seat choice before boarding. All seat ratings use a green-yellow-red system with explanations — the difference from SeatGuru is that the underlying maps are built to architectural standards rather than crowd-sourced, which makes the data more reliable on obscure aircraft types.

The Catch / Who It’s For

The free website remains available, but the app’s meaningful features — Sunny Side, Super Schedule, tail number prediction, offline access — are behind a subscription: $5 per month or $29 per year after a 14-day free trial. For travelers who fly a handful of times a year, the free site covers most needs. For frequent flyers who optimize aircraft type and seat position systematically — especially on domestic itineraries where equipment swaps are common — the $29 annual cost is trivial against the value of one well-chosen seat upgrade or avoided middle seat.

The app supports 200+ airlines and 1,600 aircraft types, which covers any route a typical traveler encounters. There is no obvious comparable tool at this price point.

Source: One Mile at a Time

Content created with AI assistance and reviewed for accuracy.