At almost every airline, it is possible to select a seat at the latest when you check in. But sometimes it stops there. While some airlines (such as Lufthansa) publish detailed seat maps, many airlines only have coloured rectangles.
That’s why we often rely on the SeatGuru tool to find the best seat. However, the development at SeatGuru fell asleep 10 years ago. The design is old-fashioned and many new configurations of different airlines are not shown at all.
Now there’s a fresh alternative called AeroLopa that wants to do better. In this article, we would like to briefly introduce you to what AeroLopa can and cannot do.
AeroLopa currently has seat maps for more than 70 airlines worldwide. At least all world-famous airlines are already covered. There are other candidates on the roadmap, such as Norse Atlantic, Aerolineas Argentinas and others.
Advantages of AeroLopa
The biggest advantage of AeroLopa is obvious: the seat map is much more detailed than what many airlines or SeatGuru offer. For example, you can see how a business seat is constructed and (at least approximately) how far an emergency exit door protrudes into the seating area.
In addition, there are a few other advantages:
- Where available, different configurations of the aircraft type are listed individually
(SeatGuru does that too, but not fully) - The arrangement of the windows is displayed correctly
- You can read which manufacturer the seats come from (e.g. Collins Super Diamond in the BA Club Suite)
- Sometimes AeroLopa also lists the advantages and disadvantages of individual seats, e.g. a wider footrest in the first row
- For unclear cases, there are help articles on how to distinguish between the different types.
The last three points do not apply to all seat plans, but such additional information is quite common, especially with large airlines.
This information is almost always, but not always 100% correct. For instance, the Air France A350 lists power sockets for economy passengers, although there currently aren’t any.
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What AeroLopa Does Not Offer
First and foremost, AeroLopa is simply a tool for searching beautiful seating plans. Unfortunately, it cannot completely replace SeatGuru. Because the following is missing:
- Marking of good / bad seats
(at first glance this is a serious disadvantage. However, the marking on e.g. Seatguru often does not match reality anyway) - User reviews of individual seats
(the most useful feature of SeatGuru: users can rate a seat after they have flown it. Unfortunately, AeroLopa does not offer such a functionality (yet))
Conclusion
As you can see, AeroLopa cannot fully replace SeatGuru just yet. Do you want to know if the €100 surcharge for seat 31A at the emergency exit is really a good investment? To answer this question, SeatGuru would still be the best place to go. At least if you can find a suitable rating.
For those who just want a better look at the aircraft, AeroLopa is a very nice and detailed website. Especially when the airline itself is stingy with information.
Cover Picture: © Aerolopa