I’m a huge fan of using Seats.aero to find the best award availability in seconds. It has transformed how I redeem my points and miles, as I can search across multiple routes, dates and loyalty programs at once rather than spending hours trawling through airline search platforms that may or may not work properly.

I use it every day.

Seats.aero has been steadily adding points and miles redemption tools, like showing all Lufthansa and Japan Airlines first-class award availability, or which routes have Qatar Airways Qsuite award availability and the ability to set specific alerts if a seat is not initially available.

While I have dabbled in using artificial intelligence to help plan my travel (with mixed results), so far I haven’t really used AI to redeem points and miles, believing that ChatGPT or Claude couldn’t find award availability, let alone offer advice on the best-value redemption options.

Seats.aero is addressing this with its new AI Assistant.

I recently had a few days free and plenty of transferable credit card points across multiple programs to use. So I put Seats.aero’s new tool to the test to see if AI could help me get the best value from my points and miles, and also maybe serve as a one-stop shop for travel planning.

Related: How (and why) you should earn transferable credit card points

How to use Seats.aero’s new AI Assistant

What makes this new feature stand out is the combination of marrying expert redemption advice (like the best transfer partner for each of your transferable credit card points for a specific flight) with live award pricing. To my knowledge, there is no other tool on the market at the time of publication that can do this.

You can chat with the AI Assistant just as you would talk to Claude or ChatGPT and ask it certain questions related to travel plans (it can’t provide you a perfect chocolate chip cookie recipe, unfortunately).

The Seats.aero AI Assistant can answer questions about the following travel topics:

• Airlines routes, alliances, transfer partners, loyalty programs, cabins operated and live award availability
• Trip planning to find who operates which routes, schedules and nearby airport alternatives
• Cash costs of typical fares, airline product comparisons
• Hotel live award searches with comparisons of cost, value and quality thanks to sister site Rooms.aero
• General travel information, including destination weather, airport tips and itinerary activities

What you gain in being able to marry specific redemption advice with live availability, you lose in this AI Assistant being able to provide certain general travel advice, including:

• Currency conversion
• General math
• Medical and legal advice
• Non-travel trivia
• Live availability of loyalty programs that are not supported by Seats.aero.

The interface is also relatively basic in that you can’t search previous chats, branch them to new chats and there are no external links you can click for more information.

Related: How AI is transforming the future of travel

Finding a destination to maximize redemption value

I gave the AI Assistant the dates I wanted to travel, with the instruction to find a nonstop flight from Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) to a destination within 3 hours, for a 3-night trip, where I could get great value from my points and miles for both flights and accommodation.

I also listed a few destinations I didn’t want to travel to as I had already visited them several times, including New York and Washington, D.C., and I advised which transferable points I had available to redeem (Chase Ultimate Rewards points, Capital One miles and Citi ThankYou Rewards points).

I didn’t initially provide the AI Assistant with my personal travel preferences and dislikes, or with what I hoped to do on this trip, beyond getting great value from my points and miles.

The AI Assistant gave the following short-listed destination options:

• Buffalo, New York
• Columbus, Ohio
• Cleveland, Ohio

I settled on Buffalo, as I have always wanted to visit Niagara Falls.

What value did I get from my points and miles using this AI Assistant?

The AI Assistant had suggested Buffalo primarily for the high points and miles redemption value, and recommended I book the following:

• Fly from Boston to Buffalo Niagara International Airport (BUF) nonstop on American Airlines. While I had AAdvantage miles thanks to the awesome Citi ThankYou Rewards transfer option and could book this flight for 8,500 AAdvantage miles, Seats.aero found a better price, with live award availability, for just 6,000 Etihad Guest miles, which I could transfer from Capital One or Citi at a 1:1 rate. Same flight, but 2,500 miles cheaper, noting, however, that taxes and fees are slightly higher via Etihad Guest than AAdvantage ($19.20 versus $5.60). This saved around $100 on the cash price of the same ticket.
• Stay at the Hyatt Regency Buffalo for three nights for just 8,000 points per night by transferring my Chase Ultimate Rewards points to World of Hyatt at a 1:1 rate, saving $210 per night. World of Hyatt members do not pay taxes or resort fees on redemptions.
• Fly back from Buffalo to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport (JFK) on JetBlue for 8,400 JetBlue TrueBlue points, which could be transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards or Citi ThankYou Rewards at a 1:1 rate, saving $84 on the cash price. I needed to return to New York rather than Boston for an onward flight, as I explained to the AI Assistant.

Related: The best Category 1 Hyatt properties

While the flights provided decent, though not spectacular, redemption value for my transferable credit card points (the schedule was more important to me than the cost savings), the Hyatt redemption was excellent value, giving me almost 3 cents per point.

I booked this trip just before the recent World of Hyatt category changes; however, I can see that under the new five-tiered pricing system, there are dozens of nights at this property this summer available at the new “Low” rate of just 7,500 points per night.

Related: A data analysis of Hyatt award chart changes across 1,078 properties

What was the actual trip like?

To test the full capabilities of the Seats.aero AI Assistant, I did no research in advance of the trip beyond what I asked the AI Assistant. Knowing I had achieved good value in redeeming my points and miles for flights and accommodation to Buffalo, I then asked the AI Assistant to put together a daily itinerary, providing some personal likes and dislikes and asking it to prioritize the Niagara Falls visit.

The AI Assistant was great at transport logistics (especially compared to my ChatGPT experience in Las Vegas last year), offering suggestions for getting from the airport to the hotel via public transport.

The Buffalo accommodation was… fine.

It was an older-style Hyatt Regency that was starting to look a little dated. It was excellent value for 8,000 points per night with no taxes or fees. If I had paid $200+ per night, I would’ve been slightly underwhelmed, but this shows the value of points and miles.

I’m always keen to sample local cuisine when I travel, so I asked the AI Assistant to recommend some local dishes I must try in Buffalo.

It suggested “beef on weck”, thinly sliced roast beef piled high on a German Kaiser-style roll, accompanied by au jus, pickle and horseradish. When asked where to find the best place to have lunch in the city, the AI Assistant searched reviews of vendors serving this and suggested Charlie the Butcher, a short walk from my hotel and this was a tasty lunchtime meal.

I hadn’t joined the dots that buffalo wings originated in Buffalo, but the AI Assistant recommended that if I only eat one thing in Buffalo, it should be buffalo wings. It suggested two places: one near my hotel and the other, the birthplace of this famous dish, Anchor Bar, which was a 25-minute walk or a 5-minute Lyft from my hotel.

I opted for Anchor Bar, which proved to be a great choice (and worth the trek) for both the atmosphere and the wings. They came with a dozen sauces and rubs to choose from, everything from honey garlic to fiery habanero, and you could pick the heat level of the wings.

Warning: Even medium was pretty spicy.

All wings were served with the traditional accompaniments of celery sticks and blue cheese sauce. As someone who does not love the strong smell and taste of blue cheese on its own, I found the mild creaminess of the blue cheese sauce delicious and a welcome relief, balancing the heat of the wings and the sauces.

For my trip to Niagara Falls, the AI Assistant admitted there was no way to get there both easily and cheaply. While there are trains from downtown Buffalo to Niagara, they run only a few times a day, at awkward times and stop about a 45-minute walk from the falls.

It also suggested I could hire a car and drive up and back, though it couldn’t provide live pricing, and checking myself showed prices of $100+, which seemed steep for only half a day, especially considering I would need to top up the tank before returning it.

Instead, I opted for a Lyft there and back, which was about $90 round-trip and very convenient as the falls are only a 30-minute ride from downtown Buffalo.

The AI Assistant recommended the Maid of the Mist boat ride, which was terrific fun, I highly recommended and easily my favorite part of the visit, as the boat takes you right up close to both the American and Horseshoe Falls, and you really feel the power of the water while staying mostly dry thanks to the complimentary souvenir poncho.

There were two things I noticed on my trip to Niagara Falls that the AI Assistant failed to advise me on.

Firstly, when I looked across the border to the Canadian side, I could see a glittering Hyatt Regency, the highest building in the area, with views right over the falls. Basic research afterward showed this was a newly opened property with a massive 611 rooms and would have had easy award availability. While I wouldn’t have wanted to spend all three nights at Niagara Falls, I wish the AI Assistant had flagged that I could spend at least one night there with my Hyatt points.

Secondly, I knew Niagara Falls was on the Canadian border, but what I didn’t realize until I arrived was that you can easily walk across a footbridge from the U.S. side of the falls to the Canadian side, and the view of the Horsehoe Falls is much better from the Canadian side than the U.S. side, as you are facing the falls rather than to one side.

The issue? The AI Assistant had not advised me to bring my passport, so I could not cross into Canada without it. I wish it had at least suggested I pack it for my day trip, so that I could have the option of a great view and photo opportunity.

Bottom line

While the Seats.aero AI Assistant is brilliant at both finding the best transfer options for your points and miles and sourcing live award availability — it has its limitations. Once you’ve locked in your flights and accommodation, it can provide basic destination tips. However, don’t expect the same level of details or intuitiveness as the likes of Claude, Gemini or ChatGPT. In fairness, it doesn’t claim to be a one-stop shop for travel planning.

It’s also worth noting that Seats.aero does not support every airline and hotel loyalty program, though it is slowly adding them.

If there is a specific attraction or moment you are building a trip around, such as a day trip to Niagara Falls, I’d recommend doing some of your own research (ideally from a real person) in addition to using AI to make sure you are well-informed and don’t miss any opportunities. But for points and miles inspiration, this is yet another neat tool in an already powerful platform and can save you hundreds of dollars on your next trip with the comfort of knowing if you’ve obtained great value from your points and miles.

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