Why Didn’t My Alert Trigger?

Alerts are one of the most powerful features in Seats.aero — but sometimes you may notice they don’t trigger when you expect them to. Here are the most common reasons why:

1. Program data limitations

Not all airline programs return complete seat counts or detailed availability.
For example, some programs only report “available” or “not available” rather than exact seat numbers. In these cases, alerts may not be able to respect filters like minimum seats.
Certain programs refresh less frequently or restrict the types of award data that can be accessed.

2. Filters and exclusions

If you exclude a specific airline, cabin, or stop pattern, the alert will only trigger when results meet all of those conditions.
If results exist but don’t match your filters, the alert won’t fire.
Common cases include excluding specific carriers (e.g. Air India) or restricting alerts to direct flights only.

3. Cached vs. live results

Our system relies on both cached (recently seen) results and fresh live searches.
If cached results expire before a live search picks them up again, an alert may appear to “miss” availability.

4. Bugs or technical issues

As with any complex system, there can occasionally be bugs that affect alert creation or delivery.
If you see alerts created on the site but don’t receive confirmation emails or notifications, please contact support so we can investigate.

5. Email and notification delivery

Sometimes alerts are generated and sent but don’t appear in your inbox due to spam filters, promotions folders, or provider filtering.
Adding alerts@seats.aero to your contacts or whitelisting our domain can help ensure delivery.

✅ Pro tip: If you’re testing alerts and not seeing notifications, try creating a broad alert with minimal filters (for example: any seats, any cabin on a popular route). This is a good way to confirm that alerts are being delivered as expected.

If you suspect something isn’t working, let us know and include:

The alert details (route, filters, airline)
When you expected availability
Whether you saw results manually that didn’t trigger

This will help us troubleshoot faster.