Comparison

I Prefer vs seats.aero

Price, ratings, monetisation and update history for both apps, side by side — with what reviewers say about each.

Head to head
About

I Prefer

Explore and book stays at over 650 unique hotels worldwide. Manage your rewards account, access exclusive rates, and earn points on eligible stays. Enjoy benefits like early check-in and complimentary Wi-Fi.

Highlights
  • Discover and book hotels
  • Manage member account
  • View reservations and points
  • Redeem points for rewards
  • Save favorite destinations
  • Access exclusive rates and offers
Features
Read full description

The World Awaits Your next rewarding trip starts here. With the official I Prefer Hotel Rewards app, you can easily explore and book stays at more than 650 distinctive hotels and resorts around the world, manage your Member account, and access exclusive rates and offers. ‌ Features Discover and book hotels with great rates and exclusive offers View upcoming reservations, past stays, and points activity Redeem points for rewards, including free nights and more Manage your Member account and personal information Save your favorite destination for yourself or to share with friends Not a Member of I Prefer Hotel Rewards? Enroll free today to enjoy Members-only hotel offers and instant travel benefits including: Points Earned on Eligible Stays Early Check-in & Late Check-out Exclusive Rates & Offers Complimentary Wi-Fi Enhanced Room Upgrades

About

seats.aero

Discover domestic and international award flights using your points and miles. This app aggregates availability across major airline alliances, allowing you to find and book flights that are often missed on traditional airline websites. Plan spontaneous trips or snag hard-to-get premium cabin seats.

Highlights
  • Discover award flights with points and miles
  • Supports Star Alliance, OneWorld, and SkyTeam
  • Global flight coverage
  • Search by desired airport
  • Advanced filtering options
  • Create flight availability alerts
Features
Currently charting
Read full description

seats.aero® is a new way to book flights with your points and miles. Stop searching on outdated airline websites and immediately discover domestic and international award flights that you can book with your points. Take advantage of credit card points and frequent flyer miles to travel more for less. --- ALL MAJOR AIRLINE ALLIANCES --- We support Star Alliance, OneWorld, and SkyTeam flights, and they can all be discovered immediately out of the box. Global coverage means you can discover flights to/from any region of the world. --- EXPLORE YOUR OPTIONS --- We're the only award search tool that can show you every flight from your desired airport. Find availability on every direct route to book where you want to go -- even if it departs tomorrow. --- ADVANCED FILTERING --- Filter your searches to arrive or depart from specific airports or regions, cabin classes, on specific carriers, or just discover anywhere you can go from your home airport. --- CREATE ALERTS --- Create alerts to discover when the best flights become available. Airlines release seats for booking at all hours of the day; snag the hardest business and first awards without repetitive searching. Seats.aero supports most direct routes served by mileage programs. We are not affiliated with any airlines or mileage programs. This app uses the Apple standard EULA, available at https://www.apple.com/legal/internet-services/itunes/dev/stdeula/.

Screenshots

I Prefer4 screens
seats.aero3 screens

Verdict

The call

The clearest difference is in-app purchases: I Prefer at none against seats.aero's 1. I Prefer also leads on iOS requirement (11.0 vs 16.4). seats.aero's advantage is update cadence (fortnightly vs every 2 months) and chart position (#87 vs unranked). On price, rating, review sentiment and ratings volume there is nothing between them.

Scored on Price · Rating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings · Update frequency · Ads · In-app purchases · Monetization · Best chart rank · Devices · Requires iOS

CostPrice · In-app purchases · Ads · Monetization

Both are free to download. seats.aero sells 1 in-app purchase, starting at $20.00 per month. I Prefer asks for nothing beyond the download.

ReceptionRating · Positive reviews · Number of ratings

On the App Store both sit at effectively the same score — 4.7 for I Prefer against 4.7 for seats.aero. Both are backed by a comparable volume of ratings — 4.3K and 5.9K respectively. Written reviews are what separate them: 14% of I Prefer's written reviews are positive against 13% of seats.aero's.

UpkeepUpdate frequency

I Prefer ships an update every 2 months, seats.aero fortnightly. The most recent releases landed on November 1, 2026 and October 30, 2026 respectively.

Scorecard4 real differences · 7 level
I Prefer versus seats.aero: the parameters behind the verdict, then further details
ParameterI Preferseats.aero
PriceFreeFree
Rating4.7 (4.3K ratings)4.7 (5.9K ratings) — better
Positive reviews13.6% of reviews — better12.5% of reviews
Number of ratings4.3K5.9K — better
Update frequencyEvery 2 monthsFortnightly — better
AdsNoNo
In-app purchasesNo — betterYes
MonetizationFreeFree
Best chart rank—#87 — better
DevicesiPhone, iPad, iPod — betteriPhone, iPad
Requires iOS11.0 — better16.4
Further details — not scored
Size52 MB73 MB
Age rating4+4+
DeveloperPreferred Hotels & Resorts Worldwide, Inc.seats.aero

Customer experience

I Prefer

All ratings2,449 ratings
Positive91.1%
Neutral1.8%
Negative7.1%
Written reviews132 reviews
Positive13.6%
Neutral5.3%
Negative81.1%

seats.aero

All ratings5,906 ratings
Positive92.1%
Neutral1.8%
Negative6.2%
Written reviews152 reviews
Positive12.5%
Neutral9.2%
Negative78.3%

User reviews

I Prefer

From 4.3K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 👍 Beautiful view
  • 🚀 Fast and responsive
  • 🚀 Searching for hotels is now more intuitive and fast
  • 💡 Love the options of nights with points and nights with points + cash

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Difficult to navigate
  • 🐛 Not user friendly
  • 🐛 Glitchy
  • 🐛 Crashes upon opening
  • 🐛 Doesn't show points or past stays

seats.aero

From 5.9K App Store ratings

What we love

  • 🚀 Fast award search
  • 👍 Useful resource for finding flights with points
  • 💡 Great app and useful feature

Room to improve

  • 🐛 Buggy, crashes, and glitchy
  • 🤔 Convoluted and confusing to use
  • ⚠️ Lacks key features compared to website
  • 💰 Expensive for the functionality provided

Bugs and requests

I Prefer

Reported bugs

4 issues
  • Login issues
  • Constant crashes
  • Doesn't show upcoming stays
  • Doesn't sync with hotel stays

Requested features

3 requests
  • Integrate with Apple Wallet
  • Add mobile check-in functionality
  • Improve points tracking and management

seats.aero

Reported bugs

3 issues
  • Search results show nothing
  • Date selection issues
  • Incorrect seat availability information

Requested features

4 requests
  • Add more airline options
  • Allow filtering by number of travelers
  • Improve search accuracy and availability
  • Provide better login/subscription management

In-app purchases

None

I Prefer

No in-app purchases

1 purchases

seats.aero

Subscriptions1
  • Pro$20.001 Month

Questions

Is I Prefer free?
I Prefer is free to download, with no in-app purchases.
Is seats.aero free?
seats.aero is free to download, with in-app purchases available.
Which has better reviews, I Prefer or seats.aero?
seats.aero is rated higher. I Prefer averages 4.7 out of 5 from 4.3K ratings, while seats.aero averages 4.7 from 5.9K ratings.
Do I Prefer or seats.aero have ads?
Neither I Prefer nor seats.aero shows ads.
Which is updated more often, I Prefer or seats.aero?
I Prefer ships an update every 2 months, and seats.aero fortnightly. Most recently, I Prefer was updated on November 1, 2026 and seats.aero on October 30, 2026.

Other comparisons