22 January, 2013 - SeatGuru®, the ultimate online guide to air travel, reveals several site enhancements that further help flyers find the best seats and flights. The iconic colour-coded airline seat maps have been updated with a fresh look, a more intuitive layout, and additional content such as user-submitted photos. Furthermore, travellers can now shop for flights and quickly identify itineraries that offer the best onboard experience with the new “Guru Factor” rating system. 

For more than 10 years, SeatGuru has been the leading resource for frequent flyers and savvy travellers looking for unbiased seat map information and advice along with details on aircraft amenities.  The new site builds on that content and was designed with features to elevate the user experience including:

• Live Flight Shopping – Leveraging the powerful TripAdvisor flight comparison search engine, SeatGuru can now help travellers find the lowest available fares on hundreds of flights, and show those that score highest on seating comfort and onboard amenities. 

• User Provided Photos – Flyers can now view photos of individual aircraft seats along with the associated commentary and amenity information, helping to avoid any unpleasant surprises once they board their flights. SeatGuru users also have the ability to easily upload their own seat photos.

• Featured User Comment –Along with SeatGuru’s existing advice and curated recommendations on seats, the site will also show selected comments from travellers on the new seat map pages to help travellers make an informed decision when choosing a seat.

• Improved navigation – SeatGuru has made it easier to look up the seat map for your flight with improved search functionality by route or flight number and better aircraft matching logic.  Along with the ability to browse a directory or airlines and aircraft, the new site also makes it easier to quickly scan the seating details for every aircraft.

• Guru Factor – the new flight search tool includes the Guru Factor which offers detailed seat comfort and onboard amenity information along with a overall recommendation of either  “Love it,” “Like it,” or “Live with it” for your flight itinerary. The Guru Factor is customised by each cabin class and is comprised of an overall comfort score based on the type of seat, seat pitch, width, and recline, in-flight entertainment options, onboard amenities, and TripAdvisor customer satisfaction ratings for airlines.

SeatGuru’s iPhone app will also carry the new seat map design and improved navigation. Travellers will have the ability to create a profile and easily submit comments and photos of their seat while on the go.

“The new SeatGuru will give millions of flyers even more useful insight to help them plan and have the best flight experience possible,” said Bryan Saltzburg, general manager of TripAdvisor Flights and SeatGuru. “Access to our comprehensive seat and airline amenity information, new flight shopping functionality, purchase options, and advice from fellow travellers will be infinitely valuable for those planning their next flight.”

For more information, please contact Hayley Coleman: 077 398 27951 / hcoleman@tripadvisor.com or visit SeatGuru’s re-launched site at www.SeatGuru.com, or download the mobile app for iPhone, iPod Touch and Android viahttp://www.SeatGuru.com/mobileapps.