How the Openness Score works

Every flight and cabin on ScanSeats carries an Openness Score from 0 to 100 — our estimate of how empty that cabin is. Higher means more open seats. It exists to answer one question fast: which flight is emptiest?

Everywhere the score appears as text, it's shown as one of four words, never the raw number — a single vocabulary instead of scores, seat counts, and legends each speaking a different numeric language: Excellent (75–100), Good (50–74), Moderate (25–49), Slim (0–24).

Two kinds of evidence

SEAT MAP ✓  means we pulled the airline's actual seat map and counted: a business cabin showing 41 of 44 seats open scores 93. This is the strongest signal we can get, and it uses the full 0–100 range.

FARE SIGNAL  means the score is inferred from pricing behavior: airlines price empty planes to fill them, so a fare well below its route's median — with many fare classes still for sale — usually signals open seats. Fare-signal scores are deliberately capped between 5 and 95: we never claim an extreme without counted seats.

Trends and freshness

We keep every snapshot, so scores show their history: ▲ arrows and OPENING UP / FILLING FAST badges compare against the previous scan, and every result set shows its data age. Specific routes re-scan automatically when you view them and the data is older than 30 minutes; wide searches refresh their stalest routes in the background.

Honest limits

Openness is an estimate, not the airline's internal load figure. Airlines block seats, hold inventory, and shift equipment; a seat map shows what's selectable, not what's sold. We currently track nonstop flights, and coverage follows our data provider — a few carriers (notably Delta and Southwest) don't distribute availability to anyone. When we don't know, the interface says so rather than guessing.

Scoring logic is versioned (currently v1); every stored snapshot records the version that produced it, so scores stay comparable as the model improves.

Data credits: airport and country reference data from OurAirports (public domain); airline reference data from OpenFlights (Open Database License); availability and fares via the Duffel API; alliance memberships maintained by hand.