Icelandair is a well-liked service for visiting Iceland as a result of its hub is Keflavik Airport (KEF), an airport situated about 31 miles outdoors of Reykjavik. Icelandair is well-known for its cheap flights, and plenty of vacationers use the airline to journey between the U.S. and Europe whereas additionally making the most of a stopover in Iceland.
Nevertheless, in case you’re the way to use factors and miles to fly Icelandair, you may rapidly uncover the airline is not a part of a serious airline alliance. Though the airline has interline and codeshare agreements with Emirates, Turkish Airways and JetBlue, you may’t at present redeem rewards from these airways’ loyalty applications for Icelandair flights.
In brief, you may’t redeem many forms of factors and miles to fly on Icelandair flights.
However you do have a number of choices, so let’s dive in.
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Redeem Icelandair Saga Membership factors
Icelandair has its personal loyalty program known as Icelandair Saga Membership. The dangerous information for rare Icelandair flyers, although, is that not one of the main U.S. transferable factors currencies work with Saga Membership. So, though you may earn Saga factors on Expedia bookings, JetBlue flights, Alaska Airways flights, Hertz automotive leases and extra, most U.S.-based vacationers may have hassle incomes a big stability of Saga factors.
Fortunately, you do not have to have sufficient Saga factors to cowl your total Icelandair flight reserving. You should utilize no matter quantity of Saga factors you want to ebook any seat on any scheduled Icelandair flight. You possibly can even redeem Saga factors to cowl the taxes and costs on Icelandair flights.
For instance, on a pattern $593.50 round-trip reserving, I used the service’s slider instrument to pick numerous mixtures of factors and money.
I may redeem 137,337 factors to cowl my total reserving, a redemption that may give me 0.43 cents per level in worth.
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Or, I may redeem 57,781 factors and pay $343.80 for the $593.50 round-trip reserving.
You will not get outsize worth when redeeming Saga factors for Icelandair flights, nevertheless it’s a pleasant choice to have if you wish to pay utilizing a mixture of factors and money and you’ve got a number of additional factors in your account.
Associated: Methods to get to Iceland on factors and miles
Redeem Alaska Airways Mileage Plan miles
Alternatively, you may redeem Alaska miles for Icelandair flights. Nevertheless, in response to Alaska’s accomplice web page for Icelandair, this system has briefly suspended business-class award bookings on Icelandair-operated flights “because of a excessive price of reserving failures.” Since Icelandair eliminated its premium financial system product in 2018, financial system class is your solely possibility when redeeming Alaska miles for Icelandair flights.
Whereas Alaska Airways Mileage Plan nonetheless publishes a accomplice award chart, the charges listed are solely beginning charges for nonstop award flights.
Nevertheless, I discovered award charges for nonstop Icelandair flights observe the listed beginning charges. For instance, I may redeem 27,500 miles and $137 for a one-way Icelandair flight from Seattle to Reykjavik. The space between Seattle-Tacoma Worldwide Airport (SEA) and KEF is 3,622 miles.
If I departed a number of days earlier and linked in Portland, Oregon, I may redeem 22,500 miles and pay the identical $137 in taxes and costs.
In the meantime, flying 2,413 miles from Boston Logan Worldwide Airport (BOS) to KEF would price 22,500 miles plus $137.
Curiously, I may add a flight onward to Dublin with out paying any further miles. Nevertheless, I would have to pay $192 in taxes and costs for this one-stop award.
Lastly, because of Mileage Plan’s pleasant stopover insurance policies, I may even ebook a weeklong stopover for a similar variety of miles. Nevertheless, I would have to pay barely greater taxes and costs.
Alaska miles might be tough to earn for the reason that solely main transferable currencies that switch to Mileage Plan are Marriott Bonvoy and Bilt Rewards. Nevertheless, you may typically snag a superb welcome supply on the Alaska Airways Visa Signature® bank card or the Alaska Airways Visa® Enterprise card, each of which allow you to earn Alaska miles in your purchases.
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Redeem by a bank card journey portal
You can too ebook Icelandair flights with factors or miles by the journey portals of most main transferable factors currencies. Nevertheless, you may normally solely get 1 cent per level or mile when redeeming your factors or miles for flights booked by these portals. The first exceptions the place you may get extra worth when redeeming factors or miles by a bank card portal are:
In case you have the Capital One Enterprise X Rewards Credit score Card or the Capital One Enterprise Rewards Credit score Card, it’s possible you’ll come out forward by buying a paid Icelandair flight along with your card. By doing so, you may earn miles in your bank card buy. Then, inside 90 days of your buy, log into your Capital One account and redeem factors to cowl your latest journey buy. You may solely get 1 cent per level when masking latest journey purchases, however no less than you may earn miles whenever you pay in your flight along with your card.
Associated: Methods to use resort factors in Iceland
Backside line
Although Icelandair would not belong to a serious airline alliance, you may nonetheless redeem factors and miles for its flights. Your greatest worth choices to redeem factors or miles in your Icelandair flight are Alaska miles or reserving by the Chase Journey portal along with your Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Most well-liked or Ink Enterprise Most well-liked.
Nevertheless, as mentioned above, you could have a number of different choices. Particularly contemplating the usually low fares for Icelandair flights, it’s possible you’ll discover it possible to ebook a paid price and save your factors and miles for accommodations or a future journey.
