3 Ways to Fly Icelandair Using Points and Miles

Icelandair is a popular airline for visiting Iceland because its hub is Keflavik Airport (KEF), an airport located about 31 miles from Reykjavik. Icelandair is well known for its cheap flights and many travelers use the airline to travel between the United States and Europe, also taking advantage of a stopover in Iceland.

However, if you are looking for how to use points and miles to fly Icelandair, you will quickly discover that the airline is not part of a major airline alliance. Although the airline has interline and codeshare agreements with Emirates, Turkish Airlines, and JetBlue, you cannot currently redeem rewards from these airlines’ loyalty programs for Icelandair flights.

In short, you cannot use many types of points and miles to fly on Icelandair flights.

But you have some options, so let’s get started.

Related: Watch Us Fly Icelandair 2 Different Ways: Business Class vs. Economy

Redeem Icelandair Saga Club Points

Icelandair has its own loyalty program called Icelandair Saga Club. The bad news for casual Icelandair flyers, though, is that none of the major U.S. transferable point currencies work with Saga Club. So while you can earn Saga points on Expedia bookings, JetBlue flights, Alaska Airlines flights, Hertz car rentals, and more, most U.S.-based travelers will have a hard time earning a significant balance of Saga points.

Fortunately, you don’t have to have enough Saga Points to cover your entire Icelandair flight booking. You can use any amount of Saga Points you want to book any seat on any scheduled Icelandair flight. You can also redeem Saga Points to cover taxes and fees on Icelandair flights.

For example, for a $593.50 round-trip booking, I used the carrier’s slider tool to select various combinations of points and money.

I could redeem 137,337 points to cover the entire reservation, a redemption that would earn me 0.43 cents of value per point.

Or I could redeem 57,781 points and pay $343.80 for the $593.50 round-trip booking.

You won’t get a ton of value by redeeming Saga points for Icelandair flights, but it’s a good option if you want to pay using a combination of points and cash and have a few extra points in your account.

Related: How to Get to Iceland with Points and Miles

Redeem Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan Miles

Alternatively, you can redeem Alaska miles for Icelandair flights. However, according to Alaska’s partner page for Icelandair, the program has temporarily suspended business class award bookings on Icelandair-operated flights “due to a high rate of booking failures.” Since Icelandair removed its premium economy product in 2018, economy class is your only option when redeeming Alaska miles for Icelandair flights.

While Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan still publishes a partner award chart, the fares listed are only the starting fares for non-stop award flights.

However, I found that award fares for non-stop Icelandair flights follow the listed starting fares. For example, I could redeem 27,500 miles and $137 for a one-way Icelandair flight from Seattle to Reykjavik. The distance between Seattle-Tacoma International Airport (SEA) and KEF is 3,622 miles.

If I had departed a few days earlier and stopped in Portland, Oregon, I could have used 22,500 miles and paid the same $137 in taxes and fees.

Meanwhile, flying 2,413 miles from Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) to KEF would cost 22,500 miles plus $137.

Interestingly, I could add an onward flight to Dublin without paying additional miles. However, I would have to pay $192 in taxes and fees for this one-stop award.

Finally, thanks to Mileage Plan’s friendly layover policies, I could also book a week-long layover for the same number of miles. However, I would have to pay slightly higher taxes and fees.

Alaska miles can be difficult to earn since the only major transferable currencies that transfer to Mileage Plan are Marriott Bonvoy and Bilt Rewards. However, you can sometimes snag a good welcome offer on Alaska Airlines Visa Signature® Credit Card or the Alaska Airlines Visa® Business Credit Cardboth allow you to earn Alaska miles on your purchases.

Related: These are the best times to visit Iceland

Redeem via a travel portal with a credit card

You can also book Icelandair flights with points or miles through travel portals in most major point-transferable currencies. However, you will typically only receive 1 cent per point or mile when redeeming your points or miles for flights booked through these portals. The main exceptions where you can get more value when redeeming points or miles through a credit card portal are:

If you have the Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card or the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card, you could win by purchasing a paid Icelandair flight with your card. By doing so, you’ll earn miles on your credit card purchase. Then, within 90 days of your purchase, log into your Capital One account and redeem your points to cover your recent travel purchase. You’ll only get 1 cent per point when you cover recent travel purchases, but you’ll at least earn miles when you pay for your flight with your card.

Related: How to Use Hotel Points in Iceland

Bottom line

Even though Icelandair is not part of a major airline alliance, you can still redeem points and miles for their flights. Your best value options for redeeming points or miles for your Icelandair flight are Alaska miles or booking through the Chase Travel portal with your Chase Sapphire Reserve, Chase Sapphire Preferred, or Ink Business Preferred.

However, as discussed above, you have several other options. Especially considering the often low fares for Icelandair flights, you may find it feasible to book a paid fare and save your points and miles for hotels or a future trip.