If you’ve been using your Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan miles to redeem flights with Icelandair, you might want to pay attention. Alaska is about to raise the redemption price for routes booked with Icelandair.
Starting April 15th of this year, you’ll need 30,000 Alaska Mileage Plan miles in order to fly from the contiguous U.S. or Alaska to Iceland. To get to Europe, you’ll need at least 35,000 Alaska Mileage Plan miles in economy. Until April 15th, you’ve only needed 22,500 miles one way to travel to Iceland and 27,500 miles to get to Europe with Icelandair.
The Numbers Behind These Changes
It’s a pretty staggering 7,500 mile jump for both routes and a 25%-33% upcharge, respectively. This doesn’t take into account the $100+ you’ll pay in taxes and fees (which, more or less, shouldn't change).
Note that these devaluations only apply to economy routes. Business fares remain at 50,000 Alaska Mileage Plan miles for Iceland routes and 55,000 miles for Europe routes. Still, it seems for the time being that ultra low-cost fares to Iceland are a thing of the recent past.
The Collapse Of WOW Air
It’s interesting to note that, while this isn’t necessarily causation as much as it is a correlation, the devaluation of Alaska Mileage Plan miles with respect to Icelandair is set to happen less than three weeks after WOW Air went belly-up.
Since negotiations between Icelandair and WOW Air never worked (and were probably never going to work), WOW was left to be crushed underneath its debt of over 20 billion ISK, equivalent to nearly $185 million USD. With that, WOW Air ceased operations on March 28th and Icelandair became the only Icelandic airline offering service between North America and continental Europe.
Is it a monopoly? Maybe. But not necessarily in this case since you can certainly fly to Europe with your Alaska Mileage Plan miles on American Airlines, British Airways, Condor, Emirates and Finnair. You just can’t always go directly to Iceland except with Icelandair. Because of that, it’s interesting to see the last Icelandic airline standing in a position to ruffle its feathers a bit.
Further Details About Icelandair
Icelandair is a pretty solid airline with a storied history. Back in 1937, Icelandair began under another name, Flugfélag Akureyrar (loosely translated, Akureyri Flight Club). Since then, they’ve been the backbone of Icelandic aviation and the roots of Icelandic tourism, especially following the 2008 financial crisis when Iceland decided to heavily prioritize the tourism industry in order to rebuild.
It’s a good airline with a steady record. Now that it’s the only Icelandic airline in operation, it’s still the best option for getting yourself to Iceland regardless of the miles devaluation.
Flying To Iceland And More
I could spend all day advocating for Icelandair as Iceland’s comfiest (albeit only current) airline, but the truth is that you might be able to find better fares to Europe with other airlines. You might even be able to find decent fares to Iceland via Europe. If you’re bent on redeeming your Alaska Mileage Plan miles, redemptions to the European continent in economy are lower with American Airlines, British Airways, Finnair and Condor.
If you’re comparing with Emirates, the Icelandair fares still start cheaper so it’ll depend on your specific itinerary. Compare and contrast Alaska Mileage Plan mileage redemptions before redeeming your miles on an Icelandair flight as it isn’t going to be one of the cheaper options anymore. FlyerMiler is one of my favorite sites to look at relative mileage costs on different airlines.
That being said, it’s still going to be one of the best ways to redeem your miles on an Iceland-terminating itinerary. It is even better if you’re just looking to travel one-way. However, it might be best practice to book your Icelandair ticket and include your Alaska Airlines MileagePlan frequent flyer number on your itinerary and earn Alaska Mileage Plan miles instead.
This partnership works both ways. Considering how inexpensive fares to Iceland generally are, especially if you can hop on a sale fare, you could probably earn a decent number of miles by booking with cash rather than redeeming miles for the ticket.
Either way, the fact remains that Alaska miles redemptions are about to get more expensive if you want to fly with Icelandair. To make the most of this, I suggest booking your award travel now or purchasing your ticket with cash and earning miles instead. This way, you can save up for more Icelandair flights in the future.