I have done SFO-LHR-OSL-KEF-OSL-LHR-SFO on points no less, to keep it all *A. A one night stopover in OSL on the outbound and a 2 night stopover in LHR on the return. Stopover rules being what they are, that may not even be legal anymore, but that's what I did.

Remember that less than 24 hours on an international itinerary is considered to be a connection rather than astopover. So your ticket might have had one stopover (London, which IIRC would add a lot of taxes and fees), with Oslo possibly being just a connection even though you were there overnight.

Fair point. OSL was definitely a connection that required an overnight stay. I dare say at the time it was about a 22 hour connection.

Thanks! I just might have to start planning for next August now with flights that reasonable. I will see if departing from SFO can get that fare!

I travel regularly to Iceland and while it's an amazing place, it's just not worth any headache trying to keep it all with one alliance. Icelandair is reliable, pretty cheap, and serves the market from most European and North American airports. If you're in SFO I'd recommend just using your favorite carrier to bounce up to SEA or DEN and hop on Icelandair from there. This is what I do a few times a year from LAX, and I just interline the luggage all the way through. Never had a problem. It's a 6ish hour flight from the west coast/central USA, and 4.5-5 from most east coast destinations.

Icelandair is a pretty fantastic carrier, especially compared to most European short-haul and domestic American operations, even in coach

:confused:

Except that it seems to be always a nighttime flight from the USA, and at 30 inch pitch for regular economy and even only 33 inch pitch for premium economy, for a bit taller person that seem like a pretty lousy plane to sleep on. (I don't know of any other airline whose premium economy section has this little pitch on international nighttime flights.)

Or do you know of daytime flights to Iceland from anywhere in the USA on Icelandair? (Comparing to shorthaul daytime USA flights on a nighttime flight makes no sense. I don't buy redeye domestic USA fligthts for very reason that their domestic planes are ok for awake flights, not so good for sleeping flights.)

I am not going to worry about keeping it all in the *A family, although it would be nice if a good amount of the Miles were. For this vacation price/convenience will overrule *A mileage earnings.

There are day flights from BOS and JFK, maybe others, I'm not sure. This summer, we flew SAN-BOS on a separate ticket, spent time in Maine, then returned to BOS to fly to KEF. The flight left roughly at 2pm and arrived at 11pm.

Icelandair 7-day Stopover
 

Icelandair has at the present time and possibly into next summer, a stopover provision that allows you to stay in Iceland for up to 7 days either direction without additional airfare. They also own hotels in Reykjavik that offer mini-packages for the stopover.

I've stayed at the Natura (where Bobby Fischer stayed in 1972 when he played Boris Spassky; they have a display set up) and its a bit of a hike to the downtown 25 minutes (I was there in March and it was slushy and 0C so summer might be a lot better for a walk) so try for the Marina even though it's a bit more expensive.

I'm 6' 1" and I found an aisle seat economy to be more than spacious. The entertainment system was like Air Canada's with far more selection. Wi-Fi is good but was not available in Northern Canada until far northeastern Quebec and shut down around there on the return.

If you are in SFO, you can get to YEG where next summer FI will be offering 6X service. You leave in the late afternoon and it's 6 1/2 hours arriving in the early morning at KEF. Since KEF is 56 km from Reykjavik, take the shuttle and you can buy tickets on the flight.

Fly to YEG on UA and then go on to KEF on FI. DEN and SEA also offer FI flights but you'll get more UA miles coming through YEG!

Ah, they must either be summer flights only and/or only on certain days of the week. I was checking wintertime schedule BOS-KEF on Icelandair's website and they only showed nighttime flights on Sat & Sun.

No question that you should fly FI. I fly almost only F and C on long flights but would forego the comfort for the many hours saved.

Dayflights are offer in Summer only and likely not yet loaded into the system.

If booking premium economy a seat in the last row of business is sometimes offered - worth checking.

You can book exit row seats upon booking - but careful as seatguru et al have incorrect seatmaps for FI.

From SFO, you can connect to many of our N. American gateway cities (SEA or DEN would make the most sense in your case).

If you are looking for our daytime flights, we only operate those during our summer season, and from certain gateways (BOS, JFK, and now, IAD).

Please let me know if you have any more questions. I am more than happy to help!

Hello IcelandairCS,

Thanks! I think we'll be planning on flying to Iceland via SEA and take advantage of your Iceland "Stopover" option en route to a final destination of a place like France or Italy.

The only unknown will be whether my partner will be flying to PIT to see her son and his family prior to arriving in Iceland.

I would assume that if she does not go to PIT, it would be an easy booking, but if she did choose to fly to PIT first, it might throw a wrench in the works, right?

Thanks.
Eric