Planning for Iceland
 

Are there any programs or credit cards that i should sign up
for that will help in airfare n hotel for a trip next year to Iceland?

Note that i had previously had british airway, citi aa visa n mastercrd
Amex delta, Marriot, priority club, chase ink n sapphire.

Thanks for any suggestions.

Star Alliance is the only way to get there other than Iceland Air (which is not a part of an alliance). That means you should probably get the Chase United card and another Chase Ink card (whichever one you don't have) for a total of ~110k miles after meeting spends. Use that on Scandinavian Airlines to get from US->Oslo->KEF in Iceland.

Club Carlson cards for either of the Radisson properties. We stayed at the one up the hill (not the one with a year in the name) and were happy with it. As gold on an award they included breakfast which was very good and saved us a good bit of money.

Delta also flies there out of of NYC in the summer. Everytime I check flights, however, it's 110k miles, but it's an option.

I also want to go to Iceland soon so my strategy is to build up miles on the Barclays Arrival card. $400 signup bonus and 2% for spend. There's usually discounted fares out of Denver so I figure that's the easiest way.

A really good tip is to use the Club Carlson 4-for-2 extended weekend, where you can get super deals in Reykjavik. You'll need gold Status for this, but it can be easily obtained

Just pay out of your pocket. It not unusual to find sub $800 fare from the States to KEF.

Get the Chase Ink. 55,000 points equals $687 in airfare. Non-stop RT fares with IcelandAir from JFK to KEF are around $676 in March and April for example.

I don't think you can book Icelandair or Delta tickets from Ultimate Rewards. That's why I suggested Barclays Arrival-- you can use your miles on any airline, any seat.

You can't transfer to Icelandair/Delta/etc. from Ultimate Rewards, but you can use them as cash value while booking through the Ultimate Rewards travel agency for 1.25 cents/point. I checked the UR site and indeed, there is availability through Icelandair.

With the new bonus, Chase Ink offers 60k + 5k(from spend) points which is ~$812 through UR, and could pay for the ticket.

I knew you couldn't transfer to Icelandair, but I did NOT know they had Icelandair tickets available through their travel portal. That's awesome, thanks!

airberlin and Niki fly there seasonally, so that is an AA/oneworld option. WOW airlines, Easyjet and several other non aligned or LCCs connect KEF with UK and Europe, so you may be able to use miles to one of their destinations and then buy a relatively cheap ticket to KEF...just an option possibly

I have been watching rates and have found sub $1000 from SDF, Louisville KY for late July and early August. That is considerably less than most European destinations at that time.

I recently flew KEF-DEN for about $350 and then paid about $50 from DEN to LAS. One way, of course.

I second that. I was just in Iceland during Easter, and it was amazing. Some thoughts:

I didn't see many big brand name hotels in Reykjavik other than the Hilton. Others have commented on Radisson and other smaller chains... However, in my opinion, if you are going to Iceland, Reykjavik is probably the last place you want to be! It is a plain city...

You can probably go to iceland and use no cash, so make sure you have a credit card with a chip for convenience. Many gas stations are un-manned, and will only take chipped credit cards...

If you really want an adventure, consider flying to London or Paris and take one of the low cost airlines from there. (Assuming you want to go to Paris/London on the same trip)

Icelandic air doesn't seem to have any alliance with any other airlines (As of June 2013, no more miles transfer to Alaskian Air!). But as someone else said, fare from JFK/Toronto and maybe 1 or 2 other big cities on the east coast is served by Icelandic air, so you will often find cheap airfare (under $700 all in) often...

Consider going outside of peak season (June to August) for save on airfare/hotel/rental car cost. Its just as beautiful (often even more beautiful!) during May and September, and less tourist.

If you pay out of pocket go with a package that includes hotels and tours. The travelzoo type offers for Iceland Air are good prices. When you get to Iceland you will find most tours are in the $100+ range so the packages that include them are a good value.

Another adventure idea to consider is that Iceland Air offers stopover deal. Pick a European city and Iceland air will allow you to stop over in Iceland for a couple of days and then send you off to you next destination. That's how we're planning on getting to Oslo.

As many have alluded to, Iceland is a pretty "award-poor" destination. Flight choices other than on Icelandair are minimal or clunky, and chain hotels are thin-on-the-ground in Reykjavik and non-existent in the rest of the country.

Use this one as a point accumulating trip on your credit card :-)

You should forget about using miles for this trip. Instead, pay cash and fly Iceland Air. It's relatively affordable and includes a free stop in Reykjavik onward to Europe...

Pretty damn good deal.

Using Icelandair Saga Points / Miles
 

And for anyone wanting to use Icelandair FF miles, the hard-to-find award chart is here:
https://www.icelandair.us/frequent-f...69/icelandair/

According to the website, you must phone in (500 ISK telephone fee, approximately $4 USD) to make an award reservation, and pay a 3000 ISK service charge, a fuel surcharge and taxes.

you can use alaska air miles to fly on iceland air. spg transfers to alaska air. if you wanna base yourself in rek the hilton there is very nice and pretty affordable at 35k points a night i think.

AS is no longer a partner of Icelandair unfortunately. There's rumors they'll hook up with another US carrier, but until then the only way to get there on award travel is through cashback-based systems like Barclays Arrival, Chase Ultimate Rewards or Capital One Ventures.

Not since June 1, 2013 (unless you booked your flight already before that). See here:

http://www.alaskaair.com/content/mil...celandair.aspx

Or if you happen to already have a Diners Club card, you can transfer Club Rewards points to IcelandAir Saga. (But Diners Club US is still not accepting new applications for personal cards, so this is not a route open to anyone who hasn't already had this card for years.)

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/diner...os-2012-a.html

However, given the Saga award chart in a post above, whether that's even worth it (should it be possible for you) is a separate question.

The more you spend, the more you amuse. Simple Equation. :) ;) :)

I've been doing similar research recently.

Delta flies JFK-KEF so if you have ways of getting some miles into that account, you may be able to use them on that route. Of course, availability with Delta is an entirely different story.

Short of that, staralliance is probably the only other mile-based way but I find it difficult to justify sitting on the plane twice as long and essentially backtracking from continental Europe back to Iceland and repeating that again on the way back when I can pay usually sub-$1K and be there in maybe 6 hrs.

Somebody else also recommended tours to me as a good way to save when traveling to Iceland.

Also check if prices to Europe via KEF. You can visit a second city in Europe and add a stopover for free on Iceland Air and sometimes it comes in cheaper.

Good hotels in REK are not expensive. I would highly recommend a rental car if you want to tour the sites.

Cruise to Iceland??
 

Anyone taking one of the cruises from Europe to Iceland and back? Was thinking of cheap award flight to Europe and then cruising back and forth from Iceland. Some of the cruises stop in Greenland as well.

Brings back memories of our $60 fare to KEF :)... But we paid a lot once we got there since iceland was booming back then...