WOW Airlines celebrates its third year as an Icelandic airline in 2015. This is also the year the low cost carrier started flights between Boston BOS and Washington DC-Baltimore BWI to KEF Reykjavik, Iceland. WOW operates service to continental Europe and the UK from Iceland.
Airfare from Baltimore BWI to Reykjavik is as low as $109 one-way for a few dates in October 2015. Return flights are as low as $135 for KEF-BWI.
WOW Washington BWI – Reykjavik, Iceland KEF $109 one way after tax.
Flights from Boston have more $109 dates than BWI, however, inbound flights from Iceland to Boston are a little higher priced at $171.39.
Washington BWI – KEF Reykjavik, Iceland
$243.95 WOW Air October 21-26, 2015
Boston BOS – KEF Reykjavik, Iceland
$303.39 WOW Air October 2-8, 2015
WOW, those bag fees are steep
In five weeks I am flying WOW from Boston to Copenhagen. I purchased $364 round trip tickets last October when WOW started selling tickets. The main catch with WOW airline tickets is the low fare offered is propped up by exorbitant bag fees.
USA to Iceland bag fee
The only free luggage is one carry-on limited to 5kg or 11 pounds.
$29 – one carry-on bag of 29 lbs. (Note: the $29 fee simply increases your carry-on bag limit from 5 kg to 12 kg. You are only allowed one carry-on bag).
$48 – one checked bag of 20kg or 44 lbs.
These fees are charged in each direction. You need to add a minimum $58 to the round trip WOW ticket price from Baltimore or Boston to Reykjavik, assuming you are visiting Iceland with more than 11 pounds of travel gear.
BWI-KEF for $302 round trip is still quite the deal. Add probably add $6 more for seat assignments for $308 total ticket price.
USA-Iceland-Europe bag fees
Connecting flights to Europe, like my flight to Copenhagen, incur higher bag fees.
$38 – one carry-on bag of 29 lbs. (Note: the $29 fee simply increases your carry-on bag limit from 5 kg to 12 kg. You are only allowed one carry-on bag).
$67 – one checked bag of 20kg or 44 lbs.
I landed a great low fare for $364 from Boston to Copenhagen, but after adding $76 for one carry-on bag and $134 for one checked-bag and $24 for seat assignments, the round trip ticket price jumped another $234 for our trip. Final ticket price was $480 per person.
Seemed like this would be a great deal to Europe last October, but last month in the fare battle over Scandinavia, Star Alliance and SkyTeam airlines dropped fares to almost $600 from San Francisco to Stockholm.
No doubt that the round trip fares to Iceland offer some unbeatable flight deals if you are in the Baltimore or Boston area. The savings decreases if you travel to mainland Europe or the UK with the higher bag fees.
