WOW Airlines has $200 one way fares to Paris from Los Angeles and San Francisco for travel Sep to Dec from LAX and Sep-Oct from SFO. This is a good deal even with an additional $67 checked bag fee. The real value I see with the $200 one-way is its usefulness as a cheap positioning flight to Europe for picking up a low $400 round trip fare back to California from one of the 11 countries with deeply discounted ticket prices to LAX and SFO from $360 to $490 round trip.
Loyalty Traveler – Fare War AA/DL/UA $359 to $491 from 11 European countries to California round trip (July 31).
$200 fares From LAX and SFO to Paris on WOW coincide date-wise and almost perfectly with low fares from Europe, but unfortunately the $400 round trip tickets on the major alliance carriers are not happening in France, so you need to get yourself to another country from Paris to catch cheap flights back to the USA with the major alliance airlines.
Another option is fly LAX/SFO to Reykjavik one way for $180 and pick up a one-way flight from Iceland to somewhere else in Europe for $75 to $140Â to cities like:
Sunday Sep 18 one-way flights Reykjavik to Europe
- London $127 WOW
- Amsterdam $76 WOW
- Berlin $102
- Nice $76
- Edinburgh $121
- Copenhagen $102
A return on WOW Paris CDG to LAX/SFO in Sep/Oct is a minimum $335 one way. My opinion after studying fares between European cities and Reykjavik, Iceland is you can probably get a better deal booking separate tickets back to California from Paris or some other city in Europe to Iceland and pick up low Reykjavik to LAX/SFO WOW ticket for $200 one way back to California and ticket your return on two separate tickets for less than $335 one way Paris to LAX/SFO.
Another alternative is you can pick up a cheap flight from Paris to one of the European cities with $400 round trip fares to LAX or SFO and have your next vacation to Europe lined up. One way fares drop to $223 for Paris CDG – LAX in November and $201 in December for the potential to travel to Europe on two trips for $800 in tickets with two one-way tickets on WOW and a round trip from Europe to California on a major alliance airline for around $400. Positioning flights between Paris and a low fare city in Europe is potentially under $50 each way. I’ll show some potential itineraries in a separate post.
WOW $200 One Way Los Angeles – Paris CDG
Every Wednesday from Sep 21 to October 26
WOW $200 One Way San Francisco SFO – Paris CDG
Every Monday Sep 12 – Oct 31 (7 dates) + 4 other Oct dates.
WOW Airlines San Francisco SFO – Reykjavik KEF – Paris CDG
$199.99 one way Monday September 12
Plan on WOW Bag Fees
WOW charges $58 for one carry-on bag up to 26 pounds. When I flew WOW they weighed everything you have around you and only one bag is allowed to be taken on board as a carry-on. You can have one free bag up to 11 pounds or one carry-on up to 26 pounds.
Checked bag fee is $77 for this flight and that increases your weight limit to 44 pounds.
Take Advantage of Stopover in Reykjavik
To my regret, WOW did not offer free stopovers in Iceland when I booked my initial ticket for Boston to Copenhagen in July 2015. Now they do have a free stopover policy for Iceland when booking a round trip ticket. I don’t see the stopover option with a one-way ticket. An alternative I show in this post is to simply book separate tickets and fly LAX/SFO to Iceland and a separate ticket to another city in Europe if Paris is not your dream destination.
Hopefully you have some points to spend to avoid the high hotel prices in Reykjavik, Iceland.
WOW Airlines SFO – Reykjavik, Iceland $180 one way
The advantage of flying only to Reykjavik is many more low fare dates open up with Saturday travel possible from LAX/SFO.
WOW Airlines San Francisco SFO – Reykjavik, Iceland KEF
Bag fees are lower at $68 for one checked bag (44lb.) or $48 one carry-on (26 lb.) when your destination is Iceland compared to onward travel to other places in Europe.
Buy two separate WOW tickets from Paris to Iceland and Iceland to LAX/SFO for overall lower return fare from Europe and a free stopover in Iceland.
The lowest WOW fare to return from Paris to SFO in early October is $351 for Oct 2 or Oct 6. You can save money and get a free stopover in Iceland by purchasing two separate tickets for Paris-KEF and KEF-SFO. The initial screenshot is WOW Air $200 SFO-CDG on Monday Sep 12. Here is a return itinerary from Paris on WOW for lower than $351 one way Paris-SFO. You arrive in Paris on Tuesday September 13 and stay for 7 nights.
WOW Airlines Paris CDG – Reykjavik, Iceland KEF
$66.98 USD (59.99 EUR) Expedia France one-way ticket Tue Sep 20
WOW Airlines Reykjavik KEF – San Francisco SFO
$199.99 USD Expedia.com ticket Friday Sep 23
$267 for two WOW tickets purchased through Expedia.com compared to $351 for wowair.com ticket purchase.
The savings covers the checked bag fee, plus you have three nights to visit Iceland.
In summary, WOW Air will fly you San Francisco to Paris for $200 and a $58 carry-on bag fee + a $9 to $20 seat fee for each flight segment.
$267Â = WOW Outbound SFO-CDG Mon Sep 12:Â $200 ticket + $58 (carry-on bag) + $9 cheap seat = $267
$93 = WOW Inbound CDG-KEF Tue Sep 20: $67 ticket +Â $18 USD (15.99 EUR carry-on bag) or $35.75 (31.99 EUR checked bag) + $8-$18 seat (6.99-15.99 EUR).
$261 = WOW Inbound KEF – SFO Fri Sep 23: $200 ticket + $48 carry-on bag fee + $13 cheap seat = $261.
$621 all-in San Francisco – Paris (7 nights) – Reykjavik, Iceland (3 nights) – San Francisco
In follow-up posts I’ll display some potential low fare itineraries for making two trips to Europe and several countries for under $1,000 in airfare. Personally I prefer flying Norwegian to WOW Airlines. Norwegian lets you take one carry-on bag free, but the seat fees are exorbitant on Norwegian. The inflight entertainment system is very good on Norwegian for films, but bring your own music. WOW does not have much in way of inflight entertainment as I recall.
