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Icelandair to Europe low fares earn Finnair points

a screenshot of a computer screen

Icelandair often has the lowest fares to cities in Europe from Boston, New York JFK, Washington IAD and Chicago ORD. Icelandair also flies from Denver and Seattle, but those fares are not discounted as frequently or deeply. Many of the low fares in the $400s from the major carriers seen over the summer were fare wars sparked by Icelandair sales.

In addition to Saga Club, frequent flyer program for Icelandair, many flyers probably do not know that Icelandair also partners with Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan and Finnair Plus for earning award miles opportunities with these two frequent flyer programs.

Icelandair and Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan

Icelandair economy booking codes G, T, V, H, L, S, O earn 50% flight miles in Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan.

Google Flights fare map for Icelandair Chicago to Europe Sun Mar 19 – Sat Mar 25.

ORD-LGW FI Google Flights map

  • Chicago to Amsterdam AMS $442 round trip
  • Chicago to Paris ORY $449 round trip
  • Chicago to Paris CDG $450 round trip
  • Chicago to London LGW $504 round trip
  • Chicago to Frankfurt FRA $517
  • Chicago to Munich MUC $536
  • Chicago to Stockholm ARN $542
  • Chicago to Copenhagen CPH $543
  • Chicago to Oslo OSL $552
  • Chicago to Manchester MAN $563

Icelandair  Chicago ORD – Reykjavik KEF – Paris CDG – KEF – ORD

$449.58 round trip  Sun March 19 – Sat March 25

ORD-CDG $449 FI-1 Mar19-25

ORD-CDG $449 FI-2 Mar19-25

There are stopover options for Reykjavik, Iceland fares around $10 more.

Problem: Earn 0% Alaska Mileage Plan miles for Icelandair economy N booking code flights.

You can buy up this Icelandair itinerary to economy S for these same flights for $633.58. Up to the flyer to decide if spending an additional $184 is worth it for 4,341 Alaska miles.

Another Option: Finnair 6,992 Points for $450 Icelandair Chicago – Paris flights.

Finnair Oneworld Alliance also credits points for Icelandair economy N class flights.

Finnair Points Flight Calculator allows input selection for round trip, one way and multiple flight segments with partner airlines.

FinnAir points calculator FI ORD-CDG

Finnair calculator shows 6,992 award points and 0 elite tier points for Icelandair economy N booking code flights.

Finnair Points for American Airlines flights

Even better for Oneworld flyers are Finnair points earned for American Airlines flights from the USA to Europe.

American Airlines Chicago to Paris in deep discount economy 0 booking code has been on sale regularly for around $500 over past month. That fare earns 13,328 Finnair points for round trip ticket.

FinnAir points AA ORD-CDG Oclass

If you are a flyer like me, American Airlines flights are nearly useless in 2017 for earning AAdvantage miles when you fly on deep discount tickets. These same tickets can earn 13,000 points in FinnAir.

I checked my next American Airlines ticket for Salzburg-Los Angeles-Vienna I start flying this month.

Salzburg – Dusseldorf – London LHR – Los Angeles – London LHR – Vienna in American Airlines deep discount economy O class earns

19,706 FinnAir points.

FinnAir 19706 points AA SZG-LAX-VIE ticket

I’ll continue this Finnair discussion in a separate post focused on flyers like me seeking another frequent flyer program for crediting American Airlines and Oneworld flights. Alaska Airlines is a good option for us AA-exiles too who will not find it possible to reach the spend levels needed to qualify for AAdvantage elite with 2017 flights.

Finnair Award Mile Redemption Rates

There is a discrepancy between the Finnair chart stating 50% points for Icelandair and American Airlines flights and the calculator. At least the points are not based on a 1:1 rate to flight miles.

Assuming the Finnair calculator is correct, and I assume it is since Hel ’think’ i has the highest proportion of higher education population in Europe, the cost of award tickets is what truly matters in evaluating the earn rate for Finnair Plus.

Finnair Europe award rates

Finnair award tickets between *11 cities in northern Europe are only 19,000 points round trip when flying Finnair via Helsinki.

*Copenhagen, Gothenburg, Krakow, Moscow, Oslo, Stockholm, St. Petersburg, Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius and Warsaw.

39,000 points for rest of Europe is kind of steep since there are many low cost carrier options for intra-Europe flights.

USA on Finnair is 124,000 points and 130,000 points for American Airlines partner flights.

Two Icelandair trips earn enough Finnair points for a one way ticket on Finnair between Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia.

One Icelandair and one American Airlines round trip to Europe, credited to Finnair, earns sufficient points for a round trip ticket on Finnair between Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Russia. That is a pretty good rebate on a $500 deep discount economy ticket with Icelandair or American Airlines.

No Fee Icelandair

Icelandair operates a legacy airline model for its international flights between the USA and Europe and not the low cost carrier fee system in place at Norwegian Airlines and WOW Air.

  • No carry on bag fee.
  • No first checked bag fee
  • No second checked bag fee.
  • No seat assignment fee.

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