WOW Airlines summer fares from SFO and LAX

WOW Airlines launches nonstop service from San Francisco SFO to KEF Reykjavik, Iceland on Friday June 10, 2016. Los Angeles LAX to KEF nonstop service begins Wednesday June 15. From Reykjavik, WOW Airlines flies to 23 cities around Europe. WOW also operates from Boston BOS and Baltimore BWI airports in the USA. WOW flies Canada too between Reykjavik, Iceland KEF and Montreal YUL or Toronto YYZ.

All transatlantic flights are nonstop flights between USA and Canada and Reykjavik, Iceland.

I started this post to look at a flight on WOW Air between California and continental Europe. Research showed there are some good WOW Air summer fares with Los Angeles having overall better deals than San Francisco. There are some real bargains between Iceland and Canada.

WOW Airports in USA/Canada

1. Boston Logan (BOS)
2. Los Angeles (LAX)
3. San Francisco (SFO)
4. Washington D.C./Baltimore (BWI)
5. Montréal (YUL)
6. Toronto (YYZ)

WOW Airports In Europe

1. Alicante (ALC)
2. Amsterdam (AMS)
3. Barcelona (BCN)
4. Berlin Schönefeld (SXF)
5. Bristol (BRS)
6. Copenhagen (CPH)
7. Dublin (DUB)
8. Düsseldorf (DUS)
9. Edinburgh (EDI)
10. Frankfurt (FRA)
11. Gran Canaria (LPA)
12. Keflavik (KEF)
13. London Gatwick (LGW)
14. Lyon (LYS)
15. Milan (MXP)
16. Nice (NCE)
17. Paris (CDG)
18. Rome (FCO)
19. Salzburg (SZG)
20. Stockholm (VST)
21. Tenerife (TFS)
22. Vilnius (VNO)
23. Warsaw (WAW)

Two key points from my research on summer airfares are summarized here. I will cover these topics in separate Loyalty Traveler posts.

• You can get a free stopover in Iceland with WOW Air by purchasing two separate tickets for USA/Canada to Iceland, then a separate Iceland to Europe ticket on WOW or another carrier. Fly to Reykjavik, stay for a set number of nights and fly to your ultimate destination on a different low-fare date with WOW Air or another carrier. There are several low cost carriers at KEF like easyjet, Eurowings, Norwegian and Icelandair. My findings indicate it can even be lower priced to buy two separate WOW tickets with a stopover in Iceland, rather than ticketing a direct flight to Europe with WOW Air.
• Icelandair looks to be competitively priced to WOW Air for one-way travel between some of its USA/Canada airports. Advantage of Icelandair is no charge for bags or seats, unless you are packing excessively. This makes Icelandair a lower cost one-way fare on some routes for some dates. Norwegian Airlines also has competitive low fares on some dates to WOW fares.

Los Angeles LAX to Reykjavik KEF Iceland

This post examines the actual cost of WOW Airlines flights from Los Angeles to Iceland after bag and seat fees.

https://wowair.us/flights/book-flight homepage for US site shows fares from USA gateways to different cities in Europe. Here is the image for Los Angeles to Reykjavik, Iceland.

LAX-KEF Reykjavik $259 advertised low fare for LAX to Iceland one-way for July 2016.

Those $199 advertised one-way promotional fares are only valid if you are traveling with an 11 pound carry-on bag. Most of us are incapable of taking trip with that free weight allowance. Bag and seat fees can easily add $150 to advertised one-way ticket prices.

WOW Air Monthly Fare Calendar

WOW Air has an easy to use fare calendar to match lowest fare dates. The lowest return is surprisingly only $10 more at $269 KEF-LAX than the outbound flight $259 LAX-KEF Reykjavik, Iceland.

WOW Air LAX-KEF fare calendar shows July 13-26 matches lowest fares each way during month of July.

Los Angeles LAX – Reykjavik KEF = $568 round trip base fare before bag fees and seat selection.

You can only have one carry-on bag when you board, either a paid carry-on bag (26 lb.) or a free carry-on bag (11 lb. bag).

The other basic bags option is pay a higher fee for one checked bag and take a single 5 kg / 11 lb. carry-on bag for free.

WOW Airlines staff scrutinized everyone’s bags on our flights to Copenhagen last summer. It appeared to me plenty of passengers were paying higher airport-priced bag fees at Boston Logan flight check-in when told their bag allowance was exceeded.

WOW Bag fees for Los Angeles LAX to Reykjavik, Iceland KEF

• Free = one carry-on bag up to 5 kg / 11 lb.
• $58 = one checked bag, up to 20 kg / 44 lb. ($58 per bag, up to three bags per passenger).

and/or

• $38 one carry-on bag up to 12 kg / 26 lb.

You need to pay a bag fee to fly WOW, unless you can fly with only 5 kg for your WOW trip.

On Boston-Copenhagen flights last July I paid for one carry-on and one checked bag. Kelley paid one checked bag and carried onboard one light bag weighed in at 11 lb.

Seat Assignment Fee $13 or $49 each way

You can let WOW Air decide your seat fate for free or pay a minimum $13 for a seat with no recline. Limited economy recline is $49.

WOW Seats $13 to $58 each way.

Final WOW AIR ticket price Los Angeles – Iceland July 2016 for $568 base fare:

• $670 round trip fare after adding $76 one carry-on and $26 assigned cheap seats  (up 18.0%).

• $710 round trip fare after adding $116 one checked 44 lb. bag, one 11 lb. free carry-on bag and $26 assigned cheap seats (up 25.0%).

• $780 round trip fare after adding $116 one checked 44 lb. bag,  one 11 lb. free carry-on bag and $96 for assigned limited recline seats (up 37.3%).

• $856 round trip fare after adding $116 one checked bag, $76 one carry-on bag and $96 assigned limited recline seats (up 50.7%).

That $259 advertised one-way low fare for Los Angeles to Iceland looked fantastic for July travel on the WOW Air webpage advertising, however, the real round trip fare is actually 18% to 51% higher after bag fees and seat fees are added to the WOW Air base ticket price.

WOW Air is best for light packing travelers.

Fields of lupine at Keflavik Airport, Iceland on my WOW Airlines BOS-KEF flight landing July 2015.

Loyalty Traveler – WOW Air Boston to Iceland flight review (July 4, 2015).