WOW Stopover in Iceland is a feature introduced two months ago by WOW Air for round trip transatlantic flights to and from USA and Canada to Europe via Iceland. Last summer I flew WOW Air from Boston to Copenhagen via Iceland. I would have loved the option to spend a couple of nights in Iceland, but a free stopover in Iceland was not an option on the low $269 round trip fare tickets I purchased in October 2014 when WOW launched sales from the USA to Europe.
I argued as recently as last month that Icelandair has the competitive advantage over WOW for travel to Europe for tickets with no bag fees, seat fees and free stopovers in Iceland allowed both ways. Now I see WOW Airlines matches the free stopover in Iceland benefit similar to Icelandair, but still WOW has high bag and seat fees. Plus the stopover is only available for one direction of your round trip travel. Despite the add-on fees, low prices can make WOW Air a good deal for many destinations in Europe.
How to book the Iceland free stopover in your WOW Air itinerary
Took me some time to figure out that clicking the WOW Air circle at top of page opens up a Flight booking page with the option to select a stopover in Iceland on either the outbound or return flights. My example shows San Francisco to Paris with a 2-night stopover in Iceland on the return portion of a November 8-23 trip.
WOW Airlines San Francisco – Paris CDG – Reykjavik (2 night stopover) – San Francisco
$683.99Â November 8 SFO-CDG, November 21 CDG-KEF (Iceland), November 23 KEF-SFO
In this case, the price for a stopover is in between the round trip prices for SFO to Paris without a stopover in Iceland.
WOW Air San Francisco – Paris CDG
$639.98Â November 8-21Â ($44 less than free stopover itinerary).
The bag and seat fees jack up the ticket price significantly for SFO-CDG round trip with the lowest priced available seats at $44 for four flight segments and $98 for one 12kg/26# carry-on bag round trip.
That $640 SFO-CDG round trip ticket increases by $141.94 USD with lowest priced assigned seat selection and one carry-on bag. That is 22% more in Travel Extras fees.
However, the $684 ticket price with stopover in Iceland is priced $116 lower than returning from Paris on November 23 without any stopover in Iceland. Just remember to add in $141.94 for extra fees.
WOW Air San Francisco to Paris CDG
$799.98 USD November 8 – November 23
Free WOW Stopover in Iceland appears to me to be the real deal.
Still, in my opinion, the deal buster with WOW Airlines are the high fees for bags and seats. You need to score a really competitive discount airfare to make WOW Air a good deal.
Loyalty Traveler –
How to book free Iceland stopover with WOW Air tickets to Europe (March 21, 2016) Written last month before I knew WOW added free stopover in Iceland option.
WOW Air to Iceland and onward to Europe (Jan 14, 2015).
