Icelandair is a hybrid of a low cost carrier and a legacy carrier. While their service is certainly low frills, unlike ultra low cost carriers, you do get 1 checked bag and the ability to pick your seat, even with a basic ticket.
Icelandair announces flights to Cleveland from Reykjavik
Yesterday, Icelandair announced that they will be starting service from Cleveland Ohio to Reykjavik. While this is exciting in its own right, part of Icelandair’s plans are using Iceland as a stopover for people traveling from the US to Europe, and connections are timed appropriately. You can even take advantage of a free stopover in Reykjavik on your way to/from Iceland.
Icelandair already flies to 12 other US cities
- New York City
- Philadelphia
- Washington DC
- Boston
- Chicago
- Minneapolis
- Orlando
- Tampa
- Denver
- Seattle
- Portland
- Anchorage
as well as Edmonton, Montreal, Toronto and Halifax in Canada
Service to / from Cleveland will begin in May 2018 and run 4 days / week. It has not been announced yet which 4 days of the week Icelandair service to Cleveland will run.
Using miles on Icelandair
Icelandair is a partner of Alaska Airlines, which means you can earn and redeem Alaska MileagePlan miles on its flights. Unfortunately, the fuel surcharges are a little higher than other flights
Sure $100 isn’t THAT bad, but on a flight from the US to Europe, most other carriers charge $5.60. Fuel surcharges are ~$140 if you continue to Europe and on a roundtrip even just to Iceland, it’s $234. Considering you can often find roundtrip CASH fares for ~$400 or $500, I’m not sure I’d want to pay 45,000 miles AND $234. As you can see, Icelandair does offer business class but it is not a lie-flat seat.
This is great news for those of us in the Midwest – I’ll definitely be looking at Icelandair for my next flight to Europe – what about you?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I’m excited we’re finally getting access to Europe again from CLE, and I’m glad it’s with Icelandair not WOW. Speaking of I saw CVG announced this morning that WOW will start service there on May 8. Who do you think won this battle of Ohio(airports).
Ok I just saw that CLE is getting WOW service too. Geez, when it rains it pours, and the Browns don’t look awful, pinch me Dan I must be dreaming
LOL – 16-0 baby!
NO lie flat seats is a real bummer. They need to step up their game.