Southwest Airways’ brand-new partnership with Icelandair is formally stay and out there for reserving — however be warned, it’s going to be a bit restricted in the interim.
Starting Thursday, clients are in a position to guide itineraries that includes connections between Southwest and Icelandair by way of Southwest’s strong station at Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).
Meaning you could possibly begin a visit with a flight on a Southwest jet and join seamlessly — each you and your baggage — to an Icelandair flight to Keflavik Airport (KEF) in Reykjavik. From there, you could possibly even proceed onward, on the identical itinerary, to extra locations in Europe.
The launch of its first airline partnership, for which TPG witnessed the formal signing earlier this 12 months in Washington, D.C., is a significant step for Southwest.
“This is a vital milestone in our plan to increase how and the place our clients can journey,” Southwest’s govt vp Ryan Inexperienced mentioned final month on the service’s earnings name.
A slender partnership — at first
As talked about, the partnership — often called an interline settlement — will likely be pretty slender from the outset.
In the mean time, you possibly can solely guide Southwest-Icelandair itineraries utilizing Icelandair’s web site and a few third-party on-line reserving providers.
You can also’t earn or redeem Speedy Rewards factors on these abroad itineraries simply but.
That is set to vary in 2026 when Southwest’s shift to assigned seating goes stay. At that time, you can guide flights to Iceland and on to Europe via Southwest’s reserving channels.
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And you can pay money and earn Speedy Rewards factors on these bookings, or redeem factors in your journey — a shift that needs to be a giant increase for the utility of Southwest’s factors.
Learn extra: Southwest quietly unveils A-Record perks for brand new assigned-seating setup
Tips on how to guide via the Southwest-Icelandair partnership
Within the meantime, although, we wish to present you the way to guide a Southwest-Icelandair itinerary beneath the partnership because it stands proper now.
Flights to Iceland
Beginning with Icelandair’s web site, for instance I wish to take a March spherical journey from Dallas Love Area (DAL) — Southwest’s residence airport — to KEF.
As you possibly can see, Icelandair’s web site affords up an itinerary that includes one leg from DAL to BWI aboard Southwest, adopted by a connecting flight over to Icelandair for the BWI-to-KEF leg of the journey.
Reserving flights to Europe
You can too technically guide an itinerary to Europe via this partnership, although it is probably not essentially the most environment friendly technique to get throughout the Atlantic; on prime of creating a cease at KEF, you’d additionally must undergo BWI (in the interim, a minimum of).
Here is a visit that begins at Chicago’s Halfway Worldwide Airport (MDW) on Southwest and ends at London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR).
You’d fly on Southwest to Baltimore earlier than connecting over to Icelandair for the Reykjavik flight. As soon as at KEF, you could possibly make a regular connection earlier than the ultimate leg to Europe — or spend a day or two (or extra) in Iceland as a part of a stopover; you possibly can slot in stopovers of as much as seven days.
Growth of partnership coming quickly
Much less circuitous itineraries to Europe via this partnership ought to emerge because the airways deliver new Southwest bases on-line. Proper now, the partnership is targeted solely on connections at BWI, however that can increase to Denver Worldwide Airport (DEN) and Nashville Worldwide Airport (BNA) within the not-too-distant future.
“Then we’ll consider issues from there,” Inexperienced informed TPG final month.
Backside line
Southwest’s new partnership with Icelandair is formally stay and out there for bookings by way of Icelandair’s web site and a few third-party websites. Although it is restricted proper now (and never out there but for Speedy Rewards earnings or redemptions), it’s going to increase considerably over the course of the subsequent 12 months.
Throughout that point, Southwest additionally plans to announce a second worldwide airline companion, so keep tuned.
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