Southwest Airways’ brand-new partnership with Icelandair is formally stay and accessible for reserving — however be warned, it will be a bit restricted in the interim.
Starting Thursday, prospects are in a position to e-book itineraries that includes connections between Southwest and Icelandair through Southwest’s sturdy station at Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).
Meaning you would begin a visit with a flight on a Southwest jet and join seamlessly — each you and your luggage — to an Icelandair flight to Keflavik Airport (KEF) in Reykjavik. From there, you would 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 yr in Washington, D.C., is a serious step for Southwest.
“This is a crucial milestone in our plan to increase how and the place our prospects can journey,” Southwest’s govt vp Ryan Inexperienced stated final month on the provider’s earnings name.
A slim partnership — at first
As talked about, the partnership — often known as an interline settlement — can be pretty slim from the outset.
For the time being, you may solely e-book Southwest-Icelandair itineraries utilizing Icelandair’s web site and a few third-party on-line reserving providers.
You can also’t earn or redeem Rapid 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 e-book flights to Iceland and on to Europe by Southwest’s reserving channels.
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And you can pay money and earn Fast Rewards factors on these bookings, or redeem factors in your journey — a shift that must be an enormous increase for the utility of Southwest’s factors.
Learn extra: Southwest quietly unveils A-List perks for new assigned-seating setup
How one can e-book by the Southwest-Icelandair partnership
Within the meantime, although, we need to present you easy methods to e-book a Southwest-Icelandair itinerary underneath the partnership because it stands proper now.
Flights to Iceland
Beginning with Icelandair’s web site, as an example I need to take a March spherical journey from Dallas Love Area (DAL) — Southwest’s house airport — to KEF.
As you may see, Icelandair’s web site gives 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 too can technically e-book an itinerary to Europe by this partnership, although it will not be probably the most environment friendly option to get throughout the Atlantic; on high of constructing a cease at KEF, you’d additionally must undergo BWI (in the interim, at the very least).
This 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 would make an ordinary 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 may slot in stopovers of as much as seven days.
Growth of partnership coming quickly
Much less circuitous itineraries to Europe by this partnership ought to emerge because the airways carry 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 instructed TPG final month.
Backside line
Southwest’s new partnership with Icelandair is formally stay and accessible for bookings through Icelandair’s web site and a few third-party websites. Although it is restricted proper now (and never accessible but for Fast Rewards earnings or redemptions), it will increase considerably over the course of the following yr.
Throughout that point, Southwest additionally plans to announce a second worldwide airline companion, so keep tuned.
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