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 meanwhile.
Starting Thursday, prospects are in a position to e-book itineraries that includes connections between Southwest and Icelandair through Southwest’s strong station at Baltimore/Washington Worldwide Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).
Which means you might 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 might 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 vice chairman Ryan Inexperienced stated final month on the provider’s earnings name.
A slim partnership — at first
As talked about, the partnership — generally known as an interline settlement — will likely 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 companies.
You can also’t earn or redeem Rapid Rewards factors on these abroad itineraries simply but.
That is set to alter 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 via Southwest’s reserving channels.
Each day Publication
Reward your inbox with the TPG Each day publication
Be part of over 700,000 readers for breaking information, in-depth guides and unique offers from TPG’s consultants
And you can pay money and earn Fast Rewards factors on these bookings, or redeem factors in your journey — a shift that needs to be a giant enhance for the utility of Southwest’s factors.
Learn extra: Southwest quietly unveils A-List perks for new assigned-seating setup
Learn how to e-book via the Southwest-Icelandair partnership
Within the meantime, although, we need to present you find out how to e-book a Southwest-Icelandair itinerary underneath the partnership because it stands proper now.
Flights to Iceland
Beginning with Icelandair’s web site, to illustrate I need to take a March spherical journey from Dallas Love Area (DAL) — Southwest’s residence airport — to KEF.
As you may see, Icelandair’s web site presents 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 e-book an itinerary to Europe via this partnership, although it might not be essentially the most environment friendly approach to get throughout the Atlantic; on high of constructing a cease at KEF, you’d additionally should undergo BWI (in the meanwhile, no less than).
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 might 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 via this partnership ought to emerge because the airways deliver new Southwest bases on-line. Proper now, the partnership is concentrated 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 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 accomplice, so keep tuned.
Associated studying:
Trending Merchandise
