New Icelandair Service Connects Seattle and Europe

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Christine Sarkis is an SATW-award-winning journalist and executive editor at SmarterTravel. Her stories have also appeared on USA Today, Conde Nast Traveler, Huffington Post, and Business Insider. Her advice has been featured in dozens of print and online publications including The New York Times, Conde Nast Traveler, and People magazine. She has also shared travel tips on television and radio shows including Good Morning America, Marketplace, and Here & Now. Her work has been published in the anthologies Spain from a Backpack and The Best Women's Travel Writing 2008. She is currently working on a travel memoir.

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Icelandair just announced new service starting on July 22 between Seattle and the carrier’s hub of Reykjavik. Many of the new flights will connect to other European cities, including London and Stockholm. Domestically, Icelandair plans to team up with Alaska Airlines to provide connections to and from other West Coast cities such as Los Angeles and San Francisco.

This is Icelandair’s first Western U.S. destination (it also flies into Boston, New York, Minneapolis, and Orlando). The airline offers competitive fares from its other destinations, and as a West Coaster, I hope to see the trend continue.

Iceland has been a major player on the bargain travel front since the worldwide financial crisis caused its currency to take a major hit, making it a lot more affordable for traveling Americans. Icelandair also reduced its fuel surcharge (by nearly $100 for Europe flights) a few months back. Plus, because the airline offers free stopovers in Iceland on flights to Europe, it’s an affordable way to add a destination to a vacation.

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