Alaska Airlines and Icelandair partnership returns - great news for Canadians

With Icelandair's recent onslaught of Canadian flights we were super excited to see this news come across many U.S. blogs this morning! The Icelandair and Alaska Airlines partnership is back! This is great news for Canadians who fly on Icelandair out of Vancouver, Edmonton, Toronto, Montreal and Halifax (and hopefully more soon like YOW and YYC) as crediting these flights to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan makes more sense than Icelandiar's own Saga Club program. The Mileage Plan program is one of the best and most versatile out there so now with the renewed partnership that launches on October 1st you will be able to earn Mileage Plan miles on all Icelandair flights. Of course reciprocating you can also earn Icelandair Saga Club points on Alaska Airlines flights.

As well elite benefits will be extended between the two airlines

As an added benefit, starting Oct. 1 Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan MVP Gold and Gold 75K members will receive complimentary access to Icelandair's Saga Lounge at Keflavik International Airport in Reykjavik and Icelandair Saga Gold and Silver members will enjoy complimentary access to Alaska Board Room lounges in Seattle, Portland, Anchorage and Los Angeles. 

To celebrate the relaunch of their partnership Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan members can earn Double Miles on all Icelandair flights from Oct 1 to Dec 15 (take advantage of that Travelzoo offer that came out earlier this week for Northern Lights in Iceland as long as the flights are a mileage earning ticket class!) You can register for Double Miles here.

What we don't know yet are the redemption details of the partnership. If and this is a big if the redemption levels for using Mileage Plan miles on Icelandair flights are reasonable the value of the Canadian mbna Alaska Airlines World Elite MasterCard just went up even more! (Read our review of the card here) Not only does Mileage Plan have relatively good awards on Alaska Airlines flights but offers decent award levels and one way award options on airlines American, Cathay Pacific, Air France KLM, Emirates and more! This program is the hidden gem for Canadians! Just because Alaska Airlines only flies to five cities in B.C. and Alberta it doesn't mean that those of you in Ontario, Quebec or other provinces shouldn't consider the program!