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My husband and I once enjoyed an Alaska Airlines award fare stopover in Iceland on our way back from the Berlin Marathon. Iceland’s one of my favorite places we’ve visited, and if you’re looking for Iceland deals look no further: today I’ll explain some of the sights we loved, how we booked using points & miles, and other ways you could use points and miles for an Iceland trip.

Iceland is a nature lover’s dream; immersing oneself in the eclectic, varied landscape is mesmerizing and relaxing, especially when you’ve been touring around Europe and navigating marathon crowds. We spent our three day, two night Iceland stopover unwinding while driving the Golden Circle, and experienced beaches, a gigantic waterfall, a glacier, a national park and everything in between. The topography changes by the minute as you drive around the island.

HOW WE BOOKED ALMOST FREE AIRFARE ON ICELAND AIR

We are Alaska Airlines frequent fliers, so we fly to Europe using Alaska miles on British Airways and try to take advantage of Alaska’s free award-fare stopover offer (Alaska allows a free stopover on most one-way award tickets! You could essentially stopover on both your way to and from somewhere). From Berlin, we used Alaska frequent flyer miles to fly Iceland Air to the capital of Iceland, Reykjavik, for a three-day-two-night stopover before heading home to the West Coast.

LODGING

When planning our Iceland stopover, we were going through an “erasable” credit card phase, and I used a Capital One Venture credit card to book two different Iceland Airbnbs, one in Reykjavik and one on the far side of The Golden Circle in Hrrunamannahreppur (the location according to the stamp on this photo in my camera reel). We used accrued Venture miles for a statement credit to erase the Airbnb charges off the card (this post contains affiliate links that help us run this blog, thanks!)

HOW TO OPEN A CREDIT CARD & EARN $1500 FOR AN ICELAND TRIP

Open The Capital One Venture X credit card and earn 75,000 Bonus Miles once you spend $4,000 on purchases within the first 3 months from account opening. Use the bonus miles to book Iceland airfare or lodging through their travel portal, or as a statement credit against Iceland airfare, Airbnb, or hotel–basically anything that codes travel can be “erased” with miles.

This card has an annual fee of $395, but includes a credit of $300 good for travel booked through their Capital One Travel portal and 10,000 bonus miles on your card anniversary.

After opening the card and reaching the minimum spend, you’d basically earn $750+$300=$1050 towards an Iceland trip booked in the portal.

ICELAND HOTELS TO BOOK WITH POINTS

Most Iceland hotels are concentrated in the capital Reykjavik, which is the airport you’ll likely fly in and out of. If you want to venture into the island like we did, odds are high you’ll have to book a short-term rental for at least part of the time. For any nights you’ll be in Reykjavik, you could book rooms with credit card hotel points; here’s ideas of how you could book an Iceland hotel using points.

Hyatt

I usually start by recommending Hyatt for reasons you can read about here, and when I search Iceland in Hyatt sure enough at Hotel Rangá right outside Reykjavik you can book a standard room for ~25,000 points a night:

To earn Hyatt points, I recommend a two-step process: 1. Open a Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening (that’s $750 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®). For only a $95 annual fee, you’ll earn 3x points on dining and on select streaming services and online grocery purchases, 5x points on travel purchased through Chase Ultimate Rewards, and 2x points on other travel, as well as a $50 Annual Ultimate Rewards Hotel Credit. 2. Transfer enough CUR to Hyatt to book the hotel you want.

IHG

IHG has by far the most interesting options in Iceland, including a property at The Blue Lagoon and one on the far side of the island!

We recently opened two IHG credit cards (one for me, one for my spouse, one at a time) and earned over ~300,000 points between our two welcome bonus offers by putting all our regular spending on the cards. If you’re planning an Iceland trip, open just one IHG® Rewards Premier Credit Card and earn 140,000 bonus points after spending $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. Enjoy a Reward Night after each account anniversary year at eligible IHG hotels worldwide (plus, enjoy a reward night when you redeem points for any stay of 3 or more nights: book three nights get the fourth night free). Use a Global Entry, TSA PreCheck® or NEXUS Statement Credit of up to $100 every 4 years as reimbursement for the application fee charged to your card. You’ll have Platinum Elite status as long as you remain a Premier card member. Cardholders earn up to 26 points total per $1 spent when you stay at an IHG hotel! Earn 5 points per $1 spent on purchases on travel, gas stations, and restaurants! Earn 3 points per $1 spent on all other purchases!

You could use this bonus to book 2-3 nights at one of these Reykjavik hotels:

Marriott

If you have Marriott points, of course they have four properties in Reykjavik you could book, including the one pictured here that really captures the Iceland vibe:

Open a Chase Marriott Bonvoy Boundless credit card and earn 3 Free Nights (each valued up to 50,000 points) after you spend $3,000 on purchases in your first 3 months from your account opening. 50,000 points should get you a room at some of the properties on this list.

Hilton

There’s also three Hiltons in Reykjavik you could book using Hilton Honors points:

Open a Hilton Honors American Express Surpass® Credit Card today and earn 130,000 welcome bonus points plus a free night certificate after spending $2000 on the card in 90 days (terms apply), enough for several nights at these Hilton properties.

ICELAND HIGHLIGHT: THE BLUE LAGOON

The Blue Lagoon is a once-in-a-lifetime chance to see one of the 25 wonders of the world, and I’m so glad we went the night we flew in! It’s conveniently right outside Reykjavik, so we drove there straight from the airport, then on to our Airbnb for the night.

The next day, we saw the waterfall and national park listed above, then spent the night at the airbnb on the far side of the Golden Circle. On our way to the airport the next morning, we saw a few more sights before our flight:

Icelandair Saga Lounge

The day we flew out of Reykjavik, we spent a lot of time in the beautiful Icelandair Saga Lounge (we had lounge access due to my husband’s Alaska MVP gold status). This lounge can also be accessed when flying through with Business Class seats on United Air. To earn United Airlines miles towards business class seats, try the Chase United Cards listed here, or better yet open a Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and transfer the earned Ultimate Rewards to United for the flights (or book through the Chase portal, whichever is the best deal)!

Takeaways

A points and miles trip to Iceland is definitely within reach, especially with free award stopovers and cards like the Venture X.

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