Denver to Reykjavic on Miles: There’s More Than One Way to Cook an Egg

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When you redeem miles and points for flights, most often there are multiple ways to get the job done. I hate the phrase “There’s more than one way to skin a cat,” so instead let’s say “There’s more than one way to cook an egg.”

I know a few people who are contemplating using miles and points to fly from Denver to Reykjavic this summer. Let’s look at some options to make this happen.

Flexible Points (Capital One Miles, Chase Ultimate Rewards and More)

Only Icelandair flies nonstop from Denver to Reykjavic. Round-trip tickets in Economy Light seats run $613 each for a week in June. You can book these flights through the Capital One travel portal for 61,217 miles each (245,268 miles for four people). That seems like a lot of miles, but if two adults in the family each get the Capital One Venture X card with 100k bonus (plus 20k from the minimum spend amount), you would almost have the required miles.

You can book the flight through the Chase travel portal with points. With Chase Ultimate Rewards points, the cost depends on which credit card you have. The Chase Sapphire Preferred (CSP) card gets 1.25 cents per point while the Chase Sapphire Reward (CSR) card gets 1.5 cents per point. With the Chase Ultimate Rewards travel portal, that same nonstop flight costs 49,053 points with the CSP card or 40,878 points with the CSR.

There are also flights with reasonable stopovers available for less money ($439 round-trip on United Basic Economy). That’s 43,900 Capital One miles or 35,078 Ultimate Rewards points with CSP card travel portal or 29,232 points with the CSR card travel portal.

Other flexible point options valued at one cent per point include Amex Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou points and Discover points.

The great thing about booking with points through these travel portals is that you are not dependent on award availability. If the flight is available to book on a cash rate, you can use these points.

Tip: If you don’t have enough points for all people in your travel party, consider using points for some people and cash price for the rest, especially if you are just short the amount for the last person.

Icelandair or Partners

I’m assuming most folks don’t have a ton of Icelandair miles. These miles are not transferrable from any major credit card points. But, you can book flights on Icelandair with partner airline Alaska Airlines. However, the same round-trip nonstop flight on Icelandair costs 70k Alaska miles + $254 in fees/taxes. Not a great deal. Plus, Alaska miles aren’t exactly easy to accumulate.

United

When I first looked at award availability on United from Denver, the results were pretty grim at the Saver level.

Notice this one-way award is only 27,200 miles but has 2 stops and takes over 32 hours. No way!

However, if I change the route to fly from EWR (Newark) to Reykjavik, there is a non-stop flight for less than 30k each way. You would just need to get from Denver to Newark with a cheap cash ticket or miles from any airline.

If you don’t have United miles, you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards points to United. Or, you could transfer Amex Membership Rewards to ANA Mileage plan (United partner/Star Alliance). You can also transfer many hotel points (Marriott, IHG, Hilton and Hyatt) to ANA.

American Airlines

Flights to Iceland on American Airlines all seem to route through London. While I found flights for 60k miles round-trip + $135 in taxes, they all have 2-4 stops and 55+ hours of travel time. Horrible.

Final Thoughts

These are just some of the possible ways to use miles and points to get from Denver to Reykjavik. I know there are even more options than I’ve covered.

Booking award flights is like solving a puzzle. The best solution isn’t always the first way you try. There is also not just one “right” answer. The right answer depends on your travel preferences, what kinds of points you have and what other trips you are planning with those same points.

I get that researching all the options isn’t for everyone. I happen to enjoy it, but I completely understand why some people would want to hire a professional award booker (see my interview with one here).

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