Trip Introduction: Iceland, Spain and Morocco via Icelandair Saga Class and British Airways First Class

Planning the Trip:

MrsWT73 had been after me to get her to Morocco and Iceland for the better part of about two years. Given that Morocco is in Africa, and usually commands a hefty award premium for business class tickets, I had to get creative with the routings. Ultimately, we ended up forgoing wonderful fully flat seats across the ocean for an IcelandAir Saga Business Class ticket in their barca loungers from the Americas. Although we didn’t get a fully flat seat, we would also save several hours of flying by not having to connect in Europe and having to backtrack to Iceland. IcelandAir is quite stingy with their award space. Initially, I had booked departing from Denver, USA to Reykjavik, but then about a month later via an Expert Flyer alert, business class space opened up on the Seattle, USA – Reykjavik flight. We also found connecting business class space onwards from Reykjavik to Madrid, Spain. We booked two Alaska Mileage Plan tickets in Business Class at 55,000 miles and $220 USD in taxes and fees each at 6 months prior to travel.

Since we needed to get from Europe to Africa, and it was only a short distance between Spain and Morocco, I was able to find reward space on Iberia Business Class between Madrid and Marrakech for 15,000 British Airways Avios and $30.32 USD per person booked at about 4 months prior to travel.

For our return segment, I located award space through the Alaska Airlines websites using the calendar feature for British Airways First Class space on their Airbus 380-800 from Heathrow to Vancouver, Canada. There was only a 10,000 mile premium for first class with Alaska Mileage Plan so it made sense to book First Class as it was available. I also happened to luck upon two business class Club Europe seats from Marrakech to London Gatwick. I say luck as they were pretty hard to find at all. We opted for a two day stopover in London since it’s been about 11 years since I had been, despite having visited a lot growing up. We booked these two tickets via Alaska Mileage Plan in Business / First at 80,000 miles and $517.20 USD in taxes and Air Passenger Duty at about 7 months prior to travel.

In the end, the routing ended up looking like this:

YVR-SEA-KEF (Alaska Mileage Plan Award)
KEF-MAD (Alaska Mileage Plan Award)
MAD-RAK (British Airways Avios Award)
RAK-LGW (Alaska Mileage Plan Award)
LHR-YVR (Alaska Mileage Plan Award)

Please stay tuned for another terrific adventure!

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