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Icelandair has a new partnership with Expedia. The new partnership provides a travel portal powered by Expedia in which you can earn and redeem Saga points for hotel bookings, car rentals, and activities. Let's take a look at the details of this unique new arrangement.
Icelandair Expedia Portal Overview
Using the new Expedia-powered portal is straightforward:
- Log into your Icelandair account on the travel portal page.
- Search for your desired activity, Hotel stay, car rental, or activity.
- Book using cash to earn Saga points, or redeem your Saga points for your desired activity.
Earning Saga Points
Earning Saga points for your purchases is relatively straightforward. You will earn 1 point per $1 spent. One thing to note is that you earn points on the cash portion of the booking paid for by credit card. Also, allow up to 14 days after the delivery of your service for the points to hit your Icelandair account.
Redeeming Your Saga Points
The new portal makes redeeming your points easy. All you need to do is log in and search for your hotel, car rental, or event as you would with any other platform.
From here, you'll see results showing the price in cash and points. For instance, we looked at a hotel stay in Miami in late May 2024. We found many options, starting from $151 or 44,421 Saga points per night.
We also explored some car rental options with the new portal. This time, we looked at a weekend rental out of San Francisco (SFO) for the last weekend in May 2024. We found numerous options, starting from $301 or 88,471 points for the booking.
Saga Points redemption rates
Icelandair does not publish an exact value at which you can redeem points. However, after searching various examples and crunching the numbers on many bookings, you can redeem your Saga points for 0.34¢ per point in the Icelandair–Expedia portal.
While there may be the odd unicorn that delivers better value, we did not find any. In almost every example we looked at, the rate was around 0.34¢ per point.
Our Take
If you are an Icelandair member, this new partnership is excellent news. However, it may not be your go-to redemption option, due to the less-than-stellar redemption rates. It is excellent news that you can earn points for a wide range of bookings. Even if you only use this option occasionally, it is good to know that this functionality exists — especially on the earning side.
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