Questions and Answers

Alaska Airlines and JetBlue are Icelandair’s only partners that I have frequent flyer accounts with. I know that Alaska Airlines points are a better value, but I’m based on the east coast and hardly ever travel west-ish (i.e. I don’t know how useful Alaska points are to me). I know I could book American Airlines with Alaska Airlines points, but I don’t think I accrue enough regularly to make that particularly viable either. I will also be flying Economy Light on this trip, so I don’t want to get dinged with a 50% cut (Alaska) on top of another 50% cut (Icelandair). In comparison, I would be earning at JetBlue’s normal rate with Icelandair of 1 pt./2 miles flown. I generally don’t fly JetBlue, but I think I certainly have a bigger chance of flying with them than Alaska Airlines. Should I credit to Alaska Airlines or JetBlue?

Edit: As I was finishing this post, I pretty much answered my own question (I should credit to JetBlue), but I was curious if you guys are seeing something in this situation that I’m not. Many thanks as always!

Alaska miles are good not only on AS flights but they represent good value with partners in premium cabins on longhaul international routes. If you have some other transferrable currencies you could transfer to Alaska down the line somewhere then they’re a good value going to Australia, for example. But if you don’t have that then, yeah, I’d say you’re better off with Jet Blue.

Depends on your travel patterns. You dont need to fly Alaska to get the most out of their miles. They have a good mix of international carriers you can redeem their miles for, on top of offering decent sales/promos on miles throughout the year. I think theyre the only US airline loyalty program that allows stopovers on oneway awards.

With jetBlue, you can redeem their miles towards the cost of a ticket, which can be a good deal.