In 2015, Icelandic low cost carrier WOW Air began flights between Iceland and the US, and they’ve been growing like crazy in North America ever since.
In March 2015, WOW Air launched flights between Keflavik (just outside Iceland’s capital, Reykjavik) and Boston, while in June 2015 they launched flights to Baltimore.
Their expansion in North America has been quick, as last year WOW Air has launched flights to Montreal, Toronto, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Newark, and they’ll be adding flights to Miami as of next month, and Pittsburgh as of June 2017.
WOW Air has just announced their next US destination, which will be Chicago. WOW Air will launch 4x weekly year-round flights between Iceland and Chicago’s O’Hare Airport as of July 13, 2017.
The flight will operate 4x weekly, on Mondays, Wednesdays, Thursdays, and Saturdays.
The flight will be flown by an A321, featuring 200 seats, with the following schedule:
WW154 Chicago to Reykjavik departing 5:40PM arriving 5:00AM (+1 day)
WW153 Reykjavik to Chicago departing 3:00PM arriving 4:40PM
The flight will cover a distance of ~2,950 miles in each direction, with a blocked flight time of 6hr20min eastbound and 6hr40min westbound.
Tickets for this new flight are now on sale on WOW Air’s website, and start at $99 one-way.
Alternatively, for $149 one-way you can continue to any of 23 cities in Europe.
WOW Air isn’t just useful if your final destination is Iceland, but is also useful if you’re trying to travel to Western Europe. They offer connections to about two dozen destinations in Europe, so they’re a cheap way to fly from the US to Western Europe with a stop.
While that has the potential to be a great deal, keep in mind that WOW Air is as “no frills” as they get, as they charge for everything, including bags, seat assignments, food, etc. They even recently adjusted their carry-on policy. So be sure you crunch the numbers before booking, so you can figure out if you’re actually getting a good deal. Nowadays transatlantic flights are often also inexpensive on “full service” airlines, so the savings might not be that big in all cases.
When WOW Air first launched US service a couple of years ago, Gaurav was kind enough to share his experience flying WOW Air between Boston and Iceland, and had positive things to say overall. If you come in with the right mindset, they’re a pretty unbeatable option.
Bottom line
Chicago is WOW Air’s first destination in the Midwest, so this is great news for those in the area looking for cheap transatlantic fares. Iceland is a beautiful country, and beyond that, WOW Air opens up some great fares for travel to the rest of Europe as well. If you do book WOW Air, be aware of all the fees you’ll be charged, though.
that 99 usd fare from ORD to KEF on 6th september is now 219 usd !
you get a "personal item" for free (17x13x10 inches) ... a carry-on item is 40 usd one way (50 usd if paid at check-in) ... and a 44 lbs hold luggage is 50 usd (or 70 usd if paid at check-in) ... so cheaper to go for the 302.5 usd "plus" fare if you have both (although the website...
that 99 usd fare from ORD to KEF on 6th september is now 219 usd !
you get a "personal item" for free (17x13x10 inches) ... a carry-on item is 40 usd one way (50 usd if paid at check-in) ... and a 44 lbs hold luggage is 50 usd (or 70 usd if paid at check-in) ... so cheaper to go for the 302.5 usd "plus" fare if you have both (although the website doesn't seem to warn you)
that 149 usd fare to CPH on 6th september is still 149 usd - so cheaper than stopping in KEF !
for the connecting flights you still just get a "personal item" for free (17x13x10 inches) ... a carry-on item is 50 usd one way (70 usd if paid at check-in) ... and a 44 lbs hold luggage is 70 usd (or 80 usd if paid at check-in) ... so cheaper to go for the 255 usd "plus" fare if you have both (although the website doesn't seem to warn you)
i looked at a couple of dates and for single fares they seem considerably cheaper ... but for return fares, they don't seem much cheaper than proper airlines ... and sometimes not that much cheaper than direct flights (so no horribly early change of planes in KEF)
I've had only good experiences flying WOW Air, though connecting in Iceland early in the morning is a bit of a pain.
So excited! ORD finally gets some competition from the LCC arena. I flew WOW last year out of BWI to AMS via KEF and it was fine. It was no worse than what I've had on AA and with much happier inflight crew. Excited to not have to position out of ORD now!
Thank God. I've been sick of the insanely high TATL fares out of ORD. Looks like the legacy carriers are finally starting to lose their strangle-hold on the market.
Wow Air and Norwegian have done wonders for TATL economy fares. But I think the real kicker will be if Southwest starts flying. That would really shake up the market. A key problem is that they would have to resolve the code-sharing issue with their employees.
Here's to hoping Trans-Atlantic fares on legacy carriers will finally drop at O'Hare. We haven't seen as many cheap Europe fares as other hubs this year.
Anywhere to credit wow air miles?
@ Le -- Unfortunately not.
Hi Lucky, Pittsburgh called; they miss their "h" in your post above ;-)