Southwest Airlines’ brand-new partnership with Icelandair is officially live and available for booking — but be warned, it’ll be a bit limited for the time being.
Beginning Thursday, customers are able to book itineraries featuring connections between Southwest and Icelandair via Southwest’s robust station at Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI).
That means you could start a trip with a flight on a Southwest jet and connect seamlessly — both you and your bags — to an Icelandair flight to Keflavik Airport (KEF) in Reykjavik. From there, you could even continue onward, on the same itinerary, to additional destinations in Europe.
The launch of its first airline partnership, for which TPG witnessed the formal signing earlier this year in Washington, D.C., is a major step for Southwest.
“This is an important milestone in our plan to expand how and where our customers can travel,” Southwest’s executive vice president Ryan Green said last month on the carrier’s earnings call.
A narrow partnership — at first
As mentioned, the partnership — known as an interline agreement — will be fairly narrow from the outset.
At the moment, you can only book Southwest-Icelandair itineraries using Icelandair’s website and some third-party online booking services.
You also can’t earn or redeem Rapid Rewards points on these overseas itineraries just yet.
That’s set to change in 2026 when Southwest’s shift to assigned seating goes live. At that point, you’ll be able to book flights to Iceland and on to Europe through Southwest’s booking channels.
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And you’ll be able to pay cash and earn Rapid Rewards points on those bookings, or redeem points for your trip — a shift that should be a big boost for the utility of Southwest’s points.
Read more: Southwest quietly unveils A-List perks for new assigned-seating setup
How to book through the Southwest-Icelandair partnership
In the meantime, though, we want to show you how to book a Southwest-Icelandair itinerary under the partnership as it stands right now.
Flights to Iceland
Starting with Icelandair’s website, let’s say I want to take a March round trip from Dallas Love Field (DAL) — Southwest’s home airport — to KEF.
As you can see, Icelandair’s website offers up an itinerary featuring one leg from DAL to BWI aboard Southwest, followed by a connecting flight over to Icelandair for the BWI-to-KEF leg of the trip.
Booking flights to Europe
You can also technically book an itinerary to Europe through this partnership, though it may not be the most efficient way to get across the Atlantic; on top of making a stop at KEF, you’d also have to go through BWI (for the time being, at least).
Here’s a trip that starts at Chicago’s Midway International Airport (MDW) on Southwest and ends at London’s Heathrow Airport (LHR).
You’d fly on Southwest to Baltimore before connecting over to Icelandair for the Reykjavik flight. Once at KEF, you could make a standard connection before the final leg to Europe — or spend a day or two (or more) in Iceland as part of a stopover; you can fit in stopovers of up to seven days.
Expansion of partnership coming soon
Less circuitous itineraries to Europe through this partnership should emerge as the airlines bring new Southwest bases online. Right now, the partnership is focused solely on connections at BWI, but that will expand to Denver International Airport (DEN) and Nashville International Airport (BNA) in the not-too-distant future.
“Then we’ll evaluate things from there,” Green told TPG last month.
Bottom line
Southwest’s new partnership with Icelandair is officially live and available for bookings via Icelandair’s website and some third-party sites. Though it’s limited right now (and not available yet for Rapid Rewards earnings or redemptions), it’ll expand significantly over the course of the next year.
During that time, Southwest also plans to announce a second international airline partner, so stay tuned.
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