Thursday, Twin Cities.
One big trip, one short warning, and one fare hiding inside a wave of cheap fares that's mostly not worth your time.
🇮🇸 MSP → Reykjavik (KEF) — $528 round-trip
Sun Dec 6 – Sun Dec 13 · Icelandair, nonstop · 6 hrs 10 min
A week in Iceland in December, nonstop, for $528. Google puts it $331 below what this route usually costs for those dates.
December is when Iceland is at its most Iceland: about four hours of daylight, which sounds grim until you realize it means northern lights before dinner. Reykjavik goes all-in on Christmas, the geothermal lagoons are better when it's cold, and the summer crowds are long gone.
The honest detail: $528 is Icelandair's lightest fare class — carry-on only. The standard fare with a checked bag is $667 on the same flight, which is still a strong price for December.
And the usual Icelandair bonus applies: if you're heading somewhere else in Europe, you can stop over in Iceland for up to seven days at no extra fare.
Book by: This week. We'll explain why in a second.
About Copenhagen
On Tuesday we told you Copenhagen and Reykjavik were both moving in the right direction. Reykjavik held. Copenhagen didn't.
Last week there was a November fare at $469. When we checked it yesterday for this issue, the same dates were $664, and Google now rates it typical.
That's the third fare in a week that lapsed between the alert and the send: Washington, Orlando, now Copenhagen. We'd rather tell you that than quietly drop it. It's also why the Reykjavik "book by" above says this week and means it.
Tuesday night's fare drop, decoded
On Tuesday night, a batch of cheap November fares out of MSP showed up within about an hour of each other. The headlines look incredible: Phoenix $75. Las Vegas $78. Orlando $94. Los Angeles $114.
We checked two of them in detail, and both were Frontier. The $114 to Los Angeles is a one-stop that takes 24 hours. The $94 to Orlando is a one-stop that takes 9. For a four-hour flight. That's what a headline fare usually looks like underneath: seats on connecting routes nobody would choose at full price.
The one worth booking:
🌴 MSP → Orlando (MCO) — $158 round-trip
Sun Nov 29 – Tue Dec 8 · Frontier, nonstop · 3 hrs 16 min
A real nonstop, the Sunday after Thanksgiving, for $158. Google's usual floor for this route is $165, so it's genuinely below range. For comparison, Sun Country's nonstop on the same dates is $258 and Delta's is $359.
The catch: Frontier's basic fare means no carry-on and no seat choice, so budget extra if you need either.
Book by: Days. Tuesday night's alert had it at $144; by Wednesday it was $158.
What else we passed on
Rome — $701. Still above the $635 we sent in September.
Los Angeles — $218 nonstop over Thanksgiving week on Sun Country. A fair price for a holiday week, but inside the normal range, not below it.
Back Tuesday with weekend escapes.
If you book Iceland, reply and tell us. We want to know if you see the lights.
— MSP Departure
P.S. Forward this to someone in the Twin Cities who's been saying "someday" about Iceland. Three referrals gets you the MSP Travel Cheat Sheet.