Should you take advantage of the WOW Air deal to KEF/CPH/LGW?

Currently, WOW Air is having a fantastic sale from Washington IAD/Boston BOS to Reykjavik KEF/Copenhagen CPH/London LGW. These fares go from $99 one-way, to about $150. They are a low cost carrier and charge quite a few fees, but if you can pack light, it’s a great deal. Note: book on the WOW Air USA site, not the UK site, which adds additional taxes.

Is this a good fare for Canadians? I would suggest not. American Airlines doesn’t fly to either IAD or BOS direct from Canada, so you’d have to spend a minimum of 18,000 round-trip on BA Avios, and around $80 in fees. If you give a low valuation of BA Avios miles at 1.5 cents a piece, you have a minimum of an extra $350 of fees added to the ticket. If you use Aeroplan to fly direct, you’re looking at 15k AP miles, which given a really low valuation at 1.0 cents per mile, is $150 worth of miles and I’d hazard a minimum of $120 in fees, which adds up to $270. So your $250 r/t WOW Air ticket has just transformed into a minimum of $500, which frankly isn’t a great deal. You can get to KEF throughout the year direct from Toronto YYZ for around $500, and lower fares to Europe pop up all the time.

To that end, unless you can get to IAD or BOS cheaply and easily, don’t really value your time, and don’t mind paying the many fees that WOW Air has, this isn’t a very good deal for Canadians.