Buddy, can you spare a day?

Novel way to visit North America via Iceland.

Midlanders planning a marriage proposal or an anniversary celebration with a difference can call on Icelandair to help make the event a success.

The airline, which operates four flights a week from Birmingham to Reykjavic with convenient connections to North America, has launched a celebration stopover buddy service – and it’s free.

Passengers heading to destinations like New York, Orlando or Toronto with Icelandair can stop off in Iceland for up to seven nights at no additional airfare and be matched up with a member of the airline team for exclusive tours and experiences. They can request their own buddy to take them on excursions such as seeing the Northern Lights from a private island, abseiling down a volcano or celebrating a birthday with a Game of Thrones expert.

All the buddies, who may be pilots or flight attendants, are local with all the off-the-beaten-track knowledge that provides and can help with planning parties at a more affordable cost. They include a member of the Icelandic band Of Monsters and Men who can take you to a gig and a captain of the women’s national football team who can accompany you to a local match. The buddies are also able to take you to popular festivals in Iceland, like the Winter Lights festival in Reykjavik and Iceland’s Annual Beer Day festivities.

Buddies, who donate their time for up to one day, are available to Icelandair’s transatlantic passengers up to March 31st, 2017. To request one or to just find out more, visit this page

Icelandair flies from Birmingham via Reykjavic to Anchorage, Boston, Chicago, Denver, Edmonton, Halifax, Minneapolis, Montreal, New York (JFK and Newark), Orlando, Portland, Seattle, Toronto, Vancouver and Washington DC. The airline is launching flights to Philadelphia and Tampa in 2017.