The Krona’s Collapse, for Fun and Profit

Tyler Cowen wonders if he should travel to Iceland to benefit from the collapse of their currency.

Icelandair is running some amazing airfare deals.  There’s a whole group of folks trying to figure out how to take advantage of Round-the-World airline tickets departing from Iceland (and thus priced in local currency, which means about a 55% discount on flights relative to bookings out of Stockholm).  But best anyone has been able to figure, airline tickets are all being issued in hard currency with the ‘old’ exchange rate.  Ciredt card companies are using old rates on purchases.  While banks will only buy – to the extent they’ll buy – Kroner at the ‘new’ rates, they’ll only sell at the old.

Some great deals should be able to be had provided you get yourself to Iceland, bring a load of hard currency with you  (and yes, the US dollar qualifies), and find a way to exchange it on the black market once you’re there. 

But provided you can do this, buy yourself a bunch of first class Round the World airline tickets, it’s the opportunity of a lifetime!

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  1. It has never been better to come to Iceland to shop and have fun. Even the alcohol is now cheap here.

  2. Is it cheaper to buy Krona in Iceland itself at the moment? I’m looking at different exchange rates against the British Pound. Getting all kinds of different answers. Iceland Central bank says exchange rate today is 222ISK to 1GBP. But, our exchange bureaux are offering 202ISK to 1 GBP here in the UK. What do you suggest?

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