Trip Report: How I Booked a Northern Lights Trip to Norway with Points

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I’m probably the world’s only person who didn’t get to see the northern lights in May 2024, when a strong geomagnetic storm caused the aurora borealis to be visible much more south than usual. Luckily, the sun is approaching the peak of its 11-year cycle, known as the solar maximum, this year, which has led to increased solar activity and vibrant displays directly below the northern lights oval and beyond.

I had tried to see the northern lights previously—in Iceland in 2016 and in Finland in 2022— and failed both attempts. My third try finally paid off, and I got to see the elusive lights with my own eyes in Tromsø, Norway, in March.

Below is how I planned my trip with the help of points and miles, and if you collect currencies in various programs, you can piece together a similar trip to Norway.

Trip Points and Miles Summary

Booking the Flights

As it often happens, finding decent award availability is what actually fueled this trip. I live in Salt Lake City, a Delta Air Lines hub, and I was able to find some decent flights to Oslo, Norway, via Amsterdam.

When discussing flight options with my mom, whom I invited on this trip, she asked if it would be possible to make a stop in Amsterdam for her to see another city. Because Virgin Atlantic Flying Club charges by the segment, it would have been the same number of points for a ticket with a stopover in Amsterdam and without, so we decided to stop in the Dutch capital for two nights on the way to Norway.

I booked two tickets on a nonstop Delta flight from Salt Lake City to Amsterdam and then on a KLM flight from Amsterdam to Oslo for 68,000 Virgin points + $165.60, or 34,000 points + $82.80 per one-way ticket.

I decided to book this itinerary as a multi-city ticket so that we could cancel the entire ticket at once and pay one cancellation fee if anything unexpected happened before the trip.

Now that we had the outbound flight booked, I looked at award flight options from Oslo to Tromsø. Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) is part of SkyTeam, and award flights can be booked with Air France-KLM Flying Blue, Delta SkyMiles and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. However, the cash rate was competitive, and I decided to save points and booked our flights for $207.10 per ticket.

SAS charges extra for seat selection, and the price listed above included the cost of two assigned seats on the way back to Oslo. Normally, I don’t pay extra for seat selection on short-haul flights, but we had an evening departure on the return flight, and I was hoping to see the northern lights from the plane. Spoiler alert, I did, and it was quite a show!

After Norway, my mom and I separated. She flew back to the United States, and I continued on to Luxembourg. So, I booked her flight home using the American Airlines program for 22,500 AAdvantage miles and $71.41.

She was supposed to fly from Oslo to Salt Lake City via Helsinki and Miami. However, the day before her flight, her flight had been canceled and rerouted via Copenhagen, Denmark, to Helsinki and then on to Miami and finally to Salt Lake City.

The new itinerary would have included too many connections, so I called American Airlines and asked to reroute her on alternative flights. She ended up flying to London, then to Charlotte, North Carolina, and then to Salt Lake City. The new flights didn’t cost anything extra, and my mom had a better itinerary than she would have flown on the original ticket.

Booking the Hotels

When I travel solo, I prefer staying at hostels. They’re a less expensive alternative to hotels, and I always end up meeting other solo travelers with whom I can share meals and activities. However, my mom wouldn’t be caught dead at a hostel, so we usually opt for hotels whenever we travel together. Luckily, the points in my various loyalty accounts helped us travel on a budget even in these otherwise expensive countries.

For our stay in Amsterdam, I ended up transferring Chase Ultimate Rewards points earned with the Chase Sapphire Reserve® to the World of Hyatt program and booking a twin room at the Hyatt Place Amsterdam Airport for two nights.

The Hyatt Place Amsterdam Airport is a Category 2 property, and on our travel dates in early March, one night was listed at a peak rate of 9,500 points, and the other was listed at an off-peak rate of 6,500 points, so I redeemed 16,000 points total for our stay. A night here typically goes for 8,000 points on standard dates, so it ended up being the same cost on points as if I booked two nights at standard rates.

Our flight from Salt Lake City landed in the morning, hours ahead of check-in time, and the hotel offered us early check-in for 30 euros ($31.27 at the time). Since we used points to book the hotel, we decided to pay 30 euros to be able to shower and unpack after a long overnight flight.

In terms of location, the Hyatt Place Amsterdam Airport is a bit far from the city center, but I had purchased a two-day Amsterdam Travel Ticket from Discover Holland ahead of time. It included unlimited use of all buses, trams, metros and ferries operated by GVB as well as a second-class train from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport and Express and Niteliner buses (397 and N97, respectively), so we could go anywhere, any time. The ticket cost 24 euros ($25 at the March conversion rate), and it more than paid for itself during our two-night stay.

In Oslo, I decided to enlist the help of Choice Privileges, a lesser-known hotel rewards program that happens to have great coverage of Scandinavia and offers quite a bit of value for your rewards.

I learned that the Amerikalinjen, Ascend Hotel Collection, is objectively one of the best hotels in the city, and it had rooms for 20,000 Choice points per night. Although I don’t normally collect Choice points, I earn Citi ThankYou Points, which transfer to Choice Privileges at a rate of 1:2, so I was able to book two nights in exchange for 20,000 Citi points earned with the Citi Strata Premier® Card.

The hotel is located right in the heart of Oslo, near the main train station, and included a complimentary breakfast buffet, which we appreciated. In such an expensive destination like Norway, free food at a hotel can save a lot of money, so we were thankful that it was the case in Oslo.

In Tromsø, our ultimate destination, I booked the Moxy Tromsø, a Marriott property for 74,000 Bonvoy points for five nights. I had earned these points by using the Marriott Bonvoy Business® American Express® Card (see rates and fees) and staying at Marriott hotels occasionally.

Marriott offers the fifth night free on reservations made with points, regardless of elite status, and I like to take advantage of this perk when the time allows. Because the weather in Tromsø is unpredictable, I wanted to give ourselves as many chances at seeing the northern lights as possible, so staying for five nights made sense.

Keep in mind that Marriott prices out its award nights dynamically, so your final cost in points will fluctuate if you try to replicate this trip. Still, when standard rooms go for about $300 per night in high season, using Bonvoy points at this property yields a pretty high value for your points. (The screenshot below is a sample search for similar travel dates in 2026.)

I’m only a Gold Elite member in the Marriott Bonvoy program, but breakfast was included at this property (though according to their website it isn’t currently complimentary), and we got two welcome drinks upon arrival as well.

The Moxy Tromsø is located by the airport, which has its pros and cons. The main con is that it isn’t close to the city center, but there are plenty of buses that can take you back and forth in about 20 minutes. I used the Svipper app to buy bus tickets with my phone, which was quite easy. The main pro is the hotel’s location near the airport runway makes for some epic plane landing and takeoff viewing opportunities.

Finally, for our final night in Oslo before both of our flights out of Norway the next day, I booked the Comfort Hotel RunWay near Oslo Airport for $94.16. It was actually available for 12,000 Choice points, but I chose to pay cash instead.

Hunting for Aurora

As I mentioned before, seeing the northern lights was the main goal of this trip, so we turned all of our focus to that, and we were lucky enough to see them three times!

Unfortunately, the day we flew into Tromsø, the sky was completely covered in clouds. Because clear skies are one of the necessary components for successful aurora viewing, we decided to get an early dinner in town and rest. We later learned that it was a rare night when northern lights weren’t visible within a 100-mile radius of Tromsø.

The next night, we had dinner reservations at a nice restaurant in town when the Aurora Pro app I had proactively installed on my phone began notifying me of potential activity. Considering it was snowing at the time, it was hard to believe there would be any visibility, but when the viewing probability kept increasing to 65%, then to 86% and finally to 95%, I started getting nervous at dinner and nearly swallowing my food whole instead of enjoying every bite of an excellent meal.

Skeptical (remember, I had failed to see the northern lights twice already), we finished dinner and took a bus inland, toward a frozen lake between Tromsø and the airport. The snow had stopped, but it was still cloudy, so we waited along with many other amateur aurora hunters, who must have gotten the same notification, lining the lake shore.

Not even five minutes later, the clouds began to disperse, and we saw the first glimpse of aurora’s green lights! I couldn’t believe my eyes. Some people around us started yelling and others ran toward the frozen lake’s center—that’s how I knew that what I saw was actually real and not just a figment of my imagination. At last, my dream came true. We hung out for another hour and took a bus back to the hotel.

The following night, we had a proper aurora hunting tour booked with Arctic Explorers. My mom and I chose the minibus chase, which included a guide and driver, snow suit and boots rental, hot drinks and a warm just-add-water meal.

It was supposed to be cloudy around Tromsø that night, so the expedition team decided to drive toward Finland where cloud coverage wasn’t as prominent. Evidently, the pros knew what they were doing because we saw the northern lights before we even arrived at a viewing spot.

The minibus stopped for about 15 minutes, and we watched the bright display in the sky. It’s worth noting that the northern lights typically look off-white in the sky because a human eye can’t detect colors in low-light conditions well. The green hues are more visible through a camera lens. However, when the aurora’s intensity level is high, you can see the green color with the naked eye.

We kept driving for another 30 minutes and stopped at a campsite right before the Finnish border. While the guide was building a campfire, we watched the lights. Suddenly, the colorful beams intensified and began dancing across the sky. It was a dazzling performance, except there was no sound. I felt as if I were watching a silent film, and the sky was an IMAX screen.

It was the one and only northern lights chasing tour we booked, and luckily Mother Nature delivered pure magic. As mentioned earlier, the third and final time I saw the aurora was from the plane back to Oslo. My mom was also sitting by a window but on the opposite side of the plane, and unfortunately, she didn’t get to see the northern lights that time.

Final Thoughts

Traveling with points and miles—as well as solar activity reaching the max this year—helped me cross a big item off the bucket list. Seriously, how lucky are we to participate in this hobby? Having seen the northern lights in person also means that I can finally stop traveling to cold countries in the dead of winter and prioritize warm destinations. The Caribbean sounds lovely this time next year.