Icelandair Airlines
FI 682 – Saga Business Class (O)
KEF – MAD (Keflavik Airport – Madrid Barajas)
Sept 6, 2018
3:00 PM – 9:05 PM
Booked: Boeing 757-200
Flown: Boeing 757-200
While we were in the lounge, efficient Icelandair posted a 15 minute flight delay that came to us via SMS and email. At about T-35, we headed down to the gate A14. When we arrived, it seemed that our plane “Hekla Aurora” was still fueling. The airport doesn’t allow for great photographs from the gate where we were at. As a result, I got the partial photograph blocked by the jet bridge.
Priority boarding was called and we boarded via Door 2L. We turned left into the now familiar and usual IcelandAir Saga Class Boeing 757-200 business class configuration of 2-2. The seats offer recliner styled seating, which is not so exciting but miles and leagues better than the usual European Business Class economy seating with a blocked middle.
IcelandAir doesn’t seem to sell much business class. Similar to our overseas flight over, the load in business was light. On today’s flight, only 9 out of 22 seats were occupied.
Onboard waiting at the seat, there was a bottle of Icelandic Water on the console and a pillow available on the seat.
There was no pre-departure beverage today. I got the impression that it was not offered for the shorter / medium haul flights. We pushed back fairly quickly and we headed out to runway 10.
We had a take off over Keflavik where I took some photos of the town as we passed over. The terrain around the airport is stark barren compared to the majestic mountains we saw in other parts of the country.
As we got airborne and to cruising altitude, menus were dropped off in addition to a wine list. The food choices are remarkably simple and a bit narrow in selection since only two options were offered. IcelandAir offered its’ similar Gin Library on the flights, including 7 kinds of Gin available. I was a happy camper.
They also featured the international Gin standby’s for those that don’t like the local craft.
We were offered a pre-meal beverage service along with some low rent pretzels that were upbranded in a Vikur cardboard box that looked like an Ikea food product. I started with my usual Gin and Tonic, along with Bertha’s Revenge Milk Gin from Ireland and a Franklin and Sons light low calorie tonic.
The main course was served all at once. Today’s offer was Artic Char with creamed wild mushrooms, salt baked root vegetables and Icelandic pearl barley, along with cheesecake with berry sauce. I don’t usually like fish on a plane but it was all fairly tasty.
The wifi internet was working on today’s flight unlike the last one. A quick sign in with our seat number and confirmation booking code and we were on line for most of the flight. The download speeds were okay. Sadly, the upload speeds weren’t very good. I wasn’t able to upload 6 pictures to facebook; “taking a while to post”. I gave up after about 20 minutes. Still I was able to enjoy some pleasant sunsets.
Throughout the flight, I had some rather socially loud Icelandic male chatterboxes behind me in Seats 3A / 3C. It was only noticeable as they had moved there from across aisle from Seats 2D/F. I can only describe the situation similar to being in a pot of boiling water. The longer it went on, the louder and worse it got. I eventually self re-located over to 2F across the aisle to get away from the “Yaaa!”s and the excited conversation noise that went with it.
As the flight drew to an end, we had a slow and circular approach into Madrid. We pulled up to another remote stand near Terminal 1. Two buses were available to meet us, and the stairs were rolled up promptly. The bags were out without issue.
IcelandAir was a comfortable way to get to and from Iceland. The large comfortable seats were much better than the euro-business class offered with other European carriers. The lounge chairs were a much more pleasant way to get towards Europe, and much better than the comparable euro-business class seats we would have had flying One World or Star Alliance. Aside from my Icelandic drinking flight mates seated behind me, it was a near perfect flight.