Slightly odd Icelandair experience
 

I hope I'm in the right place for this story. Sorry if I'm not.
I arrived home to Glasgow today on FI430 from a holiday in Reykjavik (recommended, though we didn't manage to see the Northern Lights.) The 757 we went out on last Sunday was fairly well kitted out, with seatback screens, and USB ports, and the plane had winglets (if that is the correct term.) Today's return flight was on a much more basic 757 (maybe TF-FIW?) without winglets, and the inflight movie was on CRT TVs above the aisle. I was sat in row 13 with my wife, and found the safety instruction odd. There was a message that passengers in the at the overwing exits undertook to be able to open these exits if required, but this plane didn't have overwing exits! And there was the message about lifejackets being under your seat, but they weren't, there were panels in the ceiling marked "lifejacket inside - push".
Anyway, safely home. I know I'm a bit pedantic on these points, but interested in any comments.

First off, glad to hear you enjoyed your stay here! Hopefully you'll return one day. :)

Regarding TF-FIW, it arrived from a lease with Yakutia Airlines just last month and as a result is still equipped with old seats and has, as you noticed, a different exit layout. Not sure if it will be changed or not. Unfortunately there isn't a seperate safety video for that one aircraft, but I'm surprised the FAs didn't mention the different layout in their welcome...

Anyways, hope you enjoyed your FI experience! :)

Thanks for taking the time to reply. We might not be back in Iceland for a while, but certainly will consider it, and might try a summertime visit.
Derek

Please continue to follow this thread in the Other European Airlines Forum.
Thanks..
Obscure2k
TravelBuzz Moderator

SRQKEF Thanks for the quick reply ^

So this is a wet lease? Wonder how long FI is to keep the a/c... as the rest of the fleet sounds solid.

If the safety briefing didn't match the video, one would think FI would have a 'manual' briefing instead.

It actually was a lease to Air Niugini (Papua New Guinea) but the plane has been back since September 2013... The Air Yakutia was earlier and it went back to Icelandair in-between.

It would appear there are still a couple of a/c sub-leased to Yakutia Airlines - TF-FIS and TF-FIT perhaps?

It's an interesting relationship between Icelandair and Yakutia Airlines - I recall at least one employee of Yakutia Airlines even studied in a univeristy in Iceland.

...and talking of "odd Icelandair experiences" - flew KEF-JFK in January, and the cabin crew really gave the impression that they did not want to be there on that flight. Admittedly I was in Y, but still... Good IFE and overall the flight was fine - just thought the crew were really miserable. Perhaps they were all just having a bad day.

As for Iceland, I would strongly recommend travelling outside Reykjavik - it's a nice town, but one can find more or less similar towns elsewhere in the Nordic area IMHO. It's a great country and definitely worth a visit.