yvrcnx

I am planning a trip to Europe in September/October.
Flights to London on Icelandair right now are very cheap and with new seats, IFE and great prices this seems to be a good choice.

Does anyone have a recent experience on FI? How is their service, both in the air and the ground?
Is it possible to make a seat selection in advance?

FF points are not important with the airfare being as low as they are as the savings are more then enough to buy an additional ticket to Europe on another carrier.

Thanks.

Braniff

I have consistently experienced excellent service with Icelandair in the air. Yes, they fly 757, but the cabins have all just been upgraded and look great with the leather seats and AVOD. Their ground experience in Iceland is also very good. It's a fabulous terminal.

All of their stations in US/Canada/Europe are outsourced so they vary quite a bit.

Yes, you can make a seat selection when you make your reservation.

yvrcnx

Than you Braniff. At this point one of the most important issues for me were the seat reservation as I am travelling with my 7 year old son.
From some of the research I have done it seems that only full fare economy class fares are eligible to book seats in advance. I might give FI a call to confirm.
Would love to try them out.

Braniff

Icelandair used to have a policy that only the more expensive tickets could pre-reserve seats. That policy changed over a year ago. We travel with 2 young children on their very cheapest tickets and complelete understand your concern. But rest assured.

yvrcnx

Thank you Braniff. I did see finally that we can reserve seats.
Almost all reviews I have read so far on FI seem quite negative.
Are they reasonable in service, friendly etc.?

alanh

I flew them about 15 months ago on an unremodeled 757. The service was fine and the food was pretty good. I had a cheapo coach fare from Sanford, FL-KEF and wasn't able to prebook seats, but I did not have trouble getting seats together at the airport.

100K

I just flew FI one-way ARN - KEF - JFK on Labor Day. Cheap $370 one-way ticket. Some data points for you:

* On the 1st leg, my 24A reserved seat magically turned into 18A upon check-in which put me directly over the wing without much of a view. In ARN, ground is outsourced to SK which meant standing in-line to check-in (can't use kiosks)

* The AVOD conked in-and-out repeatedly on the KEF-JFK leg. Different people's screens would freeze at different points. My screen was frozen an non-updating map for the last 2 hours. The map didn't work on the ARN-KEF leg either. Movie selection was bare - maybe 12-14 choices, most of which were several years old.

* Bring money for food - they don't feed anything but basic drinks without ransom. KEF-JFK is 6 hours going west - it's a long way without eating.

* KEF airport terminal is quite nice as reported above.

yvrcnx

I just thought I post a follow up on this as I just took my first sector from SEA to KEF last night.
As mentioned by others before we were able to book our seats at time of reservation.
I found the seats very comfortable, much better then most North American carriers with AVOD IFE. There aren't as many movies and shows and not as newly released as on other airlines but it seemed to be enough for this flight of 6hours and 45 minutes.

The service was very good throughout the whole flight. Meals are for purchase, however there was a free meal for my 8 year old son and throughout the flight they asked if there was anything else I needed for my son.

Really enjoyed this flight and would definitely choose Iceland Air over a north american carrier if the prices are compatible.
We are in Iceland for 2 days before continuing to Continental Europe.
I find this break up of the long Transatlantic flight very relaxing and Iceland itself is beautiful a wonderful place to wind down and relax.

Braniff

Thanks for reporting back on the first leg. Glad you enjoyed your flight.

I have a question: Was it a full flight from Seattle ? They just started operating the route and there has been discussion on the SAS EuroBonus board where doubts are raised about its viability.

Sebastian_R

Very good for you. My experience is very mixed. Enjoyed good flights from JFK to Europe but also recently my wife was horribly disappointed: She arrived at the airport in CPH well in time (more than 2 hours before the flight) and almost missed her flight because it took the agents so long to check everybody in. Then she was entitled to two checked bags and when she finally came to the check-in they made her REPACK the bags since one of the bags was at 24kgs instead of 21kgs (the second bag was at 11kgs way below the limit). Of course she then (in the hurry to get the flight) accidentally repacked a liquid into her carry-on which was then promptly destroyed at the security...

When I contacted Iceland Air and wanted to ask if this stricktness in weights is estabished policy they never got back to us. Frankly I never experienced as strict an airline ever.

My take: be careful how you pack, get something to eat for the flight and come at least 3 to 4 hours before the flight (or just spare yourself the trouble and fly SAS )

yvrcnx

I am sorry for the late reply.
Yes, it was a completely full flight from SEA to KEF.
Our flight from KEF to FRA was also completely booked though we were able to do an online check-in in Reykjavik and get the first row in Y which is usually an Economy Plus row.

I hope that they can continue doing this flights, maybe even extend frequencies.

Braniff

SAS is Icelandair's handling agent in Copenhagen - so that's pretty silly.

Braniff

Thanks. I just read that they are in fact increasing frequencies to 5x weekly, so the route must be doing well as your report suggests.

yvrcnx

That's great news for Seattle.
I will be moving to Atlantic Canada later this year and I hope they will have more flights out of Halifax in the future.

The only challenge with this flight I found was Reykjavik Airport.
It's a very nice airport but if you have to check in for an early morning departure, the airport is quite a zoo at the check-in area as almost all of their flights to Europe leave around the same time to connect to the flights arriving from North America.

We had done an online check-in. This way we could use a kiosk at the airport, however there were no clear lines and some people got very confused.
After we printed our own tags for our luggage and dropped it off, it was very smooth through security.

yvrcnx

Final Update.
We just arrived back today in Seattle. We flew FRA-KEF. on Friday and KEF-SEA today. Both flights very almost full.
Experience on all 4 sectors were was very good and we will definitely fly FI whenever possible to Europe. I found service by flight attendants very courtious and they seemed to really care for children.

All my previous seat selections I had made at time of booking were honored and during online check-in I was able to get seats in the front of the economy cabin.

The highlight was the stop in each direction, 2 days outbound and 3 days inbound in Iceland. What a beautiful country and at no extra charge for the flights.
What was also a big plus was the relatively short flight time to the west coast.
Our usual 10 - 11 hour flight was only 7 hours, it made a big difference.
Seattle immigration at the time the Icelandair flight arrives was completely empty.
I have no complaints at all with regards to Icelandair.