Icelandair: Not a good value
 

Recently completed a second trip on Icelandair from the US to Europe with a stop over in Iceland. I found the experience to be below expectations and would not recommend Icelandair for transatlantic service unless you really really want to go to Iceland. Some Key Points:

1. From Seattle, the best airfares on Icelandair include NW to MSP. The AS option via BOS was an additional $60 (and worth it in my opinion) and a required night in Boston on the return. NW service was awful as usual, impolite (even hostile) agents each time I had contact with them.

2. Icelandair only honored online seat selections for 1 of the 4 flights, on three occasions I was issued a boarding pass with a middle seat after having selected either a window or an aisle online and verified on CheckMyTrip. How and why I was moved around the aircraft is a mystery.

3. Charging for soda and juice is unacceptable. (They even charge for water if you want more than a small glass). Oh, and the Flightbar menu shows a picture of Jacob's Creek, though the only wine stocked was Gato Negro.

4. It is a myth that Icelandiar is cheaper than other airlines, I regularly find cheaper fares to Europe that are either non-stop or one-stop from SEA and include complimentary drinks. So, Icelandair can take more time and be more expensive.

5. Some of the middle seats I was assigned did not include video programming because of the business class curtains, beware not all middle seats are created equal.

6. Check-In at KEF for flight to Europe, absolute absurdity, the line was well over an hour wait and many people were standing in line outside in the cold, at 30 minutes prior to departure, the ground staff made no effort to assure people that the planes would be held, you can imagine the panic in the crowd. For anyone who might be forgiving of long check in lines, Icelandair knows the number of people who will be arriving each morning, and given that 70-80% of the passengers arrive on the Flybus, they also know when they will arrive at the airport. A local told me that Icelanders either arrive 3+ hours early to hit the shops or 20 minutes early after the line clears, so the line madness is a regular occurance at KEF.

7. Waiting over an hour for baggage in Europe.

8. They subcontract out the ground staff in Europe, at check-in I asked about the middle seats and was told there was nothing that could be done until getting to Iceland, amazingly enough the same group of agents moved to the gate and when i asked a different agent at the gate, I was able to get a new seat.

9. Inherent Risk, while standing in the check-in line at KEF, nervous about missing the flight, it isn't like there is a later flight that day from Iceland to Europe (except LHR and CPH).. you miss a flight for any reason and it is a full 24 hour wait. And there is no other carrier that they could (if they would) re-book you on.

The FA's are really nice though and the planes were clean. But that just isn't enough to settle for lower quality transportation at a higher cost.

Sounds like quite a stressful trip. In Oz, Jacobs Creek is not a "top end" wine. Indeed, it is regarded as quite the opposite. I would rate it on par with Gato Negro.

Sounds like a charter or low cost airline. Icelandair will start 3 new direct flights from Helsinki to Keflavik on June 4th.

4. It is a myth that Icelandiar is cheaper than other airlines, I regularly find cheaper fares to Europe that are either non-stop or one-stop from SEA and include complimentary drinks. So, Icelandair can take more time and be more expensive.


Then it may say more about you than Icelandair that you fly with them ex Seattle through one of their gateways.

I think Icelandiar is terrific !

It is Icelandair, So you think it is terrific can you tell us your experience flying them
I flew them and was not impressed

This is shocking to me...

I've flown to Europe on Icelandair 3 times and always had a great experience. Granted, the last time was in '99 so things might have changed (hopefully one of the things they changed is F.A.'s uniforms - they were damn ugly!). :D

Ick!
That sounds awful.

I thought that Icelandair was once again offering complimentary non-alcoholic beverages in the main cabin.

The service on the ground and in the air sounds pretty grim. And Saga Business Class always appears to be expensive and not terribly luxurious.

I'll add them to my list of airlines I'd rather avoid.

-Mats.

Yeah, but what about the buy one get one free deal?
 

Last time I checked, Icelandair was still offering the buy-one-get-one free deal if you are a member of the Amtrak program. Correct me if I'm wrong...

In my mind it all plays out on a specturm. On one end is cheap/free and a certain amount of inconvenience. At the other end of the gamut is full-price and hopefully great service/scheduling, etc. Since I'm not independently wealthy, I like to live at the cheap/free end of the spectrum, and just anticipate the hassle factor being rather high. My wife hates the hassles, but loves the low cost. I tell her that if we want to travel cheaply, we just have to be willing to put up with some unpleasantries.

This complaint is not surprising as Icelandair have a virtual monopoly on service to and from KEF. Does any other carrier serve Reykjavik now (other than Icelandic or Greenlandic carriers)?

I was thinking of taking a short break in Iceland and coughing up $999 to FI for the promotional business class fare.

Agreed.
 

All this, plus a mandatory booking fee whether you book over the web or by telephone.

Nice enough to do it for the experience of KI/IS but it gets old fast.

Iceland Air could be dirt cheap. I have flown them once (ARN-KEF-JFK-KEF-ARN) and I think I got value for money. The plane was crammed and you had to pay for booze in coach but the fare was about 200 USD less than SAS or UA.

Use the difference to buy a bottle of booze and finish it before boarding and you'll enjoy the flight. :-)

Best

Agreed. FI not what it once was.
 

True. Long gone are the halcyon days when one could count on hopping an Icelandair DC-8 into Luxembourg, (via Keflavik, of course), and maybe even stop off for a day to see arctic volcanos, hot thermal springs, and even hotter Scandanavian blondes. Anymore, unless KEF is an ultimate destination, their service is no less expensive and is often less convenient than other non-stop chocies to the Continent, from which it is possible to fly a budget carrier for $5 from any one point to virtually any other.

Even for visiting Iceland, I would opt for a visit to Continental Europe first, and the separate purchase of a roundtrip from Europe to KEF on Iceland Express, where a round-trip can be had for less than $150. This even permits the use of reward travel to the Continent or mileage accrual for most of the trip over.

While their crews are STILL the most beautiful, FI lost its competitive advantage long ago.

E.

I agree that FI is a special product.

I would not use them from SEA (when I lived there) or from LAX now, except if my ultimate destination was Iceland, becuse flying from SEA/LAX means flying SEA/LAX-SFO/MSP/BOS/BWI/MCO/JFK-KEF-European destination...changing twice in each direction should only be done if your destination is some obscure place.

If my ultimate destination was Iceland, I actually would consider flying to LHR (or CPH non-stop on SK if I was in SEA) and then take IcelandExpress:
http://www.icelandexpress.com/

From SEA one has the choice of non-stops to CPH on SK, AMS on NW, LHR on BA, (and SVO on SU! ;) ) and from YVR which is certainly a viable option to SEA, one can fly non-stop to FRA on LH or DE.

However, from the cities served in the USA by FI to cities in Britain and the Contient, I will take a change at KEF (and a free stopover if possible) over all the other possibilites, which include some Sharp-Pain-In-The-...-airports like JFK, EWR, IAD, PHL, LHR, CDG, FRA, ATL and YYZ.

Thanks for the tip about Iceland Express. I had never heard of it. Interesting.

The stop over in Iceland is limited to only 3 days I think so for a real visit it's no good in my opinion.

However checked the R/T fares from London. 200 pounds is not such a raving bargain either. About $350.

One reminder to you:

You get what you pay! you want cheap fares, then deal with the consequences... Don't just complain and yet holding on to your wallet tightly.