Iceland Air Experiences

[Peregrina651]

4 minutes ago, johneb2 said:

as mentioned some food should have been available as gratis since it was a Transatlantic flight. 

 

Yes it is surprising but there is no requirement that  food service be included in the price of a transoceanic ticket. IcelandAir is a bargain airline and everything is a la carte, including the food.

 

Not that you had time in your situation to do research on the airline, but for those who are contemplating flying IcelandAir...

 

Further detailed information can be found on the website, https://www.icelandair.com/support/on-board/classes-of-service/  Scroll down to the bottom.

[Heartgrove]

16 hours ago, LindaS272 said:

Since no one on these Iceland cruises will be going back and forth to the Continent or other points in Scandinavia, you won’t be experiencing what happened to us after our first Viking ocean cruise in July 2019–but a cautionary tale on Icelandair for the future (unless you want stress, or possibly just adventure :-).
 

We had a fabulous first cruise on the Baltic/St. Petersburg run on Viking Sky with Capt. Olav in July 2019, and then spent five days tooling around Norway on our own. We were scheduled to fly out of Bergen, of course via Reykjavík, and then home to Seattle. Icelandair has a well-honed route from Seattle to Europe with quick turnaround time in Reykjavík of only about an hour—changing planes and offloading your bags to your connecting flight. Works fine when they’re on time, but not so much otherwise, as we discovered. (We had flown with them a few times before this).

 

Our flight out of Bergen was delayed by an hour (with no explanation of course) and no customer service to help us with our tight connection in Reykjavík. We got off the plane in Iceland and were surprised that they were still going to make us go through passport control instead of as transit passengers. We had to ask the passport agent where our gate would be since there was no info for Icelandair- we had about five minutes to get to the gate. But coming out of  the passport check, a uniformed guy was hustling a bunch of us against a wall and roping off a lane, separating my husband and I. My husband walked ahead across a long hall and they sent me to the left around the corner out of sight of him into a small room for a spot “security check”!

 

I was livid—to say the least!!! First off, hubby had no idea where I was, our flight was about to take off, and I couldn’t contact him on our phones because they were in flight mode!!!

 

The security people were clueless and impassive—but fortunately only delayed me for a few minutes. I was able to find DH and we raced to our gate just as they called us as they were closing the doors. His bag made it home to Seattle—mine did not ‘til several days later.

 

But this certainly colored our view of flying with Icelandair—particularly going and coming from Europe without clear contingencies!

 

I do believe in security being important while traveling. However I don't think that Icelandair is alone with  FUBARs due to security.  I had a similar situation while connecting through London Heathrow on British Airways. We had lined up to board by group boarding number when a BA Gate Agent who I will call "Sergeant Major" mumbled loudly about being chosen for an  enhanced security check. Reminded me of the military except he was doing the counting!  I was eventually shuffled off, but not immediately do to a lack of clear communication, to a screening room along with a few other passengers. In the meantime my wife was allowed to proceed.  I was left with the "Sergeant Major" continually spouting something. A security person examined my carryon bags - then just stopped. No indication that she was done. All the while the "Sergeant Major" kept his mouth running!

 

When it was clear that the security person had completed my check I gathered my belongings and proceeded out of the room. BUT we were not boarding the plane. There wasn't any direction given but as it turned out I actually needed to proceed down a set of stairs to a bus. Trouble was the bus was around the corner of the building out of view and the BA gate agents that were there to keep us from walking off on the ramp were totally disconnected. As I was approaching the bus - a woman actually fell out of the bus while attempting to board!  No response by the driver or nearest BA agent! With all of the surrounding noise on the ramp it took a few of us screaming over the noise to get someone's attention. Thankfully the elderly woman was not physically injured but with her comments was clearly overwrought with the stress of traveling.

 

Once aboard, I had a long discussion with the BA purser who totally agreed with me and had me complete a complaint form. It was definitely received by BA , as I received a voucher for future BA travel. Never again, BA!

[Heartgrove]

2 hours ago, Peregrina651 said:

 

Yes it is surprising but there is no requirement that  food service be included in the price of a transoceanic ticket. IcelandAir is a bargain airline and everything is a la carte, including the food.

 

 

Once again not trying to defend Icelandair. I don't think that I would classify Icelandair as a bargain airline. They do have a unique business model that they follow with their Hub-and-Spoke operation through Keflavik. But they are not actually flying across the Atlantic non-stop and that is where I believe the difference is. All the times I have priced them compared to other traditional non-stops they are usually $200-300 cheaper but you need to change planes. Here in the US similar length of flight times East Coast to West Coast I only get peanuts and soda on UAL.

 

An airline with a similar business model to ICE is TAP Air Portugal with a Hub-and -Spoke through Lisbon. They allow no-cost stopovers in Lisbon or Porto either coming or going to your destination. I am going to look at this next time we need to go to Italy. Only on flights longer than three hours do they provide a meal service.

 

My biggest surprise though was British Airways. It seems that due to competition over the last few years they have curtailed their onboard service. We flew World Traveler Plus (Premium Economy) BWI-LHR-MXP for a HAL cruise out of Civitavecchia 1-1/2 years ago. The BWI-LHR leg food was as you would expect but on the LHR-MXP leg the most we could get was tap (still) water without needing to pay! Now that is a bargain airline! And yes you need to pay for seat assignments as well.

 

Jack

[Clay Clayton]

2 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

An airline with a similar business model to ICE is TAP Air Portugal with a Hub-and -Spoke through Lisbon. They allow no-cost stopovers in Lisbon or Porto either coming or going to your destination. I am going to look at this next time we need to go to Italy. Only on flights longer than three hours do they provide a meal service.

 

 

During our two years (2018-2020) of being nomads we had the pleasure of flying TAP several times. Both long haul in business and shorter haul in economy. We loved TAP business especially given their price point at that time - typically half of legacy carriers and occasionally amazingly cheap. We flew from Copenhagen to Miami roundtrip for $1,300 each.  Of course we had to start in Copenhagen.  We were in Porto at the time so we paid $120 in economy to fly Porto-Lisbon-Copenhagen and about the same to fly back to Lisbon.  So all in for under $1,600 compared to $4000 or more for other airlines. 
 

Back then they served meals on all our economy flights except for the 45min prop plane from Porto to Lisbon-but they did serve us an ice cream bar!
 

Our other economy short haul in Europe was done with RyanAir and EasyJet.  Terminal service for all airlines in Europe was equally poor but we determined that may be due to all the gate folks being contract employees provided by the airport. Once onboard, service of TAP was significantly better than the other two.  If TAP flew the route we tried to book them.  However we also leaned that if we booked the package that provided exit row seat and checked luggage they were a good deal and we just learned to carry our own water and lunch. 

Sorry for running on but just wanted to share that TAP is definitely worth trying. Only piece of advice of flying biz is to make sure you’re on one of the new A330neos unless you want to fly long haul on the narrow body A321. 

[Heartgrove]

40 minutes ago, Clay Clayton said:

Back then they served meals on all our economy flights except for the 45min prop plane from Porto to Lisbon-but they did serve us an ice cream bar!
 

Sorry for running on but just wanted to share that TAP is definitely worth trying. Only piece of advice of flying biz is to make sure you’re on one of the new A330neos unless you want to fly long haul on the narrow body A321. 

 

Shortest flight that I ever had - with beverage service -  was an Aloha Airlines flight from Oahu to Kauai. It was a total of 12 minutes with a flight attendant passing out a juice cup and the other attendant following to pickup the empty cup!

 

Yes, on flying the A330neo. They were flying them IAD-LIS but have switched to the A321LR. Hope that if we ever fly TAP out of IAD it is the larger plane. Love SAS's A330-300!

 

Jack

Edited April 26, 2021 by Heartgrove

[duquephart]

1 hour ago, Heartgrove said:

 

Shortest flight that I ever had - with beverage service -  was an Aloha Airlines flight from Oahu to Kauai. It was a total of 12 minutes with a flight attendant passing out a juice cup and the other attendant following to pickup the empty cup!

 

Yes, on flying the A330neo. They were flying them IAD-LIS but have switched to the A321LR. Hope that if we ever fly TAP out of IAD it is the larger plane. Love SAS's A330-300!

 

Jack

 

12 minutes? Big rocket?

[Dukefan]

Shortest flight I every had was in the late 70's or early 80's on Southwest Airlines on a Beoing 737 from Houston Hobby to Houston Intecontinental Airport.  It is a air distance of less than 30 miles.  I don't recall how long the flight was but it was fast with no beverage service.  I remember joking that the taxi to and from each of the gates to the runway were longer than the flight.  It was when Southwest was only flying in Texas because in could get approvals to fly outside of Texas.

[Heartgrove]

57 minutes ago, duquephart said:

 

12 minutes? Big rocket?

 

  No, actually the only time I flew in a 737-200 Combi. Seats were on pallets and removable as they ferried cargo overnite between the islands.

[duquephart]

2 hours ago, Heartgrove said:

 

  No, actually the only time I flew in a 737-200 Combi. Seats were on pallets and removable as they ferried cargo overnite between the islands.

 

Flight Aware says 45 min. I flew from Kauai to Honolulu ---- it was at least 12 min. over Oahu.

[Heartgrove]

32 minutes ago, duquephart said:

 

Flight Aware says 45 min. I flew from Kauai to Honolulu ---- it was at least 12 min. over Oahu.

 

Not gate to gate but actual flight time. Man in the left front seat made the announcement with a 22L departure and straight in at Lihue on 35. This was back in the late 80's with flights every half hour. Flightradar24 shows 20 minutes for current flights.

[TravelingT]

On 4/25/2021 at 1:04 PM, Heidi13 said:

 

Haha!!. Now your showing your age. Most will probably never have heard of BOAC, BEA, BMI, Caledonian, etc.

 

Still remember my first flight from Sydney to LHR that required 4 stops for fuel😒

I flew on Caledonian my first trip to Europe in the smoking section.  HA!

 

[Twitchly]

5 hours ago, TravelingT said:

I flew on Caledonian my first trip to Europe in the smoking section.  HA!

 

Smoking on flights! Boy, those were the days. NOT.

[Dukefan]

2 hours ago, Twitchly said:

Smoking on flights! Boy, those were the days. NOT.

I can remember my early First Class Flights to Europe when after meal service the flight attendents would come around with a tray of cigarettes to offer the passengers who smoked.   Later the airlines would have the smoking passengers on one side and the non-smoking passengers on the other side.  I remember thinking what a wonderful improvement this was.  Then the airlines developed smoking sections and non-smoking sections seperated by rows before stopping smoking all together.   Maybe that is why there were no flat bed seats in those days - they were afraid of people smoking in bed.

[Donaghadee]

Back to Icelandair:  How persnickety are they about the 10Kg, 22Lb carry on bag weight limit for flights to & from the U.S.?  European airlines are kind of a PITA for those of us who drag around camera gear and I don't like surprises.

[Heidi13]

1 hour ago, Donaghadee said:

Back to Icelandair:  How persnickety are they about the 10Kg, 22Lb carry on bag weight limit for flights to & from the U.S.?  European airlines are kind of a PITA for those of us who drag around camera gear and I don't like surprises.

 

We haven't flown with them, but my dad used them a couple of times. Both times when checking in at Vancouver they weighed the bag going into the hold and his carry-on.

[IWantToLiveOverTheSea]

We've done two roundtrips in economy and I wouldn't call Icelandair dreadful, though on one leg we had a nice new plane with very hard leather seats. That was from IAD Dulles in 2017 but I forget which plane it was. The food was blah, but other than that and the hard seat on one of the four flights, I don't remember anything unusual. It was like flying American Airlines - not great but not atrocious. For not quite 6 hours we dealt with it. 

[rljan]

It's been a few years since we have flown on Icelandair.  I would describe it as a cross between Southwest and JetBlue.