A good airline if you're visiting Iceland (Icelandair)

Member Name: non_sense

Product:	Icelandair
Date:	29/10/08 (289 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: You get a movie for only a 3 hour flight, on-demand entertainment if lucky

Disadvantages: Food isn't great, no online checkin

The whole subject of Iceland may be a bit controversial at the moment, but let me give a little information about the country's national airline.

Icelandair has been flying in various forms since 1937. The name Icelandair has been in use since 1973. Their home airport is Keflavik airport in southwest Iceland, about 40 minutes from Reykjavik.

A lot of people fly with Icelandair if they are flying to the US, as they offer one of the cheapest business class options to cross the Atlantic. That arrangement involves changing planes (or a stopover) in Iceland. Their business class product isn't quite up to the same standard as most trans-Atlantic airlines.

The vast majority of their planes are Boeing 757's, configured with 6 seats per row in economy, 4 in business.

Booking
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I found using one of the online travel agents was the slightly cheaper option when booking flights with Icelandair, but you can book flights directly on their website. As with all airlines, book in advance if you can and the prices aren't bad, you might expect them to be worse considering the lack of competition that they have when flying to Iceland.

Checkin
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There doesn't appear to be an online checkin option, so you'll need to check in at the airport. If you're flying from Keflavik then there are self checkin kiosks, you may want to use these as the lines at Keflavik for checkin can be quite long and slow. The self checkin will even print the luggage labels for your bags, which you then take to the baggage drop off that doesn't seem to have a queue.

Airport
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They're not responsible for the airport, but if you're flying with the airline you will almost certainly be passing through Keflavik. It's a nice modern airport, usual array of shops. Prices aren't too bad at the moment, but they were very high before the currency problems! You can get a bus from the airport to Reykjavik, a flybus service operates outside the terminal after every flight.

Onboard
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One gripe with the airline is that the floor area never seems to be clean. I'm not expecting to eat off it, but it would be nice if they made some effort at least! The seats are comfortable enough in economy for a 3 hour flight from the UK, if you're used to flying budget airlines you'll find that your knees aren't hitting the seat in front like you're used to.
If you're lucky enough to be in a business seat it's a nice big seat, reasonable recline, but not what you'd be expecting from long-haul airlines, the space between the seats isn't so generous as those. It is much more comfortable than business class in Europe though (BA Club Europe for example).

Entertainment
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The entertainment system varies by plane. Some have the old TV's suspended from the ceiling, so you'll be sharing a movie choice with the rest of the cabin, some of the others have a nice on-demand system, operated via a touchscreen in the back of the seat in front. In my experience you'll find 12 movies, 12 epsidoes of sit coms (Malcolm in the Middle, The Simpsons and My Name is Earl when I flew), documentaries and games too. There's even a USB port in the seat for you to plug in a PS3 controller (I think it's for PS3 controllers). I believe you can bring your own or rent one on board. They'll provide earphones for free, but you'll probably want to use your own.

Food
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I've heard mixed reports about the food. I've had a warm ham omelet for breakfast, a strange potato salad with a slice of processed turkey for a later meal. Other people I know have had a baked cheese twist or something similar. They'll serve tea, coffee and soft drinks for free, but expect to pay for anything containing alcohol.

Cabin Crew
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With a flight of 3 to 3.5 hours you wouldn't expect to see the cabin crew much. Basically you seen them when they drop off your food, when they serve your drink and when they take away your rubbish. They do make a fast run through the cabin later on with the duty free trolley. The staff are friendly, so I'm sure if you needed an extra drink they'd be happy to oblige :-)


So in conclusion I'd happily recommend Icelandair if you're travelling to Iceland. I don't think I'd be using them to travel trans-Atlantic however. They are in the process of refitting some of their aircraft to have 3 classes, to include an economy plus section. If I travelled on one of these I didn't notice, but maybe they are the ones with the on-demand entertainment. They fly from London Heathrow, Manchester and Glasgow in the UK

<review also posted on ciao>

Summary: I wasn't disappointed with Icelandair, would use them in the future