When you’re considering flying from the United States to Europe, you likely look at the usual big international airlines. For some of the cheapest rates, Icelandair is beating all of the competition. While most “budget” airlines focus on short-haul flights, Icelandair is uniquely positioned to provide international flights between North America and Europe as they are home-based almost exactly halfway between the two locations. So, what’s it like traveling on Icelandair?
We took Icelandair on our recent trip from Raleigh-Durham, North Carolina to Ireland. If you’re looking to buy a flight via Icelandair, we recommend heading to booking.com for some of the best prices.
North America Departure
Currently, Icelandair departs from 15 North American cities (13 in the United States and 2 in Canada). Some departure locations have as few as 4 flights per week, such as Detroit and Vancouver. Some have as many as 21 flights per week, such as Boston.
Check-in & Baggage
Check-in at the counter was similar to nearly every other international flight. Reviewed our passports, issued us tickets, and sent us to security. We choose not to fly with checked baggage but instead brought carry-on suitcases and backpacks. Many airlines have a “check your luggage size here” display near the gates. This flight was the first flight where every piece of our luggage was checked under the supervision of a gate agent. If it couldn’t comfortably fit, wheels and all, they would check it for you to your destination.
We ended up checking both of our carry-on bags because they were “too snug” in the measuring device. Despite the fact that we’ve taken them on plenty of flights as carry-on before. Maximum size of carry-on bags (including handles and wheels): 21.6 x 15.7 x 7.8 inches and less than 22 lbs. In the end, it just meant that we had one less thing to worry about and could just board with our backpacks.
The Flight Experience: Traveling On Icelandair
We boarded via a standard jet bridge. The flight attendants were friendly and helpful. The seats were more comfortable than we expected for a “budget airline.” We purchased upgraded seats with a little bit more room for the first leg of the trip, as it was the longest. Icelandair primarily uses a fleet of Boeing 757-200 planes, which holds around 200 people. The announcements and safety briefing in Icelandic were entertaining because it is such a fun language. Of course, all of the announcements were also in English.
Our flight was delayed taking off from our US Destination. But it was also delayed leaving our European destination and delayed landing back in the United States again. We saw that the flight of people who were leaving to head back to Iceland was also delayed. Plus the flight that landed in the US to turn around to Iceland was also delayed, which then delayed our flight. Maybe it was just a bad time of year, but we found that they struggled to keep on schedule. It seems based on reviews, this is pretty common when traveling on Icelandair.
Meals & Entertainment
We can get meals out of the way first. There are none. For all economy passengers, they provide non-alcoholic drinks (Soda, coffee, tea, water). All alcoholic beverages, snacks, and meals are for purchase only. We didn’t even get our little bag of pretzels on this flight. So, if you’re planning of flying Icelandair, bring your own snacks with you. Saga passengers do get meals, drinks, and even pre-flight drinks included in their class of service.
For entertainment, they had in-seat screens on every seat with a selection of music, movies, TV shows, and even games. As a promotional tool, they also have an entire section of videos that are ads all about Iceland. Here’s one of our favorites. They do have Wi-Fi on their planes, for economy passengers, you have to pay extra for it. For Saga passengers, it’s included in the price of the ticket. We found the entertainment options comparable to most airlines and were happy with the selection and quality.
Transfer in Iceland While Traveling On Icelandair
Nearly every Icelandair flight leaving from North America will land first at the Keflavik airport in Iceland where you will transfer for a flight to your destination. This is a big part of what makes them so cheap, the hub and spoke model. They essentially just do a bunch of back-and-forth flights between Iceland and the rest of the world, thus connecting all those places together.
The Frigid Cold of Iceland
On our outbound flight, we had less than 30 minutes between landing and departing again. So, although we wanted to stop and get a snack, we were unable to. Now, this was the most surprising part for us, after passing through the ticket scanning booth, we found ourselves in a waiting room of sorts. Standing room only. Then we had to get on a bus which pulled up outside of the waiting area. After loading the bus, it drove us out to the plane. Then we had to get back off the bus and walk to a set of stairs to climb up into the plane.
Now, we lived in New England for a few years, but we’ve since been in North Carolina for a few years now. Iceland was cold. Plus we didn’t dress for being outside in Iceland. Since between the bus and the airplane was a set of stairs and everybody from the bus was trying to climb a flight of stairs with their carry-on bags, we spent a little bit of time standing outside. This was probably the biggest downside to traveling on Icelandair.
On our return flight, we had the same experience, but in reverse. When we landed from our European flight, we had to go outside to get on a bus. We were then bused back to the airport terminal. It seems like, based on them having a few permanent parking spots for planes away from the terminal, and having nearly every one of the limited gates at the terminal full, the airport traffic grew much faster than the airport did.
Keflavik Airport
As previously mentioned, we didn’t have long at the airport on the outbound trip. We found that it was pretty easy to navigate to quickly find our next gate for the transfer. On the inbound flight, we had closer to 2 hours to spend at the airport on the transfer.
Special Note: The Keflavik Airport is also known as the Reykjavik-Keflavik Airport, but this is different than the Reykjavik Airport. The Keflavik airport handles all of their international flights, and the Reykjavik airport all of the domestic ones. But you’ll often see both names on tickets, in the airport, or on display screens.
For an international airport, they didn’t have a lot of options for food. They had what was primarily a grocery store with a lot of premade packaged food, and then two small restaurants that both had almost no seating whatsoever. They had a fun little gift shop that was bigger than both of the restaurants. Seating in general was limited for the crowds that were there during our layover. Note that Iceland uses a different currency (the Krona) than both the US and Europe. If you plan on paying in cash, you likely won’t have the right currency with you. But it seemed like everywhere accepted credit cards.
It is the only airport that I’ve ever been to in which you can buy packaged fish to take with you though. Our stop in the Keflavik Airport was a fun opportunity to see a little glimpse of Iceland while traveling on Icelandair.
Boarding Chaos
Now, in a seeming effort to prove that the airport traffic grew faster than the airport, boarding was made into a chaotic situation. Although there were gates and they were labeled, there were no specific waiting areas for each gate. Moreover, there was no specific area for each flight to line up. The gates were close enough together that there wasn’t enough room for the 200-ish people per flight to line up without blocking other gates. Finally, they don’t tell you which gate you are departing from until 1 hour before your departure time.
What we ended up with is 5 flights trying to board at about the same time, with 5 lines of people crisscrossing each other in the hallway. We just had to walk up to strangers, ask which destination they were going to, and move to another line if it wasn’t ours. After asking 5 people, we finally figured out which line we were supposed to be in. We then became the people in line who helped others identify which line they needed to be in. It was a little bit of a confusing time to be traveling on Icelandair.
We were able to find the right line, go through the right gate, and prepare to board our flight. Right after we were scanned through the gate, the agent asked to check our carry-on bags because they looked large. She tagged them and had us carry them to the end of the jet bridge to pass off to baggage handlers. So, we carried them around the airport for hours only to have them take them as checked bags at the moment before we stepped on the plane.
Final Flight
Our final flight on the way home was comfortable and quick. We did arrive nearly an hour after our intended time of arrival. They did do a good job keeping us informed of the delay and the expected time of arrival. When we arrived, we used our Global Entry to quickly clear customs and be on our way to baggage claim. We had to wait for our bags for nearly 45 minutes. So we didn’t really save any time, but it was nice to breeze through immigration. Maybe it’s just because our little airport seems to use a contracted crew for many of their Icelandair services that caused us the delay in unloading baggage. They were shutting off the lights and closing down the customs area before our first bags came out.
Overall Experience: Traveling On Icelandair
I know I seem to complain a lot about some of the things that went wrong on this flight. Overall, for the price, it was absolutely worth flying Icelandair. We saved hundreds of dollars and just had to deal with some delays along the way. It seems evident that Icelandair expanded faster than either the Iceland airport or the airline was ready for. They are just trying to catch up now. Most ratings and review sites rank Icelandair at 3 to 4 stars. I think that rating aligns with our experience as well.
But, their advertising worked, because we are both members of their rewards program. We are now very interested in taking a future trip to Iceland.
FAQs
Is Icelandair a budget airline?
Icelandair is considered a budget airline by industry standards. You can see that in some of their missing amenities, such as snacks or meals. But the seats were comfortable, the plane looked clean and safe, and we arrived at our destination. So, save yourself several hundred dollars and bring some snacks with you.
Is it safe to fly Icelandair?
According to the independent research of AirlineRatings.com, Icelandair has a safety rating of 7/7, the highest possible. They rank things like crashes, pilot incidents, and regulatory audits. As far as the product rating though, they are only 4.5 out of 7 stars. This is largely due to their lack of amenities, consistent with a budget airline.
Who does Icelandair partner with?
Icelandair does not have a specific code-share alliance with any other airline. Icelandair does partner with Alaska Airlines though and your Saga Points (the Icelandair rewards program) are transferable to Alaska Airlines. Other than using your points on Icelandair products, they also have a “gift card store” that allows you to use Saga Points to purchase gift cards to places like Hotels.com, AirBnB, Amazon, and Starbucks.
Is Icelandair strict about carry-on size?
Icelandair states that the maximum size of carry-on bags (including handles and wheels) must be less than 21.6 x 15.7 x 7.8 inches and less than 22 lbs. Although every airline has size requirements, our carry-on luggage has always been “close enough” that they haven’t bothered to give us a hard time about it. Icelandair is the only airline that I’ve flown that physically checked every single bag before you were allowed to board.
Our suitcase, which is designated as an “airline carry-on bag” is 23x15x10 and would not meet their requirements, so it had to be checked through to our destination. Our luggage was actually checked, at least partially, on both our outbound and inbound flights.
Does Icelandair have free meals?
Icelandair does not include free meals for economy class fares. In addition to no meals, they don’t provide in-flight snacks either. They do provide free non-alcoholic drinks for all passengers though. You can purchase meals, snacks, and alcoholic drinks using a credit card, debit card, or Saga Points.
What kind of plane does Icelandair fly?
The majority of planes in the Icelandair fleet are Boeing 757-200s, which seat 184 passengers in a 3 and 3 seating pattern in economy class. They also have a small number of 757-300s which seat 225 passengers in the 3 and 3 seating pattern. It has a traveling distance of up to 3,900 miles. For longer-haul flights, they use a Boeing 767-300ER. The Boeing 767 seats 262 passengers in a 2-3-2 seating configuration for economy passengers. It can travel up to 4,900 miles.
Icelandair has begun adding the Boeing 737-Max to their fleet, with only 18 planes of this type currently in their fleet. For local domestic flights, Icelandair uses a De Havilland Canada DHC-8-200 or DHC-8-400. These planes hold only 37 and 76 passengers respectively, each with a range of between 1,000 and 1,500 miles.
Wrapping Up: Traveling On Icelandair
So, although there are negative reviews for Icelandair. Mostly revolving around the lack of meals or the carry-on bags being checked, we had a good experience. We planned ahead by bringing some snacks and already had the critical items for the flight in our backpacks, so we could check our carry-on bags. I think if you took the time to read through this article, you’ll be prepared to save yourself a bunch of money flying Icelandair. I would just prepare yourself for the cold and chaos that is Keflavik Airport.
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