Terrible way of boarding in Reykjavik. Seats comfortable. Meal was good.
Unlike my prior three connections on this latest journey, this flight was fairly good. Only issue was boarding as it was once again one of those Icelandic issues of bunch up, walk in the rain to a bus that then has you run up three flights of stairs to board the plain. I was in Saga class but the bus scramble eliminates any chance you get on first and have to then find a place to squeeze your carry on into an overhead that the people in economy populate so they can grab it on their way out up front. But unlike other Icelandic flights this journey I did find more the of the business class like accommodations then the other air segments. This one found a pillow and blanket waiting for me and I actually received a small cup of sparkling wine and had a bottle of water in place. Service was attentive and the flight departed and arrived on time. Received a menu and had choices of a hot or cold meal. I choose the hot which was cod and it was good. Decent size portion, salad and a choice of dinner rolls. Beverage menu was a selection of wines, beer and soft drinks. Desert was a small Tiramisu. Overall the six hour flight was a good experience for the price point.
We paid for saga class, which is the business class for international. My seat was broken and did not recline and my monitor for in-flight entertainment was broken.
The flight itself was fine, even with a one-hour delay leaving on the Reykjavik tarmac (the lost time was made up during flight). Our experience at the Reykjavik airport on arrival was terrible due mostly to the one hour it took for passport control. Only two stations were open for our category, and the room was full with a huge crowd.
Awful. The Iceland airport was a complete mess. Boarding was a chaotic, the seats were awful, there was a group of rowdy 20 something men in our row hooting and hollering, ordering alcoholic drink after drink. Yelling and laughing at the top of their lungs and the crew just went along with it. Passengers complained to the men, asking if they could keep it down (it was a night time flight so people wanted to sleep). They never listened crew continued to laugh with them, flirt with them and serve them more drinks. No free food or snacks, seats were horribly uncomfortable. Worst flight I've had in a long time
At least one soda free, felt like I was nickeled to death.
Was a bit surprised that Icelandair flies a domestically configured 757s on long-haul flights to Iceland (no lie-flat seats in business class).
Having been prepared for paying for everything on board other than water, coffee and tea the service was OK. Food and drink is expensive but the food was OK if limited in scope. Plane was clean and obviously well serviced. After complaining about having to walk in wind and rain to a get a bus to the airport the same thing happened at Portland. I’m sure you could get a terminal gate flight, complimentary food and drink for not much more money without traipsing through rain and slush in Reykjavik. Not bad but not great.
Plane left an hour late and missed our connecting flight. Your service center was closed ao Alaska Airlines could not change the ticket. Thus we missed the chance to get out that night to San Jose. This is a major operational blunder.
Well! They got me as far as Iceland, let me wait around at the airport since my next flight had either left or canceled, finally gave me my luggage, and sent me to wait quite some time with seven other people for a ride to a hotel. At the hotel we got a chef's salad, a nice room for the night which unfortunately had feather pillows and duvet (allergies), a really great and spectacular buffet for breakfast (small but stunning), taxis back to the airport for the 9:30 Delta flight back to Minneapolis. The Delta flight has free food and liquor included which Icelandair does not. All in all, it falls far short of my worst ever United flight to SGN. Icelandair did change my reservation after my roommate tested positive for COVID and we canceled our plans to travel around Iceland, but the charges were fairly hefty. I had trouble contact Kayak's agents to discuss changing my reservations and finally contacted Icelandair who changed them. (I used their contact form and put in several requests for call backs.) Of course, they called just after I made the change with Icelandair.
