Took a fun little hop to Iceland and back, flew up with WOW air and took Icelandair back
Here is my report for Icelandair
Video as always
https://youtu.be/EAnLuqjsvS4
And the written report also
Iceland Air Flight 454
Depart: Reykjavik (KEF)
Arrive: London (LHR)
STD: 4:10pm (ADP: 4:47pm)
STA: 8:10pm (ATA: 8:46pm)
Aircraft: Boeing 757
Reg: TF-ISV
First Flight: 6th Apr 1999
Delivered to Airline: 31st Dec 2015
Seat: 4F
Flight Time: 2h 49M
Meal Service: Dinner
Today I would be taking the short hop from Iceland back to the United Kingdom.
I had arrived a few hours earlier on a WOW air flight, but had decided in advance that I wanted to give Icelandair a try and compare the difference.
I had plenty of time to spare which also gave me the chance to check out the Saga business class lounge which is where my trip starts today
I really liked this lounge and it had a very nice feel to it. It was bright, with plenty of personal space and very clean and the large pieces of volcanic rock placed around the lounge reminded you of being in Iceland.
The saga business class lounge offers a great spread of finger foods to pick from and lots of other options which are very enjoyable and better than a lot of other business class lounges I have been in.
There was also a very nice cheese selection with five cheese's to enjoy.
And a nice small selection of sweets to pick from,
And lets not forget the booze, along with beers and soft drinks and plenty of red and white wines to pick from they had a very good spirit selection.
I think the stand out ones for me are the Icelandic spirits on offer.
I then found myself a nice chair to relax in near the window and enjoy my food and wine.
My views out of the window certainly reminded me that I was in Iceland, I was very surprised to see more WOW airplanes than Icelandair ones
I relaxed in the lounge for about thirty minutes and decided to walk down to the gate early to take a few pictures.
When I arrived at the gate it was empty, though my boarding pass did state that boarding started one hour before departure.
Eventually everyone turned up and formed a sort of mosh of people and we had to wait a for a bus to turn up and drive us out to our Icelandair Boeing 757-200 waiting somewhere in the distance.
Being in Business class here made no difference and you are sort of just thrown into the mix with everyone.
At this point it was clear we would not be departing on time.
Even though this 757 was close to being twenty years old, there is still something I really enjoy about flying on them, I guess it's something a bit different compared to all the 737's / A320's flying around these days.
The business class cabin contained twenty business class seats.
Icelandair don't have flat beds on any of their aircraft and just have traditional business class seats, that might be a bit tough for say a flight from Iceland to Seattle, but it's just fine for this short flight to London.
I took a quick look over the reading materials.
With the 757's being around before IFE was added, the business class cabin is sort of fitted with Ipads at the front of each seat to use and also features a sky map.
The doors closed and we started our push back,
It was a pretty quick taxi to the runway and the safety video was played during our taxi
We lined up and powered our way down the runway with a really quick take off roll, one of the best features of the 757.
Most of Icelandair's fleet have WIFI and it was very reasonably priced at just four euros for the entire flight duration.
Once we reached our cruising altitude the in flight service started and I decided to kick things off with some Champagne,
Which was served with a box of pretzels
The crew then handed out noise cancellation headphones to all the business class passengers, which was a nice touch for a short flight
Above the clouds it was another glorious day
Just before the meal was served, a hot towel was given out,
One thing I did notice was the full size pillow that Icelandair provided, it's really great to have a big full size pillow over the tiny ones airlines sometimes give you. Though I really had no use for it today on the short flight.
There are also universal plugs located between the seats for passengers to use,
I did forget to take pictures of the menu on this flight as I was enjoying myself and relaxing
But my main today was herb crusted veal with a side of sweet potato. It was actually a very enjoyable dish
The meal was very filling and I kicked back in my seat relaxed and enjoyed some wine and looked out the window.
Sadly before I knew it we were almost over half way to our destination and with just 45 minutes to go the Captain informed us on our arrival time.
We began our slow long windy approach into heathrow and made a few circles before being called in to Land.
We landed and had a short taxi to our gate and I had really enjoyed my short flight with Icelandair and would consider them for a longer flight in the future.
True, the seats are a bit too tight in spite of the elegance, but if the fares are competitive it looks like worth experiencing. Thanks for sharing!
