Review: Icelandair Saga Business Class Airbus A321LR (KEF-LHR)

To continue my Iceland to The Residence via Cambodia trip, I flew Icelandair’s Airbus A321LR Saga Class on the 2hr50min flight from Keflavik (KEF) to London (LHR). I had flown Icelandair’s Boeing 737 MAX 8 Saga Class from New York (JFK) several days before, and was excited to see how the carrier’s newest plane compared.

Well, I must admit that Icelandair’s A321LR Saga Class is a pretty sweet ride, and nicer than the carrier’s 737 MAX business class. From legroom, to seat comfort, to tech, I think this is Icelandair’s best aircraft, and I’m happy to see the airline increasingly growing its Airbus fleet, after being an all-Boeing operator for so long.

Before I get into the review, let me emphasize that Icelandair’s premium cabin is called Saga Class (or Saga Premium), and it’s somewhere between premium economy and business class. As you can see, I referred to the product as “Saga Business Class” in the title, but that’s simply because people are searching “Icelandair business class” online, even though Icelandair doesn’t really have a business class. Furthermore, when you go to Google Flights, you’ll see Saga Class listed in business class searches. So frame this review in that context, please.

How I booked my Icelandair Saga Class ticket

Unfortunately there aren’t great ways to redeem points for Icelandair Saga Class. Fortunately Icelandair is known for its great revenue fares, with two things standing out:

• One-way fares are typically very attractive, which isn’t otherwise usually the case with major carriers across the Atlantic
• Whether traveling one-way or roundtrip, the airline allows a free stopover in Iceland, so this is a handy way to essentially visit two destinations for the price of one, since you can stop in Iceland while traveling between the United States and rest of Europe

In my case, I paid $1,116.24 to book the following itinerary in Saga Class:

10/24 FI618 New York to Keflavik departing 11:10PM arriving 8:55AM (+1 day)
10/31 FI450 Keflavik to London departing 7:35AM arriving 10:50AM

To expand on that a bit, I actually redeemed Chase points, at the rate of 1.5 cents each toward that ticket (a redemption option that’s being phased out), meaning I paid around 74,000 points. I then credited the flights to Alaska Atmos Rewards, so I earned quite a few points from this ticket.

Let me mention that ideally my strategy with booking Icelandair would be to fly westbound rather than eastbound, in order to avoid redeyes. If you originate in Northern Europe, like Copenhagen (CPH) or Stockholm (ARN), you’ll often find the most attractive cash fares.

Icelandair Saga Class lounge & boarding

In the previous installment, I reviewed the Icelandair Saga Lounge Keflavik, which all Saga Class passengers have access to. It’s a pretty nice lounge, though can get crowded. After visiting the lounge, I had to clear passport control, since I was leaving the Schengen zone.

My flight was departing from gate D33, with boarding scheduled for 6:45AM, a full 50 minutes before departure. That’s quite a long time in advance to start boarding, but I think that’s because the flight was departing from a remote stand.

Boarding ended up starting at 6:55AM, with Saga Class customers being invited to board first. The boarding process was rather chaotic — there’s just not much space or seating in this end of the terminal, so you had a whole plane load of passengers just sort of huddling around the gate area.

After boarding passes were scanned and passports were checked, we were placed onto a bus to the plane. Suffice it to say that waiting on a bus in below freezing temperatures for an extended period of time isn’t ideal.

I was on the first bus (there’s no dedicated Saga Class bus), and we ended up arriving at the plane at around 7:10AM. I’d be flying on TF-IAA, a roughly one-year-old A321LR (also the carrier’s first Airbus jet).

Icelandair A321LR Saga Class cabin & seats

Boarding took place through both the forward and rear left doors, and I boarded through the forward door, and turned right into the cabin. Icelandair’s Airbus A321LRs are configured with 187 seats, including 22 Saga Class seats, plus 165 economy class seats (there’s not a proper bulkhead between cabins, but instead, just a divider and a curtain).

The Saga Class cabin is spread across six rows, in a 2-2 configuration (row one only has seats on the left, and not on the right).

Totally minor, but from a cabin presentation standpoint, am I the only one who notices how often airlines just don’t have the headrest covers hanging down properly? It doesn’t give the impression that the cabin was thoroughly tidied. This isn’t specific to Icelandair, as I find it happens more often than not across airlines, perhaps outside of parts of Asia.

On the surface, this product should look very similar to what you’d expect in domestic first class within the United States. However, this is significantly more comfortable, if you ask me, and it’s even significantly nicer than what you’ll find on Icelandair’s other aircraft.

These planes have Geven Comoda recliner seats, with a very impressive 42″ of pitch, 21″ of width, and 5″ of recline. For context, domestic first class seats in the United typically have 37″ of pitch, give or take. So this gets you an extra 6″, which goes a long way in helping with comfort, especially when the person in front of you reclines.

I assigned myself seat 6F, the window seat on the right side in the last row.

When it comes to seat features, the center armrest has a fixed tray, and underneath that is a deep, exposed storage area. That’s also where you’ll find the AC power outlet — I’ve gotta say, it’s really hidden there, and you kind of have to contort your body to plug it in.

The tray table extends from the far armrest, and can be folded over in half. The tray has a personal device holder, should you want to watch entertainment on a tablet or smartphone.

A couple of things that make this better than most comparable recliner seats is that you have both a legrest that can be raised, plus a footrest that folds down from the seat in front. I’m not sure I understand the point of these very short legrests, but there’s also no downside to them, so…

I also like how the seat has a little privacy widget by the headrest, which is convenient if you’re looking to get some sleep, since you have something to rest your head against. However, it’s less practical if you want to look out the window, given that it can partially block your view.

Each seat also has a beautiful, crisp 16″ entertainment monitor, featuring Panasonic’s Astrova inflight entertainment system.

Lastly, since this is a new Airbus jet, it features the typical Airbus Airspace cabins. This includes huge overhead bins, plus the modern consoles. There are even individual air nozzles, which is always appreciated.

While obviously not a flat bed, all-in-all I thought this was a great hard product, and best-in-class. It’s certainly better than Icelandair’s other Saga Class seats, and I’d say it’s better than any other US domestic first class or premium economy product.

Icelandair A321LR Saga Class entertainment & Wi-Fi

Icelandair’s A321LRs have audio and video on demand via seat back monitors, plus Wi-Fi, so let’s go over that. Each Saga Class seat has a 16″ monitor, which works from boarding until deplaning. While I wouldn’t say the selection was massive, there was a nice variety of movies, TV shows, music, and more.

The plane also has bluetooth audio, so you can connect your own headphones to the system, which is always appreciated.

I also loved the customizable map feature, which makes it easy to keep track of the progress of the flight.

Icelandair offers Viasat Wi-Fi on its A321LRs, which is fast. If you’re stuck paying for this, the cost is €12 on Europe flights (while it’s €24 for North America flights). Fortunately Saga Class customers receive free Wi-Fi.

I could connect just by entering my booking reference and last name. Connectivity was available for the entire flight, with no data limits, and Saga Class customers can connect on two devices.

Icelandair Saga Class amenities

Icelandair has slightly different amenities on North America flights than on Europe flights. While the pillow was very similar, the blanket was more basic, which is fair enough, given how short these flights are.

There weren’t any amenity kits, though passengers were offered a bottle of water (there were no pre-departure drinks), plus the same headphones you’ll find on all Icelandair Saga Class flights.

Drink lists were also distributed, while the food menu worked a bit differently, and was just presented on the tray with the food, presumably to answer any questions of what passengers are eating.

Icelandair A321LR departure from Keflavik

The boarding process took a bit of time, as passengers arrived on a total of four different buses. Boarding wrapped up at 7:40AM, and then the main cabin door was immediately closed. All Saga Class seats were taken, and economy seemed to be quite full as well.

A few minutes later, the captain added his welcome aboard, informing us that it would take up to 10 more minutes for bags to be loaded, and then we’d have a flight time of 2hr50min.

At 7:50AM we began our pushback, at which point the safety video was screened. Then at 8AM we began our taxi, and at 8:05AM we were cleared for takeoff on runway 1. We had a very smooth climb out, and the seatbelt sign was turned off around 10 minutes after takeoff.

While it was dark during takeoff, the sun began to rise as we approached our cruising altitude, which made for some lovely views.

Icelandair Saga Class meal service

After takeoff, the crew began the inflight service, with two flight attendants working in Saga Class. The crew first came around to take drink orders. That service happened back to front, with the first round of drinks being served just 20 minutes after takeoff.

You can find the drink list below, which is identical to what you’ll find on North America flights. Unfortunately it was a bit too early for me to partake in the gin selection. 😉

To drink, I ordered a cup of coffee with a little milk. This was served on a tray with a small, packaged chocolate.

After the first round of drinks, the crew came through the cabin to take meal orders, with the options being described as scrambled eggs or a mushroom crepe. However, by the time they arrived at my seat, they didn’t have eggs anymore, so the only option was the crepe (it slipped my mind that Icelandair lets you pre-order meals).

The menu is actually presented on the tray as such (with the meal), and you can find that below.

I was served my meal around 45 minutes after takeoff, and it was… basic. The meal consisted of a bread roll with a side plate of sliced turkey, tomato, and guacamole. On top of that, there was a mushroom crepe with tomatoes, asparagus, and mushroom sauce.

Okay, I find it a bit odd how the bread roll is presented as the “main course” (I guess to allow for a DIY sandwich), while the advertised mushroom crepe is really just a side.

While the breakfast was small, I did quite enjoy the mushroom crepe… I just wish it had been a bit bigger.

Icelandair A321LR Saga Class lavatory

After the meal, I decided to check out the Saga Class lavatory, located at the front of the A321LR cabin. While definitely on the tight side, at least the forward A320-family lavatories are still more pleasant than the 737 MAX lavatories. There was nothing in the way of special amenities, though.

Icelandair Saga Class service

Icelandic people tend to be pretty no-nonsense, and aren’t known for being overly warm, which I don’t mind. I find that service on Icelandair reflects that. The crew was cordial and friendly enough, though I can’t say there was anything positive or negative that stood out about the service.

They went through the motions, and they were happy to accommodate any requests, so that’s good enough for me.

Icelandair A321LR arrival in London

I spent a bit of time working on my laptop, and before I knew it, we were almost on approach to London. At around 10:10AM local time, the captain announced that we’d be commencing our descent within around 10 minutes, and would be landing in around 40 minutes.

The seatbelt sign was turned on around halfway into our descent, and I enjoyed keeping one eye on the map, and one eye out the window.

It wasn’t a particularly pretty day in London, but at least it wasn’t so bad that it was causing flow control issues into Heathrow.

Flights were landing into the west, so we had to fly out past the airport, and then circled around to land on runway 27L.

We touched down at 10:55AM.

From there, we had a short taxi to Terminal 2, where we pulled in at 11AM, around 10 minutes behind schedule.

It’s convenient that Icelandair operates out of Terminal 2 (primarily a Star Alliance terminal), since I was connecting a couple of hours later in Air India’s A350 business class to Delhi (DEL). So I just cleared security, and within 10 minutes found myself back in the departures area.

Bottom line

Icelandair’s Saga Class experience on the Airbus A321LR is probably the best you’ll find in the fleet, thanks to the modern cabin and more comfortable seats. While this still isn’t to the level of long haul business class, that’s ultimately not what you’re paying for with Icelandair Saga Class.

Highlights of the flight included the comfortable seats, the great entertainment system and free Wi-Fi, and the decent amenities. This is all substantially better than the typical intra-Europe business class you’d find with other airlines on flights between Iceland and other points in Europe.

Meanwhile I’d say the service was okay, while the meal service had some room for improvement. Still, the most precious “asset” on a plane is space, and Icelandair’s A321LR Saga Class is generous in that regard.

What’s your take on Icelandair’s A321LR Saga Class product?