Iceland is the first place in Europe to welcome vaccinated Americans, as well as those who have recovered from coronavirus. Delta is capitalizing on that, with three different routes to the country.
Continue reading: Delta Expanding In Iceland This Summer
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
What is Delta going to replace their 757's with??
I feel its odd they don't have any of the a321LR or XLR on order.
Pricing (both cash and miles) look pretty high from JFK in Delta One. Ben and readers, do you think a flat bed is worth it on a 5 hour and 41 minute flight? May make more sense to gut it out in Comfort Plus...
When is the Edition opening again?
@Sharon A321neo. Iceland is only like 4 hours from the US which the A321neo can definitely do. It won't be able to reach continental Europe, but for transcons and Iceland flights a regular A321neo should suffice.
@Anthony if you can only sleep on a flat bed, and you want to sleep on the overnight flight, then it might be worth it.
If you are fine sleeping in a regular seat, or not sleeping at all, then I'd stick with Comfort+.
I don't think any kind of food or amenities or service is worth that much on a short red-eye.
Delta has a 767-300ER loaded into the schedule for the JFK-KEF flight, so there will be more flat beds on this route.
@Anthony the new flights don't appear to be loaded, so I am guessing there will be changes tomorrow with "schedule change Saturday." Re D1: it depends where you are coming from. I would be flying from SEA, so at least on the way there, potentially I could have D1 on both flights, which would be 11-12 hours in a lie flat seat, not 6.
Last week I bought (with miles) tickets for June. Currently the JFK-KEF flight has a 767-300, and the flight back from KEF-MSP is scheduled on an internationally configured 757 (with D1 lie flats). I am guessing those will change tomorrow. Compared to the aircraft currently loaded for these routes, this would significantly increase overall capacity, while sharply cutting lie flat D1 capacity and reducing capacity out of JFK.
Wish they were flying DeltaOne equipped plans from ATL or MSP instead. A longer flight would make for a much better experience. We did the BOS:KEF route on Delta in domestic First class seats (back then Delta was selling as DeltaOne, I complained and received a refund to take it down to C+ pricing) and between meals you really only get 2-2.5 hours of sleep. Even if you eat on the ground and skip breakfast it's awfully tough to sleep with meal service happening and cabin lights on for half the flight duration.
I would not bother for DeltaOne as you are guaranteed to not get enough sleep to be meaningful unless you're one of those lucky few that do well on a couple hours a night.
The Reykjanes Peninsula has recently seen significant increase in seismic and volcanic activity, which could quickly upend any plans to travel to the island.
@ Anthony -- We did Icelandair "Saga Class" (their old recliner-style business class) from Seattle to Reykjavik last winter, which is a slightly longer flight. Our tickets were cheap, but given the length and timing of the flight, all agreed we would have been just as happy in premium economy, as there isn't much opportunity to sleep regardless. Probably not a route where I personally could justify a 5x+ price premium, if that helps at all.
Hope that Premium Select customers will get access to Saga Lounge. Atleast as of right now, even D1 doesn't get any access at all.
Terrible timings. All of these could be eastbound daytime flights, and evening westbound flights.
The flight is too short to be proper redeye.
Yeah, Delta probably wants connecting traffic but that short redeye to Iceland is brutal. I would much rather go on a daytime flight and have a good sleep after arrival, then ready to start my vacation well rested instead of as a zombie.
Sharon
Some of us love the 757.
Could this be a back door route into Europe to bypass some of is more severe Covid restrictions
This would be a much more useful post if you would outline the best ways to book these Delta flights with points/miles.
Instead of worrying about Iceland, too bad they don't bring back the non-stop from Prague to JFK that got cancelled because of Corona. !!
Delta adds a few Alaska flights & 2 Iceland flights = 2 articles.
American massively expands at AUS & UA adds tons of flights to non-hub cities = 0 articles.
#HUH
Does anyone know--are there any other Schengen countries from which one can enter, from Iceland, without having to go through passport control? Prior to the pandemic, because Iceland was part of Schengen, one could always do this. However; I wanted to learn whether this is still the case.
@guflyer - As far as I know, there are border checks everywhere now. If you want to travel to other Schengen countries they would check your passport stamp, and for those countries allowing non-EU/EEA citizens it normally requires at least a 14 day stay in Iceland beforehand. You will likely be either denied boarding, caught at the other end and returned and possibly liable to fines and/prosecution.
For future articles on new routes, could you add the total flight time for each of the flight segments. This information would be very helpful. Thank you.
@ Ben:
Hi, did you at some point announce a major drive into Iceland by AA ? It was a few montrhs ago, I believe. If not you, then it came from AA themselves.
At any rate, it seems to have petered-out. The only connections to Iceland this summer on the AA site are via LHR, then BA, I suppose? Expensive and endless.
Delta has just cancelled my JFK-KEF outgoing trip for mid-March 2022 (return not yet cancelled, but it is no longer on the schedule). Looks like Delta is just a short-timer for Iceland. And they are offering a mileage credit for their cancellation. Seriously?