Hello from London Heathrow! I recently shared my initial thoughts on my Icelandair Boeing 737 MAX 8 Saga Premium flight from New York (JFK) to Keflavik (KEF). After then spending several days in Iceland, I continued in Icelandair’s Airbus A321LR Saga Premium on the 2hr50min flight from Keflavik to London (LHR).
Continue reading: Icelandair A321LR Saga Premium Class: What A Pleasant Ride!
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
I notice this happens to you every now and then…why don’t you always pre-order when it’s an option? I always do, too much anxiety not to
@ Andrew Reiser -- Fair question. On airlines I'm familiar with and fly frequently (like American), I almost always do. However, on new airlines I often don't. That's partly because I sometimes just don't have strong preferences, and partly because I'm curious to see what approach they take when it comes to how many meals they cater.
I believe the other option was scrambled eggs, so to be honest, I'm not even sure I would've selected that, since that's also hard to get excited about.
Curiously, I also flew Icelandair recently through Reykjavik to London and had read your reviews and thought I may see you in Reykjavik.
On the flight from Reykjavik to London, the breakfast menu included both the bread roll and the crepe but we were only served the bread roll (and ham, guacamole). I assumed the menu was a choice that we weren't offered but now I see that we were just short-changed! I was unaware that it's possible to pre-order non special diet meals.
In other regards, I enjoyed the flights, found the seat comfortable, the service good, Internet good but the in-flight entertainment disappointing.
My husband and I were on this flight as well. We saw you on the bus to take us to the plane, but I wasn’t sure if it was you so I didn’t want to say hi. I agree with you that this is a solid product in general, especially for intra-Europe, though it wasn’t as comfortable coming from PDX. Looking forward to your review!
How did he manage to be the first one to board if it was a bus gate?? He wouldn't have even know which side of the bus doors would open!
@ David F -- Sorry to have missed you! Agree, on an overnight flight of that length, I'd find this to be much less comfortable. Ford flew the same plane back KEF-MIA, which is a very long journey, but at least that's a daytime flight.
@ chris w -- Excellent question, bus gates stress me out, heh. When I got on the bus, I asked the friendly driver what doors open first, and he said all the doors on the right side open at the same time. So I figured positioning myself at the forward right door would be the best bet.
Sure enough, the bus stopped near the wing, and then there were forward and rear stairs. So I walked really fast toward the stairs and up them, and managed to be first. I know other passengers probably thought I was nuts, but you gotta do what you gotta do!
@ Daz -- Indeed, the menu is a little confusing. On North America flights you get a proper menu in advance with all the options, while on Europe flights you get a menu that just shows what's on the tray, presented with the meal. It does indeed seem like you were short changed!
My family of five flew Icelandic from Ord to Reykjavik to London with a two day stopover in 2022. Was such a good experience.
Late departure from Ord meant everyone ate and went to sleep. Not much jet lag and a great time in Iceland. Then short hop to London. Great way to travel with a young family.
We were in economy and the pre ordered meals were delicious. I had the keto option which was fantastic. Would def fly them again.
You mention 16" on Icelandair vs 10" on Delta which is a big difference but to put things into much better perspective is to add that 16" screen area is roughly 170% bigger than 10" which makes the difference even more pronounced.
It’s not always about size, it’s what you do with the size (talking about the great IFE of DL ofc). Remember, one is more premium as well xD
That's why I always admire Ben's work ethics and how much effort he puts in behind the scenes.
I wonder if you bumped into Dennis Bunnik by any chance as he was just there!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fwi9aBemKGs
Good name but bad math 🙂 16/10-1=0,6=60% bigger. 100% bigger than 10” would be twice the size ie 20” and 170% bigger 27”.
Lukas another the dimensions are diagonal eg from top left to bottom right. The diamond Lukas clearly said "screen area", so maybe your comprehension needs some work. Hopefully you can redo the maths on how the diagonal dimensions can be used to deduce the area
I would love that breakfast!
Is that butter next to the bread roll? And if so, what's the black stuff on top?
Saga Premium from my home airport (SEA) used to be significantly cheaper often 50% of the cost than a lie flat option to Europe on BA, VS and AF. However over the past 2-3 years whenever I price out my usual route FI is consistently just a few hundred dollars less than the full lie flat option to the same destination. Given the weak hard product I personally struggle to justify paying biz class pricing for a premium economy product. In its favour REK is a good transit option and much easier than LHR, CDG or AMS.
Even worse math there! A 10" screen has a surface area of about 42 square inches, while a 16" screen has a surface area of almost 110 square inches... Thus the size of the 16" screen is about 2.6 times the size of a 10" screen, or about 160% larger.
Not to poo on IcelandAir so much but their absolute refusal to do widebody on west coast-KEF is why I flew them exactly once. That flights pricepoint for what is offered is kinda meh.
Trip report:
Last time I took Icelandair it was called Icelandic Loftleidir and we flew on a DC8-63.
The stewardess’ were very pretty and the food was plentiful. I did not see Ben on my flight, or on a bus.
Kinda looks like Delta’s a321neo recliners; while fine for 3-4 hours, I wish they’d actually invested in lie-flat for the longer flights.
I flew from Seattle in the new seats and found them very uncomfortable because they did not recline enough. Could not sleep in that position.
The breakfast looks better than the usual eggs that somehow are smelly in the aircraft. I think the airline needs to consider their offering versus their pricing. Many used to fly with them because of their competitive pricing although the transfer was required.
It doesn’t work that way. You have to compare surface area of the smaller to the larger.
Flying Manchester (UK) to KEF on Monday AM - noticed flight changed from 737 Max 8 to a 321 so thanks for posting these pictures of the Saga Premium setup as I couldn't find any others for the 321 to compare the setup. Looks good for a 3 hour flight (return is still showing as a 757-200 which is a bit of a blast from the past but the seat setup looks much like the Max 8).