Icelandair just made an announcement that certainly bucks the industry trend. Generally we're seeing more and more airlines introduce premium economy. This is only natural as the size of economy seats continues to shrink, while the size of business class seats continues to increase. There's a market for people who are willing to pay a…
Continue reading: Surprising: Icelandair Is Eliminating Economy Comfort
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Is it too much to ask for an airline to offer a premium product with flatbeds for a redeye from North America -- particularly the West Coast? I can imagine a Delta SEA-KEF route with flatbeds being an attractive option for a lot of people who want to visit Iceland, but don't want to rough it on the way over.
I tried to get my Dad to do the 100k Sapphire Reserve and he said he couldn't spend 4k in 3 months lol. Then he got the Southwest for only 50k points for 2k spend. He wouldn't listen to me on how easy it is to spend $4k even without MS, just prepay some bills, but anyway I understand the advanced game is not for everyone!
As a Saga Gold member based in Iceland, I am dreading what this might mean for the Saga Club program. Right now, FI Gold elites get complimentary upgrades as a benefit, upgrades are available 90%+ of the time, and more times than not being upgraded to Eco Comfort means that you get to enjoy a Saga Class seat since they're moving the Economy Comfort cabin forward very often since Saga Class is rarely close to full, especially to Europe, and especially between October and April.
These complimentary upgrades from Eco to Eco Comfort are an important reason why a lot of us frequent fliers in Iceland stick with the airline. (The other of course being that WOW Air sucks, and that most other airlines only operate seasonally.) And while the vast majority of Icelandair's customers are international and just connecting at KEF, I feel that the share of us locals at this point is higher in the premium cabins, at least in part due to the Gold upgrades from Eco to Eco Comfort, and from Eco Comfort to Saga Class.
Also, I must disagree with Saga Class being just like Premium Economy on e.g. Lufthansa - while this is painfully true for the hard product, the soft product with nice pillows and duvets, noise-cancelling headphones, amenity kit with Blue Lagoon products, free WiFi, a somewhat decent wine list, and also the food, is easily more comparable to long-haul business on your average transatlantic flight.
No, “more fare options for a travel experience that best suits their needs”, doesn't mean anything. It's just like "we're eliminating food and drink in order to give customers more choices".
Do you have more details on this? Since the seats are different between Economy Comfort and Saga, do they need to reconfigure aircraft to implement this change, and how long will it take?
We’re booked in Economy Comfort HEL-KEF-IAD in July, both legs on 757s. Does that mean they’ll move us up to Saga Class instead? Our preschool-aged daughters will certainly like that! Quite a spacious seat for a 3 year old who is less than 3 feet tall and weighs 35 pounds!
It makes way more sense to me that IcelandAir should sell Saga class as Premium Economy. I tried Norwegian instead of IcelandAir SEA-LGW-OSL and it was ok. The experience on IcelandAir in Saga class is really nice though and I believe a reasonable value vs. World Traveller+ on BA or Norwegian's premium class. Even better as the connections in Keflavik are quick.
I wish there is a reverse herringbone seats option from West coast to Iceland. Instead, I have to haul ass to Europe and then fly back.... sigh.
Considering that it is an 'extra' long haul for an overseas flight, due to the fact that there is a mandatory stopover in Reykjavik, premium economy class is imperative for some travelers (i.e. elderly, handicap, etc.) I have used it a number of times myself and been very pleased with Icelandair's premium economy class.
With the upcoming change I will no longer be able to afford a full upgrade and for some unknown reason, there are no special or sale fares offered to Canadians as compared to US flyers. Sorry to say I will be searching for another airline with premium economy class.
Very disappointing. We really liked the Economy Comfort class with the blocked middle seats and the lounge access, and even had gotten an IcelandAir credit card to save up miles for another trip. We won't be able to afford the much higher price of Saga class. We had thought IcelandAir would be our airline. Now we will have to re-think this.
We are 4 people traveling in July YYZ- KEF-ARN-KEF-YYZ 2 Saga and 2 Economy Comfort. My question is will 2 of our company have to pay for the upgrade, if not what compensation will be offered for to the Saga couple. An explanation would be appreciated. James.