I decided to visit Bahrain and Kuwait in January 2018 for two main reasons: I have never been to these countries and I was really interested in them; and British Airways offered a very good value World Traveller Plus (premium economy) fare from my home airport in Iceland for only about 500 euros return which also allowed me to earn quite a lot of avios and tier points.
My routing:
Keflavik-London Heathrow, British Airways, Euro Traveller (economy) – you’re here
London Heathrow-Bahrain, British Airways, World Traveller Plus (premium economy)
Bahrain-Kuwait, Kuwait Airways, Economy
Kuwait-Dubai, FlyDubai, Business
Dubai- London Heathrow, British Airways, booked on World Traveller Plus (premium economy) but upgraded to Club World (business class)
London Heathrow-Keflavík, British Airways, Euro Traveller (economy) – not reported
Keflavik International Airport is located at 50 kms from downtown Reykjavík. Your options are driving (45 minutes), public bus number 55 (once every hour during daytime, 73 minutes, ISK 1840), Flybus (connecting with all flights, 45 minutes, ISK 2700), Airport Direct door-to-door minibus (once every hour, 45 minutes, ISK 2990) and taxis (45 minutes, ISK 16,000).
I arrived to the airport at 14.00. The terminal looks like this from the outside in January:
Theirs is a statue I’ve never understood but the official description says: The Jet Nest shows a big steel egg where a jet wing is peeking out like a little bird breaking out of it's egg.
There was no queue at check-in but anyway I checked in on-line the day before. I only had hand luggage.
The flights are unevenly distributed at Keflavík Airport. A lot of Wow flights leave between 6am and 7am for Europe followed by a similarly large number of Icelandair flights between 7am and 8am also for Europe. There are only a handful of other flights in the next few hours (BA, Easyjet, Norwegian, SAS), and then in the afternoon, as you can see on this photo, the same Wow and Icelandair flights leave for the US and Canada between 3pm and 5pm. There are usually a couple of Easyjet and Wizzair flights only in the evening.
There was zero waiting time at security. There’s a huge duty free after security.
The main area of the terminal looks nice with several shops and restaurants
I was through the automated passport control in one minute
There’s another duty free shop and a cafeteriaairside non-Schengen
My aircraft for today’s flight, built in 2010.
Boarding through jetbridge was already on the way when I got there. Business class (not for me on this flight) had the usual Eurobusiness configuration: standard seats with the middle seat blocked.
I selected an emergency exit room seat at no extra charge 7 days before departure due to my Bronze status. Very good legroom.
The cabin was in a very good condition with nice mood lighting.
Friendly cabin crew, at least two of them Italian - and an older Portuguese guy was especially talkative and friendly with the passengers.
The inbound flight came early and boarding was almost completed 25 minutes before scheduled departure time with one more person arriving at 15.00. The captain announced an expected flight time of two hours and 46 minutes. Push-back was already at 15.05 and take-off at 15.15, exactly at scheduled departure time.
British Airways has a buy-on-board policy in economy class on its European flights. Here is the menu:
My flight was in the afternoon. I had lunch at home and I was not hungry so I just had a coke.
The flight was uneventful. I was sitting comfortably, reading my guidebook and enjoying the quiet flight. Landing was at 18.10 and we were at the gate at 18.15, five minutes ahead of schedule. The automated passport control was very quick and I was in the underground at 18.35.
British Airway’s flight from Iceland arrives to Heathrow Terminal 5. As you can see almost all flights at this terminal are BA flights.
Thank you for reading my flight report.
Hi David, thanks for sharing this new series. I didn't know they had automated passport control at KEF now...fancy!
BA have had some really good prices for WTP lately. 500EUR R/T is a great deal, especially considering the additional avios/TP earnings for WTP.
Good thing you got an exit row seat! The 30" pitch in the normal Y rows is knee-crushing.
Thanks for sharing!
Thank you Kévin, it's my pleasure to publish these flight reports!