Review of Icelandair flight Reykjavík → Glasgow in Business

I have been planning to visit Shetland and Orkney for a long time, and I also wanted to try the world’s shortest flight between Papa Westray and Westray.

My itinerary was:

Keflavík to Glasgow, Icelandair, business
Edinburgh to Shetland Sumburgh, Loganair
Shetland to Orkney Kirkwall, Logainair
Orkney to Westray, Loganair
Westray to Papa Westray, Loganair
Papa Westray to Orkney, Loganair
Orkney to Edinburgh, Loganair

Icelandair’s pricing policy is different for economy and business. Economy fares are one-way based which means that a one-way ticket costs roughly half of a return ticket. At the same time one-way business class tickets are usually overpriced while return business tickets can be very reasonable. So what to do if you have to travel one-way and you want to be on business class without spending too much? Just book a one-way economy directly on Icelandair’s website; wait until a couple of days before your trip; you’ll most likely get an offer for un upgrade bid; offer just a little bit more than the minimum (about 19,000 ISK) as there’s no need to offer a high price; you’ll be upgraded more most of the time.

Most of Icelandair’s flights to Europe leave early in the morning between 7.00 and 8.00 but fortunately the shorter flights such as the one to Glasgow, Dublin, Oslo or Bergen leave later at around 10.30 so you don’t have to get up too early. Reykjavík is located at 50 kms from Keflavík Airport. I left home at 8.10 and I got to the terminal at 8.50.

I already checked in on-line and as I only had hand luggage, I could go directly upstairs to security control which offers priority access to business class passengers. I was through security in about five minutes.



There’s a large duty free shop right after security with the biggest choice of alcohols and chocolate in Iceland



The main part of the terminal has a nice glass roof



Non-Schengen flights usually leave from gates D.



Icelandair’s business class lounge, called Saga Lounge, is near gate A15. Don’t go through passport control otherwise you won’t be able to access the lounge



The lounge is upstairs



Access to the lounge is mostly for Icelandair business class passengers and various card holders. There’s no paid or Priority Pass access



The entrance of the lounge



I like these old photos



The lounge is large and was not crowded at this time of the day



Breakfast spread is very similar to what you would find at a better mid-range hotel



Beer, wine, soft drinks and coffee



The view from the lounge



The automatic passport control gates were not working and there were only two agents. The queue seemed first to be long but I was through in less than five minutes. There’s a shop after passport control



Most aircrafts in Icelandair’s planes are B757’s. The name of this particular B757-200 is Öræfajökull, tail number is TF-ISL and it was built in 1992. It’s clear that not the latest planes are allocated to the Glasgow route.

As most of you probably now Icelandair has a US First Class-type business class with proper seats in a 2+2 configuration. It is much more comfortable than most of the intra-European business classes but not as much as most of the long-haul, wide-body planes offered by Air France, American Airlines, British Airways, Delta, Lufthansa or just any other airlines.



Legroom is very good for a short-haul flight but it is smaller than what most long-haul flights offer.



A bottle of Icelandic water was waiting at the seat



Headphones were later distiributed



Push-back exactly on time at 10.30 and we took off at 10.45 from runway 01



Good views of the airport



The weather has been very nice most days in May and early June in Iceland and this day was no exception. View over Reykjavík



Hveragerdi, Selfoss and the Ölfusá river mouth



Eyjafjallajökull. Do you remember its famous eruption?



Myrdalsjökull



South Iceland



Lunch menu was distributed shortly after take-off



Soft drinks



The wine menu



Other drinks



Gin library




This is how lunch was served. I choose the first option: Mountain chair, salmon, reinder paté and hunter’s sausage. While it was a cold meal it was very good



A close-up of the main course



Dessert was the famous Icelandic skyr



The in-flight entertainment offers currently 56 different movie



A large number of TV shows are also available



The music library includes 475 items



We entered Scotland here



Nice views before landing in Glasgow



We landed at 13.32, two hours and two minutes after take-off. TF-ISL after landing



I was through passport control in a few minutes. I took bus 500 to Glasgow than the train to Edinburgh. It cost me only 8,50 plus 13,20 pounds and was probably just as fast as driving, about 90 minutes including connection time between the bus and the train.

Thank you for reading my flight report.