In Nelleke’s review last week, she reviewed the first leg of her Icelandair flight; in today’s blog, she’s taking a stab at the second leg: Icelandair KEF-DEN.
Nelleke is a Technical IT Director at Travelport, where she works with tripchi CEO CJ. We both work on the Universal API product.
Here’s Nelleke’s Review Part 2.
Icelandair KEF-DEN Review: Background/Tickets
For the background on this trip, check out my blog last week. I flew from AMS-KEF-DEN. You can also read more about the
Flight 2 – Reykjavik (Keflavik Airport) to Denver (Icelandair KEF– DEN)
Icelandair KEF-DEN Departure Airport #Layovertip
The Reykjavik (REK) airport is a nice, small, modern airport that offers free Wi-Fi (#layovertip) J There were a decent selection of shops and restaurants for such a small airport. Good opportunity to buy some Icelandic treats. I picked up some Icelandic licorice (Dutch and Nordics seem to appreciate good licorice) and chocolate bars that I did not recognize. There are famously unusual Icelandic foods, that I left for a next time. I went to Saga lounge: snacks: “heavy appetizers” and deserts. Coffee, tea, soft drinks, beer, wine were also available. This was definitely better food than on the flight.
Icelandair KEF-DEN Review Flight Details
- Route: Icelandair KEF-DEN
- Airline: Icelandair – FI 671
- Departure Gate: B28A (bus to plane)
- Arrival Gate: A
- Scheduled: 16:45
- Actual Flight time: 16:59
- Boarding time: approx. 16:15
- Scheduled Arrival Time: 18:35
- Actual Arrival Time: 18:31
- Air Time: 7h 13m (estimated 7h15m)
- Baggage Claim: International
- Aircraft type: Boeing 757-200, Tail Number TI-FIR
- Flight length: 7h 04m
- Distance traveled: 3558 miles
- Class: Economy Comfort
- Seat: 6A
- Load factor: looked pretty full
Icelandair KEF–DEN Review: Interior/takeoff
- Seating config: 5 rows Saga / 5 rows Economy Comfort class, and the rest was Economy.
- Overhead bin space : decent
- Feel of cabin : normal for 757
- Pushback 15 mins late, Captain explained basics (estimated flight time), smooth takeoff
Icelandair KEF–DEN Review: Seat
There are not many economy comfort seats, so I used Seatguru to pick mine. The aircraft did not have short-haul Economy Comfort seats, so we were in Business (Saga) Class seats. This time I was in the last row before the toilets, but it still reclined and was not busy.
The seats were wide, had good recline, but not to a flat position – pretty much what you would expect from a long-haul economy comfort seat.
The 10” entertainment screen offered an OK selection of entertainment (lots of old movies and a few TV series) and Flight Information (FLIFO). The screen sensitivity, however, was low.
There was in-seat power, but it tripped quickly when I was using and charging my enormous laptop simultaneously. Charging when not in use was fine. Another neat feature was the USB charger under the screen.
We got a very simple little pack, containing eye shades, earplugs and a mint.
There was Wi-Fi on board: €7 per device for the flight, free for Saga (business class).
Icelandair KEF–DEN Review: Meal/Purchased food/Drinks
Just like the first flight, there was no free food for economy. My pre-order did not seem to make it to the cabin crew once again. I chose the “Chicken Meal”: chicken rice and some vegetable. It wasn’t bad, but definitely not great. The meal choices can be found here.
Drink selection: wine, beer, soft-drinks, some spirits. Soft drinks were free in every class. All drinks but Champagne were free in Economy Comfort. Purchase prices: wine EUR 6, beer EUR 5, spirits EUR 6, Champagne EUR 13. I drank tea and water.
Icelandair KEF–DEN Review: Crew/Service
The crew was courteous and professional but not overly friendly. No big wows. The meal service very fast, and again, there was no hard sell of anything.
Icelandair KEF-DEN Arrival Airport #Layovertip
The arrival airport was in the International Arrivals area of DEN. Note – there is a very long walk to immigration. Also, immigration has changed recently at Denver. There is now a self-service part, based on your fingerprints. It hasn’t made things any faster though, as you still have to pass an officer based on the print you get out of the machine and there are fewer of those.
The wait on luggage was pretty long, about 20 minutes.
I was picked up at the airport. I’m looking forward to RTD public transport making it to DEN.
Icelandair KEF–DEN Review: Overall
The actual flight was smooth. It was a nice clear day, so I got to see some of Greenland, which is always a treat. We arrived on time. I like uneventful flights, so this was pretty good.
This was my first time on Icelandair and I think the experience was pretty good. They are something between a no-frills airline and a traditional one. Like Southwest, they still allow 2 cases on the US flights, which can be a bonus. They don’t have an app for the iPhone, but their mobile check-in was fine and allowed me to upload the boarding passes to my passbook. I do recommend bringing your own food.
They fly to a lot of locations in Europe, so definitely worth checking out if you are going somewhere else than the major airports. Plus it is often the quickest end-to-end option if you cannot go direct.
As I scan this route a lot, for family and myself, I have always seen their prices to be competitive. You may get a slightly better deal sometimes, but often they are at or near the bottom for prices. They do this cool deal where you can do an Iceland stopover for the same fare.
All in all, I expect I will be flying them again in the future and so I signed up for their frequent flyer program.