WOW airlines

All airlines operating in the US and Europe are safe - they are highly regulated. Airline safety has increased across the board over the past few decades, it has never been "as safe" to fly as today. They have new planes, so that means they're going to be clean and modern. There is nothing to worry about, except that this is a budget airline so you have to make your own trade-offs with the unbundled fares. Make sure you know the "full" price of everything you want (food, luggage, seat assignment, etc).

Budget airlines don't cut corners (I think that's why you mentioned the "safety" issue). They just have a different fare structure, labor agreements, and much lower costs than legacy carriers (they save a lot on labor costs and fuel costs because they're not saddled with high-senority pilots/ crew, and their planes are more fuel efficient and require less maintenance because they're new).

I've flown them twice in the last 8 months Chicago to Iceland to Paris.
The International Airline Traffic Association (IATA) and/or definitely the most strict of first world governments the UK and USA would not let them fly into their airspace if they were not safe, remember that forever.
As clean as most airlines, name an airline you consider unclean so I get an idea what you mean. They have only been around five years so the aircraft are newer than some the legacy airline. You just pay to carry on your bag, or check your bag, bring your own food and inflight entertainment or rent one of their ipads and you are good to go.

Yeah like the previous poster before you buy the ticket pay for everything that you think you are going to need otherwise the price to do that goes up; no room to be wishy washy if you want to maximize the deal taking a flight with Wow

I once flew between St Petersburg and Moscow on a Russian domestic airline and don't want to repeat the experience. The plane was grubby, stank of bleach (I don't want to think about what they had to clean up), the plane rattled and creaked, seats were stained and the pilot thought he was still flying a MiG fighter. When we approached Moscow, I thought we'd been shot down or we were commencing a strafing run.

But that was Russia, and sixteen years ago. As has been said already, European and American airlines aren't allowed to operate that way.

Why would Europeans run unsafe, dirty planes?!

WOW are an expanding airline.

As with all no-frills carriers, please check all their baggage size and weight restrictions before you book and stay within these limits, otherwise, it will be a costly flight.

Not to restart old discussions, but the news recently reported an analysis of germs found at airports and in planes. Germs at airports The bottom line is that any place with lots of human contact is going to be a potential source of germs. And, think how difficult it is to clean these places. Short of sealing an empty plane and pumping in some type of disinfectant, how would you adequately clean an airplane? So I'm not sure any airline is really cleaner than another.

I carry little alcohol wipes and wipe the tray table, etc., which may do little but make me think I'm doing something helpful. Otherwise, watch what you touch and wash your hands as much as possible.

I've flown two round trips from Baltimore to Paris with WOW. I personally like them.

I'm a carry-on only traveler. It costs extra with WOW to check a bag or to use a full size carry-on. I downsized my carry-on to fit anything, including Ryan, so the limit doesn't bother me at all.

WOW charges for advanced seat assignments - but the $9 they charge is tiny compared to what many other airlines are charging. You can pay even more to get preferred seating, I think up to $37 (per leg) to sit behind a bulkhead.

They charge for food too, which also doesn't bother me because I'd rather get sleep than stay up for airplane food. Bottom line, if you want something beyond a seat on the plane with a small carry-on, there is likely an additional charge. They also sell packages of batched services at a fixed price that may be a good idea for people who want extras.

For me, the price is great. Different travelers would have to weigh what they need to see if the price still beats the competition. I've also found they have amazing last minute flight deals on any unsold seats. If you can travel on short notice, it's worth looking for.

The planes all seem brand new. They are the latest model planes, at least as nice as any other airline. The staff speak English and Icelandic. Usually Icelandic first, followed by the same message in English.

The flights all stop in Iceland. Since the great circle route to Europe goes over the north Atlantic, it's probably the most convenient one-stop flight you will find in terms of duration. You enter Schengen in Iceland and the wait times for customs/immigration are as minimal as you can get. When I landed at CDG, I left the terminal with my carry-on, no need to line up to have my passport stamped - a really nice bonus.

On one of my return flights, we were late leaving Paris because the Reykjavic runway was closed for crosswinds. A downside of flying through Iceland is airlines don't have convenient alternative landing sights, so the weather minimums required to take off are tighter. We took off about 1 1/2 hours late and landed about an hour late. The landing was fairly hairy, you could feel the pilot using a lot of rudder to counter the crosswind, but safe. WOW flights converge on Iceland en masse, passengers transfer and the outbound flights all leave within a couple hours, it was predictable that many of us, more than 60, would miss our connection.

I was perfectly happy with how WOW handled it. They directed us from the plane to a customer service counter, who directed me to a bus waiting outside, the bus took us to a hotel who gave each group a room for the night with instruction to return to the lobby for dinner. Dinner was pizza and soda. Most of the stranded passengers hung out in the lounge for the evening. I now have a handful of Facebook friends I met there. The hotel posted our flight information next to the reception desk. When I went to bed, two people were still waiting for flight details, but they were set by breakfast. The complaint I heard was that passengers weren't given a long, personal explanation of the airline's plans for them. The airline simply told them the next step. Personally, I preferred not having to arm wrestle the airline to get a food or room credit. A lot of airlines you'd be sleeping in the terminal buying your own meals.

The next day we had breakfast and lunch, paid by the airline, then a couple of shuttle buses to get us to the airport where we caught flights. My biggest complaint was my substitute flight was to Boston with a Jet Blue connection to Baltimore. By the time I got back the MARC trains weren't running. I went to BWI using public transportation so it was very expensive to get home.

I've also flown one round trip to Paris on Icelandic Air. It's essentially the same experience with free baggage, food and entertainment.

I've been looking at WOW for flights too. I swore I would never fly into Iceland again, but like childbirth, you tend to forget the unpleasant parts for the great things. I loathed the airport in Iceland. One of the worst, if not THE worst airport experiences I've ever had. HUGELY overcrowded, not enough seats at the gates - or anywhere - for all the people, one shop in our concourse - no restaurant - to serve the thousand or so people that were there - crowd estimates are not my thing, but there were so many people that it had to be thousands. And grossly - trash cans overflowing with food on the floor, etc. I don't need luxury - I've been at the most basic of airports outside of refugee camps in Kenya for my job - and they were nicer than this.

I know they're dealing with unprecedented growth in travel to the country, but they were not ready for it when we were there in July 2016.

What's strange is that there seems to be widely varying experiences by travelers through this airport, evidenced by comments made on these forums. So, it may have just been my experience (and the experience of about 50% of the people) and the others said it was great.

So, depending on my motivation to travel for the right price, WOW may be worth it. I'll just go into it expecting an unpleasant airport experience and hopefully be surprised.

There’s a in-flight review of WOW on yesterday’s (Feb. 6) The Points Guy feed. The writer gives a good insider review, and what he called it was hilarious. Personally, I would fly WOW if given the opportunity.

What Brad said. We like WOW very much. Great airline on every level. We flew SF-Paris r/t.

Unlke Brad’s hotel experience, our plane from Paris was late by a couple hrs and they held the plane to San Francisco for us (“us” being 1/2 the plane)

We loved the airport. Looked new, super clean, not crowded, great seating, nice stores, great bathrooms and the food was outstanding (although expensive. Food is expensive in all of Iceland, wasn’t the airport jacking up prices like they do at SFO).

The Iceland airport is a work in progress right now. It's a construction site. There definitely aren't enough seats around the gates. Otherwise it's easy to navigate and quick to get through. The connections are fairly tight with on-time flights. I've found I have time for customs/immigration, restroom stop, stop at the snack bar for yogurt, muffin and tea, then a short wander through the duty-free shops to marvel at the prices (not in a good way) before getting to the gate in time for boarding.

I've flown WOW four different times...each one was just great. And yes, know what you're getting into. There aren't free drinks and snacks being handed out, and if you've got luggage, obviously you'll see that in the pricing. Our experience was that all aircraft were as clean as a whistle, and all crew members were friendly and pleasant. And with awesome retro uniforms!

Brad and Will, I think we should get a kick-back from WOW... 😂

For nervous flyers, I'll note that the EU does have safety and operational requirements for a carrier to be allowed to operate in their airspace and land at their airports. And does have a lengthy banned airlines list for those carriers they feel are not up to standard. Some info here:

https://ec.europa.eu/transport/modes/air/safety/air-ban_en

I flew Wow Air last september to Iceland and it was perfectly fine. It was absolutely a bare bones/no frills experience but that is to be expected given the price. Everything on the flight will cost you more from bringing a carry on, to reserving a seat next to your co-travlers, to having a glass of water in flight (make sure to bring a container of water or fill one up at the airport as we were very thirsty but refused to pay 5 USD for water so just flew home thirsty hahaha). We had no problems at all and the staff is very friendly. We are flying with them again this year.

We found WOW planes and flight attendants to be nicer than some major airlines, like United for example.

We’ve flown Ryan Air and that was bare bones, I didn’t feel WOW was bare bones at all. Yes you pay “a la carte” but it is still way less than most other airlines. I like paying a la carte and only getting what I need. The food in Iceland, and on WOW, is very high quality and I appreciated that very much.

I think bottled water on any airline, or at any airport, will be expensive compared to a grocery store.

As I said in a previous post, I think WOW is a very good airline, at a very good price. Much nicer and cheaper than United and it’s equivalents.

Iceland plans on spending up to $1 billion over the next 7-8 years upgrading Keflavik airport.

Keflavic Airport Upgrade

My hubby wants to know "do the seats recline?" or are they like Spirit in the upright position.

They do recline.

Yes, they recline. They're set up like pretty much every other major airline. As I recall, Frontier also has seats that don't recline, but they do mostly shorter flights.