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Iceland Air

There seems to be a lot of questions concerning Iceland Air service. I recently travelled with them. Here is what I found.

The airplanes are all 757's and seem very well maintained. Their fares are usually cheaper than other airlines but they are literally the Spirit Airlines of International travel. You will pay extra for everything except a coffee, tea, or water once a flight. The boarding system is chaotic. Bring an old pair of earphones to plug in to the seat entertainment system or pay for wifi. You can upgrade, but for the price, just buy a ticket on Virgin or British or Delta etc... You will get far better service. And yes - they arbitrarily have people put their carry-ons in the size checking box so make sure to have the correct size carry-on that they demand.

Lastly, they seem to select customers at their discretion to have special passport and security checks. Evidently it will show on your boarding pass as the letter s four times in front of your name. They do this in Keflavik. If you have the S's, Get Ready. You're in for multiple stops through the passport control and boarding process, including completely emptying your bags and stripping down any extra layers of clothing. You will also receive extra scrutiny and some attitude throughout your flight by the cabin crew. A seatmate from India as well as a black man in front of me both got the treatment.

Posted by
2952 posts

SSSS (referred to as "she sure seems suspicious") is random and can happen at any airport/airline. For example, my ex-wife, a white senior, had this in Frankfurt once with Lufthansa. The other issues are all transparent and identified on their website. They should not come as a surprise. As for sizing carry-ons, wouldn't it be nice if all gate personnel checked carry-on size and enforced the rules so that anyone with a proper carry-on could be sure of getting overhead space? Keflavik is not the only airport where this is done. Also, they use many 767's and 737 maxes

Posted by
3058 posts

Yes, the SSSS has nothing to do with the airline itself. My daughter, white and in her 30's, got the SSSS at AMS last summer.

As for Icelandair, we love it and have only had one issue, and that was a cancelled flight, but we were put on the later flight that night so no big deal. We fly them a lot, as Iceland is where we go most often. Service has always been excellent for us. We adhere to the baggage size and weights, so that is not an issue.

Posted by
17072 posts

Actually, the 737 Max is the main aircraft used by Icelandair. They are phasing out the 757 in favor of the Airbus 321 Neo. The Airbus has a better range.

I sat next to an Icelandair pilot a few weeks ago and he told me all of this.

The airlines have nothing to do with your getting the dreaded SSSS. It's up to the security computers.