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Iceland Air changing seat assignments at the last minute

Last fall we bought our plane tickets to England from Iceland Air so we have a stop at Reykjavik, not a problem.
Iceland Air has been a problem. Too many changes!
We paid for and selected aisle and middle seat assignments in row 9 due to my husbands mobility issues so he can access the bathroom during the flight with less chance of falling. He is 75 and I am 73.

Iceland Air at the beginning of the year switched planes from a 737 to 757 they changed our seats then, we were assigned seats in row 12 but it was an aisle and middle seat, so further back but OK. We leave in less than 2 weeks and checked the website to make sure seats were still the same and guess what?! They changed our seating assignments again but this time to a window seat and a middle seat!!! Nightmare!!! Plus they are billing us $20 dollars apiece for seats we already paid for! Of course we discover this on a holiday weekend so no chance of talking to anybody.
This is our first AND LAST time to trust our travel plans to Iceland Air.😞.

Anybody else experience anything like this? What are the chances of getting our first seat assignments back.
Booking so far in advance I never dreamed we would have an issue. Help! Any suggestions?

Posted by
8430 posts

Did you try to call Icelandair or did you just assume you couldn’t get through?

I have flown them in 6 different flights and have been pleased. I think you will be able to work this out. Go ahead and contact them. You haven’t even given them a chance to make this right.

Posted by
31 posts

Yes called them this afternoon after we found the change. I was on hold for 45 min then was disconnected. That’s why I figured it was because of the holiday.
Will try again tomorrow. I did send them an email and got an automated response that they only respond to calls about flights that are leaving In the next 48 hours so I am in a queue until they get back to me. But I will keep calling too. Thank you for your response and glad to hear that someone has had good experiences with them and this is not their normal way of doing business. It gives me hope.

Posted by
269 posts

So sorry that you're having to go through this! I've flown Icelandair many times either transiting to go to mainland Europe or to vacation in Iceland and never had this sort of issue. I did notice the last time that we flew (Dec 2021) that they weren't the friendly airline that I had been accustomed to. Checking in at Keflavik for my flight home, the rep insisted that my bag was too large to be classified as a carryon, without checking size or weight. I wasn't really looking to argue, and since one person in our group had a large bag, we were going to baggage claim anyway. That bag had made countless trips back and forth through Iceland with never an issue. I have to think that since Covid, everyone is tightening their belt and changing the way they do business.

I'd suggest trying to chat someone from the airline on their help page, but I think that would only lead to more frustration. Are you anywhere close enough to the airport that you could go on an off hour and put yourself in front of a customer service representative ahead of time? Unfortunately, that seems one of the best ways to get customer satisfaction these days. I wish you all the best!!

Posted by
4557 posts

Going to the airport won’t work unless there’s an upcoming flight because Icelandair rents staff from other airlines. The only Icelandair staff in the US are at a call center in Massachusetts.

Regular economy gets free seat selection so you booked economy lite, then paid for seats? If you are checking a bag and want seat selection it’s cheaper to book regular economy.

I’m sure you don’t owe additional funds.

My experience with Icelandair is that plane changes happen and the seat selection gets messed up.

Posted by
31 posts

Iceland Air sent us an email billing us for the seats.
Hoping we can clear this up soon.

Posted by
269 posts

Wow, that's an interesting fact about the employees here in the States. I had no clue!

Posted by
2945 posts

justweetjs, I noticed the same thing with Icelandair. Our carryon was rejected in KEF, the same carryon we had used a dozen times before on Icelandair and elsewhere. They wouldn't measure or weigh it. I've had no other problems with them, but they do change airplanes and schedules a lot. I guess they're not alone, but yes, the traditional Nordic friendliness I recall from years past was much less prominent, which is likely due to an increase in rude and high-maintenance passengers.