Iceland-based discount carrier Play Airlines announced it will begin connecting Boston and Baltimore to Europe via Reykjavik in the spring. The company's leadership is largely old WOW Air executives. I like the livery.
Posted by
Philadelphia, USA
247 posts
You beat me to it, I just came here to post this. I was made aware when a flight alert site I’m signed up for emailed me a flight to Barcelona for $185 round trip! I was shocked. Very tempted to book a short budget getaway next summer. With travel insurance of course because you can’t really trust old WOW employees (or the covid situation)
Posted by
Philadelphia, USA
247 posts
When I did some dummy bookings, carry on bags averaged $41 each way (which includes priority boarding but that isn’t much value to me). Over $50 is for a checked bag. And in the age of Covid, direct flights to Europe are much more rare and easily at least 3 times the cost of Play. If you can fly to Paris for $500 less than the next traditional airline and the detour through Iceland adds 4 hours to your trip, I feel like most people would consider that worth it. Now if they’re only saving $100, I think less people would think it’s a fair trade off
Posted by
Edmonds, WA 🌨 ☂
11875 posts
I cannot recall a more unfriendly airline site to use/navigate.
The 'add-ons' amount to 50-60% of the basic fare, (without checked baggage)
The question is, will PLAY, SPIRIT or FRONTIER be the first to charge to use the loo.
Posted by
Northamptonshire, England
33819 posts
I guess they are after the leisure market. I can't see a road warrior turning in expense accounts for "Play" flights....
Posted by
Philadelphia, USA
247 posts
I was looking at their Boston to Berlin route. Even their fee schedule doesn’t have any carry on bags listed for $50. Maybe you were looking at checked bags? Or baggage prices if purchased after initial booking. https://www.flyplay.com/optional-fees
Maybe it’s because I haven’t really looked at Icelandic air until this year, but I never found their prices to be any cheaper than United. I feel they started off very budget and then just slowly creeped their prices up. But also, the prices during covid are very different than what they use to be so not sure how fair of a statement that is.
Posted by
Atlanta, GA, USA
2790 posts
I honestly can't think of a worse time in history to be trying to launch an airline. Book at your own risk
But as a business traveler? . No it wouldn’t bother me to put play airlines on my expense report. Why do you think anyone would even care?