Icelandair Reviews 471

I paid to be upgraded from their Economy Light to their Saga Premium. However, I was informed I would not be receiving the included "premium" meal that was being served to all the other passengers in Saga Premium, and that I could only have the bagel I had pre-ordered and paid for when I originally made the Economy Light booking.
It was a shabby, costly, and extremely disappointing experience.
I will not be rushing back to fly with Icelandair again, and would never recommend upgrading to their Saga Premium. It's too expensive, and with no guarantees you will actually receive the service you have paid for.

Their fees and the implementation of the fees is just absurd. No respect for partner airline status. Nothing reasonable. They will charge you for seats (fine) but then not refund the original seat fee if you move to different, more expensive seats, which we needed to do as had to move to front as connection timing was tight. Then their definition of a roller bag appears different to any other airlines, just fractionally enough that they can hit you up for fees at the airport. Another good trick they do is to intake the largest duffel bag first before the scam begins making any repacking of the roller bags impossible. Fortunately other more reasonable airlines exist, so use them instead.

No food on a 6+ hour flight included in tickets costing over $1500.

Charged me $130 to check a carry on bag at the check in counter because the flight was full. I have NEVER experienced this from any other airline. If the flight is full and they can’t fit your bag then any other airline checks it for you for free at the gate as standard.

They are the very epitome of a greedy airline looking to get every single sent out of you. Disgusting.

NEVER flying with them again.

We, a couple, paid £40 extra for extra legroom seats next to each other. At the gate to board, they told me I was on standby (my partner wasn't??) and they then put me on the plane, last, in between two strangers, many rows behind my partner (who got the seat he had paid for - in the exit row. The person in the seat I was meant to have had a broken arm - which I would think is unsafe for an exit row). When I then requested a difference, they said they would look at the difference in seat prices. I would never ever have paid to sit in a middle seat away from my partner, absolutely insane
Iceland air do not care about customers, at all

This is in all regards the worst airline experience I have ever had. Icelandair managed to lose both of my checked in bags in Vancouver, despite the fact that I checked in 3.5 hours before departure.

I have since received one of them, but my other one remains unaccounted for. I have called their incredibly unhelpful phone line 2-3 times each day since it happened, and they are so incredibly unable to and unwilling to offer assistance. All they do is to immediately blame the bagage handlers and state that they can't do anything.

At the end of the day, Icelandair is responsible for the bags which they seem to forget.

0/10 experience, and I will never in my life fly with this airline again, and I would certainly discourage everyone else from doing so as well.

I have traveled all around Europe on many budget and non budget airlines (Easyjet, Ryanair, British Airways, Lufthansa, Aerlingus, Aegean) and Icelandair was by far the worst! It is the most budget you can find. As with other budget airlines, your carryon must be a limited size. Easyjet and Ryanair and others all have metal labeled containers where you insert your bag in to see if it fits. Not Icelandair, No! Instead they have a CARDBOARD BOX that you can’t push your bag into because it might rip. And it is smaller than their listed size of 55x40x20. My bag always fits into Easyjet's smaller size of 45x36x20. I have flown it numerous times with the same bag (I legit flew easyjet last night from Lisbon to London and haven’t changed anything in my bag). So how does it fit in the smaller sized containers and not in Icelandair? The reasonable conclusion is that Icelandair's cardboard box is smaller than their posted size. So, they required that I pay £101. If that's not a SCAM, then I don't know what is. They know that you are at their mercy at check-in. You have a nonrefundable ticket and clearly aren’t going to leave your bag behind so you are forced to pay the excessive fee of £101 ($141). I only booked on Icelandair because I thought it would be fun to have a layover in Iceland as opposed to another city I’ve already been to. However, Keflavik airport is such a mess! It was impossible to even get food before my next flight boarded due to the crowds. And of course they don’t offer any food or drinks onboard unless you pay. It’s just a terrible airline in many regards: unfriendly staff, uncomfortable seats, overly crowded airport, and most importantly, scamming people for additional revenue upon check-in.

Terrible airline. Paid 100 dollars for extra legroom only to be told in the email confirmation that it was a non reclining seat. If this had been advertised as such I’d never have ‘upgraded’. I called customer services to request a refund but no, no refunds ‘company policy sir’. The rude customer service agent called Arnold (753AA) was unwilling to help or offer any solution that didn’t involve me paying more money. Avoid this airline like the plague.

I knew it was no frills prior so I wasn't shocked that you didn't receive any free drinks. It was the only international air travel I ever had that did not give free beer and a meal, you had to pay. At least Boston to Reykjavik was only 4 hours. Left at 10PM and arrived before 7AM (5 hour difference). Luggage came out fast!

I got told by the purser that because no one else complained my complaint about ice cold food in business class was not valid, and since I got annoyed the pilot was standing there casually telling me we didn’t get amenity bags and had to beg for it because climate change didn’t existed (sarcastically of course). It was the worst business class I have ever experienced,Amsterdam -New York via Keflavik. Rude staff, dirty planes, cold and not edible food, above all rudeness of the staff, never had such an experience before and usually not a person that complains easily but this was -10/10, first and last time with this airline. My god, like they hate you for flying with them….

I thought spirit air was bad. Rude service. They might as well charge to use the bathroom. Unorganized would be an understatement
I will NEVER fly this airline again thank God other carriers service iceland

I recently booked an Icelandair flight through MyTrip.com, and just a few hours later I needed to make a simple change or request a refund. Icelandair clearly told me that MyTrip is responsible for handling any updates or refunds and that there should be no extra fee within the first 24 hours.

However, when I contacted MyTrip, they refused to help and told me to contact Icelandair instead. I am completely stuck between the airline and the agency, with both sides blaming each other. Icelandair confirmed that MyTrip can make the change or refund, but Icelandair didn’t take any real steps to help me or communicate with the agency on my behalf.

This has caused a lot of stress and wasted time. As the airline, Icelandair should ensure customers are not left trapped in the middle and should provide better support and clearer coordination with third-party agencies.

Very disappointing experience.

This is by far the worst flight company I’ve ever flown with. Flight was cancelled, got no compensation for time missed even tho we first got there 32 hours later. Expenses during the delay was supposed to be covered but they denied it afterwards. No drinks or food on and 8 hour flight to Orlando, have to pay extra for everything, even the earphones to watch movies, simple things that EVERY other Company gives you. Please for your own sake, stay away from Icelandair

Incompetent and Stressful Experience

Icelandair has truly been the Ryanair of Iceland in the worst possible way. I attempted to reserve seats for my family on a flight to Orlando. My two sons are 6'6", so we always pay extra for legroom. The total was £945 for return seats and two bags. Icelandair took the money from my account immediately, yet still claimed the payment “didn’t go through,” blaming a mysterious “currency issue.”

My bank confirmed twice that Icelandair already had the funds pending, yet the airline insisted I needed to pay again. I spent over three hours on the phone, speaking to staff who contradicted each other at every turn. When I asked for a manager, I was told, “we don’t do that.” Instead, they said they’d send me a payment link to pay the £945 again — a link which never arrived. Four hours later, still nothing. Called again, same issue. Another agent tried sending the link to my husband’s phone — again nothing. Then suddenly there was also a “system issue” and they claimed emails weren’t sending at all.

To make matters worse, I asked if my seats could at least be held while their system was failing, and they said no — my seats would be released after 24 hours and they “can’t hold them.” So despite trying to pay in advance, I risk losing the seats next to my own children because of Icelandair’s incompetence.

When I asked for a refund of the flights so I could book with Virgin instead, I was told, “you can see about that if we don’t fix the system in time.” Unbelievable.

This has been one of the most stressful booking experiences of my life. The lack of professionalism is staggering. And to top it off, charging an extra £945 for two bags and seats on a cramped 737 for a 10-hour flight is daylight robbery — more expensive than BA or Virgin.

I will never fly Icelandair again. Absolutely appalling from start to finish!
**UPDATE**
4 days later Icelandair just get worse. They have stolen £945 from my bank account refusing to acknowledge the transaction. Call centre in India I presume going by the accents of the "customer service" dept. Today again I tried to speak to someone regarding this DOUBLE PAYMENT REMOVED from my account for seats together and 2 bags, the man at the end of the phone called me "a liar" saying and I quote "you did not pay £945 to reserve seats and bags, it doesn't cost that much, more like £400" ASTONISHING accusation considering I'm looking at the email receipt confirmation of these seats and 2 bags. He still accused me of lying, I ended up swearing at this arrogant, unprofessional idiot and and he put the phone down. 4 days, ZERO assistance from Icelandair, total refusal to let me speak to a manager "we don't do that" 4 days ago I was told a manager would call me, it's never happened. I now have to wait 30 days for my bank to get this money back but I'm now contacting my solicitor regarding all of this as all the calls to them have been recorded on my business phone👌 STAY CLEAR.

Yet another low cost airline. You have to pay for everything apart.
Customer service is subpar and their systems are annoying (i.e: chatbot is absolutely useless, forms to make claims refreshes everytime you move to another app and they have combo menus with limited options, in my case with my problem not listed).
Eventually they solved some of the issues I had (that they created in first instance such as damaged luggage and changing my seats separating my children from any adult).
Would I use it again, maybe if it is supercheap and I meditate 3 days ahead that service is not their priority.

I purchased a business class upgrade for $300 USD for a return flight I had to the United States. When I arrived at the Keflavik Airport, they told me they accidentally overbooked the flight and they'd have to downgrade me back to economy class. They promised to refund my $300 in full and they still gave me lounge access at the airport as a small gesture for the screw-up. It is now more than two months later and I have not yet received my refund for the downgrade. I've contacted customer support 3 times and each time they were "unable to issue the refund" and told me I'd have to take the issue to the claims department. The most recent time the customer support agent said that because I used lounge access at the airport, they can't refund my upgrade. I told him that is absolutely insane; first of all, the $300 was for the class upgrade in the plane, NOT the lounge. Secondly, lounge access was given to me as a courtesy for them screwing up. He wouldn't budge. Absolutely deceptive business practices.

So now the official claims department of Icelandair is purposefully ignoring all of my emails and wont address my issue even though I have an active case number. Avoid this airline at all costs.

I recently flew with Icelandair to Orlando and was left very disappointed. For a seven-hour long-haul flight, there were no complimentary meals at all — only paid options like sandwiches or a small pot of soup. For a flight of this length, this felt far below the standard I’m used to with other airlines.

I also had some bad luck before travelling. I booked through an agent, and just four days before the flight my wife broke her foot and couldn’t fly. Icelandair told me to speak to the agent, who cancelled the ticket but said it was non-refundable, with only a chance of getting back a small portion of airport and fuel charges. I asked Icelandair whether they could offer any kind of upgrade or goodwill gesture, given they would be reselling the seat, but was told no.

In the end, the airline resold the ticket and I received nothing in return. Combined with the lack of basic meal service, the whole experience felt inflexible and unsupportive.

Based on this, I won’t be flying with Icelandair again.

0⭐ Extremely Disappointing Experience with Icelandair

I recently flew from JFK to Manchester with Icelandair, and it was honestly one of the worst travel experiences I’ve had. I will not be flying with this airline again.

To begin with, Icelandair does not provide complimentary earphones for their in-flight entertainment system. Every other airline I’ve flown with offers them for free, so it was incredibly frustrating to discover that Icelandair charges extra for something so basic.

On top of that, meals are not included on this journey. For a long international flight, this is completely unacceptable, especially when most airlines provide at least one meal as part of the ticket.

Overall, the service felt cheap and below industry standards. Between the lack of basic amenities and the feeling of being charged for every little thing, this experience was disappointing from start to finish.

Never again.

Worst airline I have ever used, no more using this airline.

They changed my flight time from Akureyri down to Rejavik domestic,making it impossible to catch the Flybus at 2pm from the bus terminal out to Kevlavic to catch my 16.20 flight back to the UK.
Refused to listen to why I would miss that flight.
So I booked EasyJet for £54. No hassle, no stress. Treated like a valued customer even though it was fully booked flight (wonder why!).
Guess who I'll be travelling with next time.
Icelandair may struggle to survive looking at so many upset reviews.

Bagggage scam. Take passengers to Iceland and then ask them to pay additional for baggage.