#919237 by Sealink
27 Mar 2016, 14:17
My “get through winter with short breaks” plan didn’t start as a plan at all.
It was a desire to visit Iceland and hopefully see the Northern Lights, which would see me through January and February. (Skip to the end: I didn’t see the Northern Lights). So way back in November I had booked a four night break, thanks to a great deal with Icelandair and booking.com.

Even if I am travelling with friends, as I was this time, we all book separate rooms/hotels/ and I find that the Icelander packages were quite punitive to the single traveller, hence booking separately. That does bring its own risks which I am sure are well documented but I was assured that no volcanic eruptions were expected (or planned for your conspiracy theorists out there).

Icelandair had also invited readers of the webpage to nominate a route and a date for its aircraft “Hekla Aurora” to operate, so naturally I suggested 17th March from Heathrow.

The weather forecast was poor – and it turned out, inaccurate.

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I do think the BBC errs on the side of caution with their forecasts. It rained a few times but there were also days of clear skies.

I didn’t bother with overnight hotels this time, (even though it was lunchtime flight) but opted for the Heathrow Express, as the thought of the Piccadilly Line on a Thursday morning was too much for me to bear! Armed with a double strength coffee served by the chirpiest pair of baristas I have ever met (they were so happy!) I waited for the train.

Educational coffee cups. I approve.

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My route was Honor Oak Park to Victoria, Victoria Line to Oxford Circus – cross platform change to Bakerloo Line to Paddington. This was effortless. (NB – Paddington Station will be closed to Bakerloo Line trains from 2nd April to mid August!)

I remember Paddington Station between dark and dank, as there was years of work taking place to repair the roof. The Paddington station today was flooded with light and a much nicer place to wait for a train.

Heathrow Express was every 15 minutes (the week before they had to withdraw all trains due to a fault which meant halving the frequency, but things are back to normal)

I bought a ticket to Heathrow (£8 more than standard class) and was surprised at the 1-1 lay out and comfortable seating and surroudings.

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Heathrow Express is seriously pricey. I used this trip as an opportunity to sample the First Class service. It was very nice but you are basically paying for speed. What I hadn’t appreciated was that the station at Heathrow is miles* away from Terminal 2. *slight exaggeration

After what felt like hours I was in the warm bosom of The Queen’s Terminal, easily my favourite at Heathrow, far surpassing T5. It has this lovely air of absolute calm which I really like.

I asked Icelandair about upgrades and was quoted £562 O/W, totally outside my comfort zone so I politely declined.

I had to print a few pages for my travels, and the staff at Heathrow told me the only place to do that was at the Plaza Premium Lounge, for £1 a page. As I had a DragonPass (!!!) I was entitled to use the lounge and they printed the pages for free.

The Plaza Premium Lounge is actually the first one I have used that is on a par or exceeds the airlines own lounges. A selection of hot food, gorgeous bar and lots of sweet treats. The lighting completely detracted from the fact that there are no windows in the lounge – it was a really nice place to spend time.

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11am on a Thursday seems a good time to visit!

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The only downside was the lack of towels, tissues or anything to dry hands in the loo.

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I headed to gate A18 and to be absolute delight, look who we would be flying on!

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I received a text and email to say my flight would be delayed to 1250. Which was odd as scheduled departure was 1300.

There was a huge group of school kids boarding and who were sitting all around me. They were a credit to their school. A little boisterous (but who wouldn’t be?) but polite to everyone.

This was my first Y flight in some months (excepting an easyJet and BA Domestic) and I was really very impressed with Icelandair’s offering.

First off, legroom was more than BA’s new Club Europe.

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The crew were really excellent, very friendly and professional.

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All the seats had inflight entertainment. I had read reports that some of the selections were old and there were no new releases, but I found three episodes of Modern Family which I hadn’t seen before, three episodes of It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia which I had but stand up to repeat viewing; Family Guy, lots of Big Bang Theory and the latest Star Wars movie.

Hekla Aurora is an older plane (comparison with aircraft home) and I think it was a stroke of genius from Icelandair to detract from that with the northern lights theme. I am sure this works amazingly well in the evening.

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I got settled quickly in the comfy seat and watched Heathrow go by…

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Up Up and Away!

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Soon we over flying over Northern Ireland.
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In Y, Icelandair offer a BUY ON BOARD service which I was keen to sample.
Soft drinks, tea and coffee are free.

The humour on the menu appealed to me. Pricing was odd – look at the price of that yogurt!

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The packaging is attractive, and this was a good sandwich!

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I paid for Wifi and watched our progress on PlaneFinder. WiFi was GBP 7 and was about the same speed as 3G, really not worth it unless you need to check emails etc.

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An enjoyable flight and soon we were over Iceland.

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The arrivals experience was a surprise – I assumed Keflavik would be a smallish airport but it felt like you had to walk miles to get to arrivals. It’s in the middle of a transformation (I changed planes there once, in the 90s, and it was all beige and carpet) – there’s lots of light everywhere with lots of new shops and restaurants.

With hindsight, I would have prebooked a taxi for the four of us. The FlyBus is OK, but you wait until every seat is occupied, and then you have to change to a minibus to get to the hotel. All a bit of hassle. But much better than Gray Line (my friends picked that one) and they had about a 20 minute wait AFTER my bus had left. See what happens when they defy me…

The journey from the airport is pretty uninspiring, unless you are inspired by lava fields.

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My hotel was the Reykjavik Centruum Hotel, and was really rather lovely.

My room was in fact a “single”, yes, with a single bed! But lots of light as it was on the corner.

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A daily Happy Hour from 1700-1900 offered 2-4-1 beers, wine and cocktails – perfect for pre dinner drinks!

Time to go an see what Iceland has to offer…
#919239 by Daffodil
27 Mar 2016, 14:41
Thanks for the wonderful informative TR and great photos.
We went to Iceland last May.
We had a hire car and drove around the Golden Circle and to the Blue Lagoon ourselves. It was very easy to do and we had plenty of time to take in the wonderful scenery and main attractions. We also visited the Icelandic Museum and a few art galleries.
I hope you had a great time.
#919243 by honey lamb
27 Mar 2016, 16:46
Pricing was odd – look at the price of that yogurt!

Ah, but, more importantly, how much was the G&T?
#919246 by pjh
27 Mar 2016, 18:06
Another great TR, thank you.

I like the educational coffee and the suggestion for passing the time with yoghurt...
#919248 by Sealink
27 Mar 2016, 18:32
honey lamb wrote:
Pricing was odd – look at the price of that yogurt!

Ah, but, more importantly, how much was the G&T?


A bargaintastic two miniatures for €8, with free tonic. :-)
#919257 by honey lamb
27 Mar 2016, 21:16
Sealink wrote:
honey lamb wrote:
Pricing was odd – look at the price of that yogurt!

Ah, but, more importantly, how much was the G&T?


A bargaintastic two miniatures for €8, with free tonic. :-)

Definitely bargaintastic!
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