Happy New Year 2022 to everyone who started the year with a blast and expecting more in the coming days! I thought of writing about my recent experience with IcelandAir, which operates between the United Kingdom and the United States of America via Iceland.
This ICELAND was fascinating to me as I haven’t visited ICELAND in the past while my whole life was a lie thinking ICELAND would be full of ICE, factually, which wasn’t true. Still, I wanted to make it out through the meagre budget and other factors.
Started my journey from London Heathrow Airport to New York via Iceland. I went for the check-in, and I was informed that my seat was pre-assigned and could not be changed per my preference. I was presuming that it was due to the COVID regulations they have amended, which wasn’t true at the later point of discovery. I was informed that I can take only 1 cabin baggage and any additional bags are chargeable. Since it was a brief trip, I didn’t have much and was accommodatable within the cabin bag.
As they hadn’t seen my passport earlier, my counter staff went to the supervisor to check if she could board me into the AiAircraftAt the same time, at my next counter, there was a family of 4 to whom the counter representative said that their cabin bags were excess by 1.2 kilograms. They were furious and arguing with her, and she was not flexible enough. And, as they had an infant, they requested a positionable crib seat, for which she responded it is £50 per person, costing them £200 in total. They need to pay £60 for the same.
Most of the LCC or Low-Cost Carriers are such. While I was about to board, the ground staff of ICELANDAIR said that the water wasn’t allowed inside the flight, and I needed to bin the water before entering. I drank the complete water before entering the flight and was made to sit in a crooked window seat. I thought it was expected, but when I went inside, I realised the harsh truth and how COVID has treated the Airlines to become so cheap in everything.
Earphones weren’t provided to everyone; when I asked for one, I was told they were selling it for £6 and needed to buy them from the Galley. I don’t want to spend so much money on £1 earphones. When I asked for water for medicine, the crew came with a water bottle and a credit card terminal. Since it was unavoidable, I bought the water. After some time, the inflight service began, and when I checked, there was nothing for me. Canned soda was sold for £9/can. And everything was such.
Not limited to that, every time the crew walked from top to bottom, they were only with the credit card terminal. The worst atrocity was that the crew came with the masks before landing, selling them for £3 each and obviously the credit card terminal machine for charging the customers. Everything, literally, everything was chargeable on this flight. When someone asked for a blanket, they said it was £10, and I was like, aww.
To my understanding, only a couple of things were free, the first was breathing air inside the aeroplane and using toilets. This is clearly visible, making IcelandAir Europe’s Largest Asian Street Market selling things inside the aiAircraftike a local market.
