Icelandair offers connecting service from North America to Western Europe through it’s hub in Keflavik Reykjavik Iceland. It also offers a proper business class recliner seat to and from Iceland, where many other European carriers offer an economy class seat with a blocked middle. How does Icelandair fare up on an intra-Europe business class segment?

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This post is one chapter on our trip to Jordan, Israel and France during the end of the pandemic. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards and Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

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Review: Icelandair Saga Premium Business Class Boeing 737-8 Max, Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2B – Reykjavík (Keflavik International Airport)

After a wonderful three day visit to Paris, France, it was time for our flights back home to North American. We purchased this ticket on a deeply discounted business class fare. We credited the miles to Alaska Mileage plan, earning 125% Alaska Mileage Plan miles and allowing us to obtain Alaska MVP and MVP Gold status for the year.

This flight was a similar but slightly shorter version of Icelandair Saga Business Class Reyjkavik – Madrid, along with our inbound flight to Paris on Icelandair Saga Business Class Reykjavik – Paris, so please feel free to check out those reviews if you want to see what another intra – Europe Icelandair Saga Business Class flight looks like.

This particular flight would mark my firth Icelandair flight and I have to say I’ve had a pretty good experience with Icelandair so far to date.

Boarding Icelandair at Paris:

After a visit to Icelandair’s contracted lounge Salon Extime Lounge Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2B, we wandered to the gate. We had a medium length walk along to Gate D67.

Although we checked in at Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2B, we actually had a Terminal 2D gate assignment. The two terminals are within the same building, so it wasn’t any issue to navigate between the terminals.

We walked along the spacey looking French contribution to aviation; the Charles de Gaulle airport concourses that look ever so bizarre compared to other airports around the world.

We found our brand new Icelandair Boeing737-8 Max aircraft parked at Gate D67. It was covered Icelandair’s newest livery, featuring a green stripe across the rear stabilizer.

We had a bit of a wait in order to board the aircraft. This was followed by a secondary wait on the jet bridge as we walked onward to board the aircraft.

Icelandair    

FI 545  – Saga Business Class (A)

CDG-KEF (Paris Charles de Gaulle Terminal 2D – Reykjavik Keflavik International Airport)

October 25, 2022

2:10 PM – 3:30 PM (scheduled)

Booked: Boeing 737 8 Max

Flown: Boeing 737 8 Max

On Board Icelandair Saga Class:

I was really interested to see what kind of seat Icelandair would install on their newest Boeing 737-8 Max aircrafts. Their current recliner seats are hardly state of the art, but they do serve the airline well for it’s short flights from Iceland to Europe and are passable for their longer flights from Iceland to the Americas.

After boarding the aircraft, we would discover that Icelandair has installed the exact same seat as on it’s older Icelandair Boeing 757-200 and Boeing 767-200 series aircraft. While hardly cutting edge, it does ensure some consistency in Saga Premium Business Class seating across all of it’s aircraft.

Icelandair Saga Premium Business Class seating on its Boeing 737-8 Max product is in a 2 – 2 configuration. There are four rows of Icelandair Saga Premium Business Class seating, for a total of sixteen seats of business class.

The seat storage offers overhead bin storage space on each side of the aisle. We had no challenges storing our rolling suitcases in the Saga Premium space.

We found our assigned seats 2D and 2F and settled in for the short two hour and thirty minute flight. The Iceland Air Saga Premium Class seats are a little bit more compact on legroom than on their long haul Boeing 757-200 and Boeing 767-200 aircraft. Admittedly, for a short flight, we didn’t notice it all to much.

The Icelandair seats offered Empower in seat power, along with a double pin headphone adapter in the centre console. There was also a sliding retracting table hidden within the centre console, which was convenient, but a little delicate for holding beverages.

Each seat had a personal television monitor. The television monitor had an ability to swivel and til to allow for minimizing of glare on the viewing angle.

Each Icelandair Saga Premium Business Class seat offered an individual foot rest for comfort. This is something that I have typically found on my flights on Boeing 737 – 8 Max’s to date.

The Icelandair Boeing 737 – 8 Max aircraft is a brand new aircraft. Along with other Boeing 737 – 8 Max aircrafts, it featured individual in flight seat nozzles for persona ventilation.

Icelandair names all of its aircraft with a plaque that is typically found by the front door. Today’s aircraft was named Landmannalaugar with registration TF-ICP.

Pre Departure Services:

We didn’t have much in the way of pre departure services on this intra Europe international flight. A bottle of Iceland Water was waiting for us at our seats when we sat down. There was also an individual antiseptic towel wipe.

Icelandair crew did pass out a noise cancelling headphone of the two pin variety. They were somewhat useful for the entertainment system on this short hop.

Overall, the Icelandair Saga Premium Business Class cabin was comfortable for the regional three hour business class flight around Europe. Even though the seat was a little more compact on the Boeing 737 – 8 Max product, there wasn’t much noticeable difference in flying this newest aircraft.

Departing Paris Charles de Gaulle:

We got underway fairly promptly. We had a long but speedy taxi way over to the departure runway.

In doing a little plane spotting, we were able to see the Air France Concorde jet that is permanently parked on display at Paris Charles due Gaulle airport. I find these displays at London Heathrow and Paris Charles de Gaulle to be pretty inspiring and a neat glance at luxury travel in a past era.

We climbed to altitude pretty quickly over France’s beautiful countrysides. With the sun behind us, we had pleasant views getting up to altitude.

In Flight Entertainment System:

Icelandair offers an in flight entertainment. The monitors are on seatback screens embedded in the seat ahead of you. The monitors contain a small swivel that allow for adjustment of the screen, in the event the person sitting in front of you reclines their seat.

There were a limited amount of movies on board with eighty seven different selection available. While it won’t match the largest mega carriers in terms of selections, it is more than enough for an occasional trip to and from North America when connecting through Iceland.

Our flight track today had us heading up through the United Kingdom and over to Iceland.

The Meal: A Breakfast

Once we were into the cruise altitude, the drink menu was dropped off. The drink menu was comprehensive and mirrored products on the Icelandair trans-continental flights.

Prior to the meal service being presented, we had a cocktail and beverage service. I enjoyed a Gin and Tonic, along with the usual Icelandair snacks

Lunch was delivered with the menu tucked onto the tray. Lunch today consisted of a bread roll with whipped butter with Icelandic seat salt, chicken salad with roasted sweet potatoes and basil oil, finished off with dulce de leche.

The meal was presented all together on meal tray. The meal was actually pretty tasty. MrsWT73 gave the dulce de leche high marks for the dessert.

There wasn’t much do to after lunch aside from stare out the window. We spotted the last of the United Kingdom before passing over the North Atlantic.

We had a really great crew serving us today. They were super attentive and pro-actively offered coffee refills, along with wive top off;s at almost every opportunity and contact.

Arriving to Reykjavik (Keflavik):

As the flight drew to a close, we had an approach into Iceland. The views arriving Iceland are always really interesting. The barren landscape and rocky lava landscape is pretty inspirational, no matter what time of the year you find yourself arriving.

We landed and arrived to the “C” gates at Keflavik International Airport. We fortunately were assigned a jet bridge. Without having to take a bus, we were set to get off pretty quickly.

Strangely though, we had a mad scramble by some other economy passengers running into the business class cabin prior to them opening the aircraft door. Being stampeded by others wasn’t something that you always saw. Perhaps, they had tight connections.

After we deplaned, we immediately into the Icelandair Saga Lounge – Keflavik. There were several on our flight connecting onwards on our next Icelandair Saga Premium Class Reykjavik – Seattle flight.

Generally speaking, it was not a bad first flight from Paris, although it certainly kills some time travelling through Iceland.

Lastly, my frequent flier points for this Icelandair flight successfully credited to Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan fourteen days after the flight. While it wasn’t the fastest credit, it posted without any intervention or request for missing points.

My Thoughts on Icelandair Saga Business Class:

Like I’ve written previously, Icelandair remains a more comfortable way to get to and from Iceland than the legacy mainline airline alliance carriers of British Airways and Lufthansa. The large recliner seats were comfortable and much better than the euro-business class offered with other European carriers.

While we aimed to fly their newest aircraft in the form of their Boeing 737-8 Max, the set up on this aircraft was just the same as on their legacy Boeing 757-200/300 and Boeing 767-300 ER products. There were no notable differences between the two products, and the friendly Icelandair service was present throughout.

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Have you flown the new Icelandair Boeing 737 – 8 Max product?

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