Flying Saga Class on IcelandAir | Flying Business Class

After our short stay in the Virgin Atlantic lounge at Boston Logan International Airport, we were ready to board our plane to Iceland. Did you know that a flight from Boston to Reykjavik, Iceland is only about 4 1/2 – 5 hours?  That’s right! Do you know what makes that flight even better? Flying Business Class also known as Saga Class on IcelandAir.  Last year I flew in Economy Comfort class to Iceland and I liked that bump up from Economy, as you can read in my post about that flight. Our flight was set to take off at 8:35 pm and we were scheduled to arrive at 6:40 am. Consider the jet stream working in our favor and other variables and the five hour time difference and it all starts to make sense.

From the second that you board the aircraft, you are taken care of in Saga Class onboard IcelandAir. The flight attendant will take your jacket, offer you sparkling wine and a bottle of water, provide you with a toiletry kit and a case containing high quality headphones, and a hot towel.

The large leather seats measure 20.5″ across and the seat pitch or distance between seats is 40″ total. There are only four seats in a row so the cabin doesn’t feel cramped whatsoever.

On every seat is a cloth, either to protect the seat or to protect your head I guess, and each one has a different Norse god. We flew four IcelandAir flights during our trip and I kept getting Thor. Perhaps it was a sign?

All beverages, including alcoholic beverages, soft drinks, tea, and coffee, are included as well as meal service. The toiletry kit included some of my favorite items from L’Occitane, which always make me very happy. Other items include a sleep mask, socks, ear plugs, a toothbrush, L’Occitane dry skin hand cream, L’Occitane verbena body lotion, and L’Occitane moisturizing lip balm.

Our plane took off and we were on our way to Iceland. Each seat in Saga Class and Economy Comfort has an electrical outlet as well as a USB port, which allowed me to charge my iPhone in flight. The video screen is a touch screen and is not always as responsive as one might like, but it works. During your flight you can watch movies, television shows, or listen to music. Unfortunately, the movies and television shows were exactly the same from my last flight in February. You aren’t going to catch the latest Hollywood release or even watch a recent episode from your favorite program. However, if you are like many people on a longer flight who like to kick back and fall asleep, you probably won’t notice the programming at all.

Shortly after takeoff, the flight attendant passed out the menus and took drink orders. The left side of the menu was wines and the right side was food, while the top half of the menu is in Icelandic and the bottom is in English.

Drinks were distributed along with a small bowl of warm seasoned nuts. Don’t know what they used, but my husband loved them and ended up eating his bowl and half of mine. They were good, but clearly he liked them better than I did.

I should mention that our cabin was nearly empty with only the two of us and one other couple a few rows ahead of us. Our drinks were always kept full and we were always attended to during the entire flight.

I had contacted IcelandAir asking for vegetarian meals for our flight and so when it was delivered, I was excited to see what the offering would be. I started thinking almost immediately that this was not a good idea as soon as the meal was presented.

Underneath the metal foil sat a bland meal of vegetables and rice. Although I absolutely adore miniature everything, for some odd reason I abhor baby corn and yet, there they were. I ate the vegetables, but the rice dish was so strange that I left that alone. The salad was bland, but edible and the fruit was good, but it was fruit. I did grab a roll to supplement the meal and let’s just say I’m glad I did. I’m going out on a limb here and thinking that there probably aren’t too many vegetarians in Iceland.

I decided to sit back and try to take a nap since I knew I would be exhausted the next day. That never happened and I ended up watching “The Hangover” followed by “The Notebook.” With the cabin lights dimmed, I was able to doze off for a short time before breakfast was served. The coffee was nice and strong and the croissants were soft and warm. In between all of this, you could purchase duty free items with the flight attendant.

Overall, the flight was a comfortable one for us in Saga Class, but I do wish the seats were different as you can’t push the seat back terribly far. Food was mediocre at best, but that’s based on the vegetarian meal. Unfortunately, on our flight from Iceland to Copenhagen, which was a morning flight only one day later, we were served the same exact meal for breakfast. Luckily, we were able to ask the flight attendant if she could grab us a veggie sandwich from coach, which she did, but I wonder why she didn’t anticipate this on her own? The flight attendants do work hard to make passengers comfortable, which I will say made up for the bad food. For the price of the tickets, I would have preferred better food and seats and having said that, I would probably save my money and fly Economy Comfort in the future, which is what I plan to do next month. The perks of flying Saga Class, besides the obvious bigger seat, includes business lounge access, more checked luggage, and priority boarding.  You’ll have to decide for yourself if these items warrant the larger price tag.

Landing at KEF (Keflavik Airport) was an easy landing and we were off the plane relatively fast.  My next post will cover exiting the airport and getting to Reykjavik so make sure you come back to read more Iceland travel tips and all about our adventure.