Icelandair 737-8 Saga Premium business class review from London to Reykjavik

This is our review of Saga Premium, Icelandair’s business class cabin.

If you’ve been reading my series on Icelandair, then you’ll know that the airline has a slightly different business model to its cousins in Europe. This is because Iceland’s position in the North Atlantic makes it the perfect stopover point between North America and Europe.

With Europe just three hours away and Boston, New York and the North East just over five hours flights are relatively short. Instead of offering a ‘proper’ lie-flat business class seat, as most of its transatlantic competitors do, Icelandair offers a recliner business class it calls ‘Saga Premium’.

Saga Premium is significantly better than the short haul business class you’ll find on European airlines owing to a full-size recliner seat rather than the blocked middle seat BA, Lufthansa and others offer. It’s closest to domestic First in the United States which offers similar seating.

Whilst Icelandair’s new A321 fleet is scheduled to operate flights to and from London, for now several services are flown by the relatively young 737MAX fleet. I believe this was my first flight on a 737MAX and, whilst no fan of the aircraft (I find the A320 family much more comfortable) it was a noticeable step up from my previous experiences.

Check-in and ground experience

I had no bags to drop off and had checked in online so I could have gone straight through security with my mobile boarding pass. However, I had a quick look at the Icelandair check-in at Heathrow’s Terminal 2 (Zone B). It was very quiet – just a handful of people in economy – and there was no queue for the Saga Premium desk.

Fast Track at Heathrow is included if you are flying Saga Premium, although I often find the fast track lane at T2 isn’t always that fast. It doesn’t feature the new CT scanners yet which means you have to take liquids and laptops out of your bag.

Once airside, Icelandair contracts the Plaza Premium lounge in the terminal (review here). Whilst it has won several awards in the past, these days it is almost always overrun with people. Now that the new No1 Lounge is open it will hopefully return to a less frenetic pace.

Onboard Icelandair’s 737MAX

The 737-8MAX is not a big aircraft and Icelandair has just four rows of Saga Premium on board, which equates to 16 seats in a 2-2 layout.

The seats in question are recliners from seat manufacturer Geven. They are very comfortable – more comfortable, I would say, than premium economy on most airlines. They felt sturdier and less flimsy, and with a thick cushion and padding all round. I was very content – this is a much comfier way to fly than the standard eurobusiness seat offered by other European airlines!

The dark grey colour scheme isn’t the most exciting but Icelandair seems committed to it:

The seats feature a foot rest as well as decent recline. Charging was available at every seat with a universal mains socket.

The tray table folds out from the armrest and can be adjusted, although I found it quite stiff on both my flights.

Since these aircraft also ply longer North American flights, each seat (including economy) comes with a personal TV screen and a surprisingly decent selection of films. Whilst the IFE software felt a bit bare bones (the system coming on the A321LRs is much slicker) there were a variety of films released in the past couple of years.

The four minute advert you have to watch to access it is a bit annoying, though ….

In Saga Premium, you also get some solid over-ear headphones.

For this day flight a pillow was provided and you could request blankets. On the return, both pillows and blankets were laid out on seats.

Water bottles from the brand Icelandic Glacial were at every seat. There were plenty to go round and more were offered after lunch.

A strange safety video that seems better suited to promoting tourism to Iceland than good safety practices was shown on the screens.

Icelandair, like Iceland itself, takes the Christmas festivities seriously. Icelandic versions of popular Christmas songs played during boarding and seem to be very popular. Even in Reykjavik, you’ll only find them playing Icelandic versions of classics such as Last Christmas and All I Want For Christmas Is You! It’s quite charming.

The drinks menu was also decorated in festive touches. I like it!

Wi-fi is free if you’re travelling in Saga Premium or have Icelandair status, or €12 for everyone else. I was able to work and browse perfectly fine with it and even managed to connect both my MacBook and iPhone at once.

Food and service on Icelandair

Service on Icelandair started with crew handing out headphones and drinks menus to passengers.

After take-off, crew took drinks orders which were delivered with a little bowl of cheese twists:

Icelandair serves Nicolas Feuillatte champagne and also features an extensive selection of mostly Icelandic gins in their gin library.

The crew were in no rush to serve the meal, which was fine by me as I had eaten breakfast in the lounge. About halfway through the three hour flight, they came round with a tray and presented the two-course meal to me. I particularly liked the Icelandair cutlery, which felt a nice design choice in an otherwise fairly plain interior.

Unfortunately, you don’t get a choice and, at least on the outbound, it was all cold. It comprised a gravlax salmon starter followed by a cold beef steak main. Both were delicious and felt like they were produced with high-quality ingredients, and although I was disappointed I didn’t get a choice and didn’t get a hot dish, I still enjoyed it. The crew were also very pro-active at offering additional drinks.

After dinner you had the option of tea or coffee. Finally, just before landing, the crew came round with a tray of small chocolates.

Conclusion

You may not have expected it, but Icelandair offers one of the best business class seats in Europe. The only airline I can think of that has an equally strong product is Turkish Airlines, which also operates 4+ hour flights to Northern Europe.

With no choice and no hot meals, the food and drink is less competitive: British Airways and many other European airlines will serve you at least a hot meal, and BA provides a selection of main courses on flights of this length.

Service from the crew was pleasant if quite reserved – perhaps this is the Icelandic culture? The crew were very good at offering more drinks and I’m certain if I’d had called for an extra drink after lunch they would happily have supplied it.

It’s probably your best option if flying to/from Iceland from Europe; from the United States, it’s more of a toss-up as the flights are longer and the lack of a lie-flat bed might be a deal breaker for you. Fares are generally lower when transiting through Reykjavik to the rest of Europe so, for the right price, it clearly makes sense for many people.

Unfortunately Icelandair is not in any airline alliance. It is a partner with Alaska Airlines (which is oneworld, so you could spend them on British Airways redemptions) and with JetBlue if you are looking for somewhere to credit your flight. Icelandair also has its own Saga Club programme – this has few partners but can you use your miles towards a hotel, car or flight booking on Expedia.

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