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Home » Trip Reports » Review: Icelandair 767-300ER Business Class
Flight ReviewsIcelandair

Review: Icelandair 767-300ER Business Class

Matthew Klint Posted onOctober 2, 2019November 14, 2023 9 Comments

a large airplane on a tarmac

If you’re looking for a lie-flat bed, Icelandair’s “Saga Premium” business class is certainly not for you. But if you’re looking for excellent service at a good price point, Iclelandair is worthy of consideration.

A $512 fare drew to me to Icelandair. That was more than fair for a nine-hour flight from Reykjavik to San Francisco, but I cannot see myself paying much more for what amounts to an upscale premium economy seat.

The aircraft was parked at a remote stand, so passengers queued up in the gate area to board a bus to take us to the aircraft. The bus was delayed, trapping a gaggle of passengers in essentially a small holding pen in the gate area for far too long.

a group of airplanes on a runway

a man standing next to an airplane

Icelandair 863
Reykjavik (KEF) – San Francisco (SFO)
Tuesday, August 20
Depart: 05:oo PM
Arrive: 06:55 PM
Duration: 08hr, 55min
Distance: 4,204 miles
Aircraft: Boeing 767-300ER
Seat: 5A (Business Class “Premium Saga”)

Jumping off the bus, I sprinted up the stairs in order to capture a few pictures of the business class cabin before it filled with passengers.

Icelandair 767-300 Business Class Seats

Icelandair’s Premium Saga Business class features 25 seats, spread over five rows in a 2-1-2 configuration. Seats are really more like premium economy class seats…recline is very limited and legroom is sufficient, but not generous. In short, the seat is like a domestic first class seat in the USA or Australia or a premium economy seat on British Airways.

a plane with black seats

a plane with seats and people in the back

a row of seats in an airplane

the seats on an airplane

a seat with a pillow and a bag on it

a seat on an airplane

a seat on an airplane

a seat on an airplane

a seats on an airplane

That said, there were certainly some business class touches like a very comfortable blanket and pillow.

a blanket on a table

a white pillow on a laptop

I was not able to sleep/nap on this flight, though the daytime hours of the flight also contributed to this. This seat would be a no-go if I wanted to sleep on an overnight flight in the opposite direction.

Icelandair 767-300 Business Class Cleanliness

The cabin was not very clean. I found trash, including food, around my seat.

a piece of paper on a black pole

a close up of a grate

Icelandair 767-300 Business Class Lavatory

I changed into my pajamas on this flight, giving me a chance to check out the lavatory shortly after takeoff. While very spartan, it was clean. When I changed out of my pajamas toward the end of the flight, the lavatory was still clean.

a sink and toilet in a bathroom

a sign on a mirror

Icelandair 767-300 Business Class IFE + Wi-Fi

Seatback monitors provide a selection of movies, TV shows, and music. A total of 55 movies were available and there was only I found interesting that I had not already seen: V is Vendetta…all the way back from 2006.

a screen shot of a computer

a screenshot of a computer

a screen shot of a computer

a screen shot of a computer

a screen shot of a computer

a screen shot of a computer

a screenshot of a computer

a screenshot of a computer screen

a map of the world

a screen shot of a computer

a screen shot of a computer

Business class passengers receive free wi-fi onboard. I was looking forward to high speed internet onboard this flight and it did work well…for the first two hours. Then it cut off and remained off for the rest of the flight. With a fairly limited IFE library, I actually had a few moments to pull out a book in read.

a close up of a card

a card with text on it

Not because I did not have work to do, but because the in-seat power port did not generate enough juice to keep my laptop charged. This is a recurring problem with my three-prong laptop plug. I was able to find a workaround by plugging in my adaptor into the plug, then using a USB C to USB C cable between my laptop and the adaptor. While that was not sufficient to charge my laptop up, it did stop the drain (at 18%).

Noise-cancleling headphones were provided.

a black case with a blue stripe on it

a pair of black headphones

Icelandair 767-300 Business Class Meal Service

Icelandair offers all passengers the chance to pre-order meals up to 48 hours before the flight. Economy class passengers receive a 10% discount when they pre-order versus pay onboard.

Unfortunately, I blundered in failing to pre-order a meal for this flight, even though I booked months in advance. I was really looking forward to trying Icelandic lamb, but wound up with a choice between a cold tapas platter or beef short ribs. Here’s the menu for the flight:

a menu on a table

a close up of a menu

a white paper with black text

a menu of a restaurant

a menu of a restaurant

a close up of a label

a menu with a picture of a bottle and text

a menu with a bottle of wine

a menu of a drink

a menu of a drink

a menu with black text

Service began with a choice of beverage and cheese biscuits. Preparing for the red meat, I ordered a glass of red wine. A hot towel was also offered.

a white towel on a black surface

a bowl of food and a glass of wine on a table

Meals, like in premium economy class, were served on a single tray with appetizer, main course, and dessert. No salad or soup was offered.

a plate of food on a tray

The appetizer was lemon-marinated Arctic char with pickled fennel and dill seed aioli…the best part of the meal.

a plate of food on a table

Braised beef short ribs can be hit or miss on an airplane. If they are stringy and tender, it’s one of the better airline dishes. If well-done but not tender, it is one of the worst. I won’t say the main course was horrible, but let’s just say I preferred the potatoes, mushrooms, and green beans to the beef.

a plate of meat and vegetables

a plate of meat and vegetables

a fork with meat on it

I skipped the chocolate and caramel mousse for dessert, but drank a cup of coffee.

a cup of coffee next to a dessert on a plate

Flatware:

a metal bracelet on a table

a close up of a knife

a close up of a knife

Snacking

Dinner after takeoff was the only formal meal service of the flight. Throughout the rest of the flight, snacks were available, including:

  • Olives
  • Cheese
  • Pringles
  • Nachos
  • Almond/cranberry mix
  • Protiene bar
  • Stroopwafel
  • Chocolate

Business class passengers can also request food from the economy class buy-on-board menu.

Five hours into the flight I was hungry once again and ordered some junk food…including potato chips, a stroopwafel, and a tapas box that included meat, cheese, breadsticks, and bruschetta.

food and drink on a table

food and snacks on a table

a package of cheese on a table

a piece of meat in a package

a package of food on a table

a package of food on a table

a can of beer next to a glass of water

a can of potato chips

a package of waffles on a table

To go back to my theme, this was more like a premium economy offering than business class. I should not have eaten this junk food…it gave me a pretty back headache soon after.

A couple hours before landing, I requested a pizza from the back. It was soggy, but tasty.

a box of pizza on a table

a small pizza in a box

a slice of pizza with cheese and herbs

Icelandair 767-300 Business Class Amenity Kit

An amenity kit included hand lotion, lip balm, and moisturizing spray from Hannes Dottir, an Icelandic brand. Contents also included a dental kit, earplugs, eyeshades, socks, and “do not disturb” stickers.

a small grey and black pouch on a grey surface

a group of items on a table

a group of white containers with green text

a hand holding a sign

Icelandair “Icelandic” Touches

Icelandair offered many Icelandic touches, including the catering, bottled water, Hannes Dottir products, and instruction in the Icelandic language on pillows, blankets, and seat covers.

two bottles of water on a tray

a white fabric with black text

a white fabric with black text

a close up of a fabric

a close up of a quilted surface

Icelandair 767-300 Business Class Service

I won’t say it made up for everything, but service was very nice, especially by flight attendant Lara. She was kind and attentive. I really appreciated her wonderful smile and her dutiful monitoring of the cabin throughout the flight.

Service is such a critical aspect to the business class experience and I appreciate so much when flight attendants do not just disappear between meal services but keep an active eye on the cabin.

We landed on-time in San Francisco.

CONCLUSION

Check your “business class” expectations at the door and you’ll enjoy friendly service. Pre-order you meal and you can enjoy a genuine Icelandic speciality. But don’t expect a lie-flat seat or even generous recline…that’s not the Icelandair model.

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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9 Comments

  1. Francisco Reply
    October 2, 2019 at 7:56 pm

    Your reviews are probably the best out there, and are pretty interesting. However you’ve been posting in disorder (yerevan, then out of knowhere you are in bali, then you are in SFO, then you are in germany, etc.)and it makes it less interesting. Just an advice, i know it’s your blog and you post as you see fit.

    • Matthew Reply
      October 2, 2019 at 8:01 pm

      Thanks for reading and fair point. I’ve been traveling very erratically lately and the trip reports are not so much out of order so much as me just choosing not to post the same old United or Lufthansa reviews that I have posted so many times in the past.

      For example, this trip was BUR-SFO-FRA in United Business, then FRA-VIE-EVN on Austrian, then EVN-ATH-TXL on Aegean, TXL-CPH-KEF on SAS, KEF-SFO on Icelandair, and finally SFO-BUR on United.

      This was just a couple weeks after I did LAX-BNE-DPS on Virgin, DPS-SIN on KLM, SIN-SFO on United…

      Oh, and there was a BUR-SFO-LHR-MAD-BCN-IAD-DEN-BUR flight in between those two trips.

      I’m curious, are you interested in the reviews on the European segments, where there is not much to write about?

      I’ve just been focusing on flight segments I think readers will find more interesting (or I feel like writing about).

      • Francisco Reply
        October 2, 2019 at 11:49 pm

        Thanks for your answer. I’m from Colombia so for me is pretty much flying Avianca all the time. Therefore i would be interested on the European flights since it tells you what to expect. Early this year i got the chance to try Ryanair and easyjet. I never expected that Ryanair would be more comfortable than easyjet, so yes, i would be totally interested. I understand that a lot of your readers maybe are not though.

  2. Paolo Reply
    October 3, 2019 at 7:25 am

    I find it very odd indeed that they only offer 1 meal on a 9 hour flight, requiring J passengers to make do with that awful junk from Y.
    The whole show looks very ‘cheap and cheerful’, and I agree that this is a day flight only choice.
    It’s very similar to Jetstar ( Australian LCC) business class.

  3. Ak Reply
    October 3, 2019 at 11:40 am

    interesting, but…

    Most of us care about the hard product and the elephant in the room is the middle single seat.

    Business class is half about leg room plus direct isle access for u and no one climbing over u.

    Next time u have a chance to review this cabin, it would be interesting how those middle seats work out and how much disruption there is by having two isles and no direction to lean in to avoid isle traffic.

    Also, cushion width, total width and obviously seat pitch would be helpful if looked on as mandatory metrics. These are not subjective and thus, very helpful. And no, SeatGuru doesn’t always get it right.

    • Matthew Reply
      October 8, 2019 at 9:16 am

      If you want a single middle seat review from another airline (United), see below:

      https://liveandletsfly.boardingarea.com/2019/09/10/united-airlines-767-400-business-class-review/

    • profan Reply
      October 8, 2019 at 5:24 pm

      it would probably be better to have the seats in 2-2-1 configuration for direct isle access from 4/5th of the seats (instead of 3/5 as is now)

  4. David Cleveland Reply
    October 8, 2019 at 6:10 pm

    My spouse and I flew Icelandic Business Class from Paris to Iceland to San Francisco in the summer of 2019, Your description of the aircraft and service matches our own – not much legroom, not a lie flat seat, but decent food/beverages, entertainment, and very good to excellent service. Our major disappointments were with with the ridiculous check in process at CDG, the unorganized boarding processes, and the crowding at both CDG and Iceland gates.

  5. syble Reply
    October 25, 2019 at 2:52 pm

    Worse airline I have ever flown with

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