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Iceland Air question


jimjoe
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We are looking to fly out of Minneapolis to Amsterdam pre-cruise and was looking at Icelandair. It has a 70 minute layover in Reykjavik. Is this enough time to get through customs? We had a huge line-up at customs in Belgium one year and it took about 2 hours to clear. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Bob

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I doubt you'll go through customs until you reach Amsterdam. I haven't flown Icelandair, but that has been my experience when flying from the US to Europe via other European airports (London Heathrow and Dusseldorf, Germany).

 

Were you connecting to another flight in Belgium, or was that your final destination?

Edited by NancyIL
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There's a difference between customs and immigration. It's confusing since some places like the US combine the two. You will very likely pass through immigration (i.e. passport checks and stamps) in Reykjavik, since that is your entry point into the Schengen zone (the collection of European countries where you don't have border checks).

 

Customs, on the other hand, involves declaring any goods you're bringing into the country (or being searched for them), and in Europe this typically happens at your final destination when you collect your luggage. (There are some exceptions, but it's quite uncommon to need to collect and re-check your bags.) Most of the time you barely even notice it, because it simply means walking through the green "Nothing to declare" door to exit baggage claim.

 

As for the connection time, everyone I've known who transited Reykjavik said that it's very quick and convenient, and an hour was more than enough time.

Edited by kaisatsu
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We are looking to fly out of Minneapolis to Amsterdam pre-cruise and was looking at Icelandair. It has a 70 minute layover in Reykjavik. Is this enough time to get through customs? We had a huge line-up at customs in Belgium one year and it took about 2 hours to clear. Any help would be appreciated. Thanks, Bob

 

I've flown Icelandair twice recently, both flights with layovers in Reykjavik (Keflavik airport.) I have had less than 1 hour layover time on both flights. There were no issues. The airport is small and easy to navigate. You will have no trouble with your layover time. It is helpful to research the airport map and layout before your trip. From your arrival gate you will proceed up an escalator (or elevator or stairs, your choice) to passport control. This is because you are entering an EU country (Iceland is EU.) From there your passport will be stamped and you will go to your departure gate. The gates don't have a lot of seating, so it is good the wait time is short between flights.

We choose to fly Icelandair over some of the others - great service and less stressful international travel.

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All flights to and from Reykjavik (Keflavik Airport) are operated as a hub for transit flights. They generally arrive depart within a set time window to ensure all connections are made. The airport is efficient, clean and easy to find your way around.

 

We found that the shortage of seats at the gates was a challenge for some but the wait is usually not too long.

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I've flown Icelandair twice recently, both flights with layovers in Reykjavik (Keflavik airport.) I have had less than 1 hour layover time on both flights. There were no issues. The airport is small and easy to navigate. You will have no trouble with your layover time. It is helpful to research the airport map and layout before your trip. From your arrival gate you will proceed up an escalator (or elevator or stairs, your choice) to passport control. This is because you are entering an EU country (Iceland is EU.) From there your passport will be stamped and you will go to your departure gate. The gates don't have a lot of seating, so it is good the wait time is short between flights.

We choose to fly Icelandair over some of the others - great service and less stressful international travel.

Replace EU with Schengen and this is correct. Iceland is not a member of the European Union, but is part of the Schengen Area.

 

Though many of the members of the EU and the Schengen Agreement are the same, there are also differences. First there are non-EU members of the "borderless" Schengen Area: Iceland, Norway, Switzerland and Liechtenstein. Then there are microstates of Monaco, San Marino and Vatican City that have not signed the treaty, but have open borders with the surrounding member states. There are also EU members that are not part of the Schengen Area. Of the old EU members United Kingdom and Ireland have not joined the area. In addition there are new EU members that have not yet met the requirements to join Schengen: Croatia, Romania, Bulgaria, and Cyprus.

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We've used Icelandair many times. As others said, all planes come together in Iceland and the same time so that folks can connect to their flights to Europe or North America. The planes usually wait for delayed connecting passengers, so the time there will absolutely fine.

 

You will show your passport in Iceland and already enter the Schengen zone. You luggage will be checked throuh to your final destination, where you will go through customes (walk through the green or red door depending on whether you have something to declare).

Edited by Alex71
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Are passports stamped in Iceland? We will be staying there several days enroute to our cruise and are hoping for a stamp! I love the ease of traveling within Europe freely, but miss having a stamp from each country visited. Even when we took a high-speed ferry from Spain to Tangiers a few years back, and passports were checked, we still didn't receive a Morocco stamp:(.

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Our recent flight from DEN to KEF was delayed by 40 minutes due to a storm in Denver. Our connecting time was about an hour for a flight to LHR. We simply exited the plane, I don't recollect going through passport control, went down an escalator and arrived at the bottom to find that our gate was right there! We just showed our passports+boarding passes and boarded. Our bags even arrived with us in LHR!!!

Edited by Alaskanb
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Our recent flight from DEN to KEF was delayed by 40 minutes due to a storm in Denver. Our connecting time was about an hour for a flight to LHR. We simply exited the plane, I don't recollect going through passport control, went down an escalator and arrived at the bottom to find that our gate was right there! We just showed our passports+boarding passes and boarded. Our bags even arrived with us in LHR!!!

 

The UK is not part of the Schengen area. Therefore, flights to LHR depart from the the non-Schengen part of the terminal. Here's a terminal map that shows the position of the passport control: http://www.kefairport.is/resources/Files/PDF/Flugstodskjar-enska-11-1s.pdf

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  • 2 weeks later...

Hope someone can help with the flip of the OP's question.

 

I'm looking at an Iceland Air flight from LHR to BOS with an overnight layover in Iceland, 11½ hours. Has anyone had this type of layover either in this airport or another? Just wondering if we should plan on getting a hotel room or hang out in the airport for that length of time.

 

thanks

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Hope someone can help with the flip of the OP's question.

 

I'm looking at an Iceland Air flight from LHR to BOS with an overnight layover in Iceland, 11½ hours. Has anyone had this type of layover either in this airport or another? Just wondering if we should plan on getting a hotel room or hang out in the airport for that length of time.

 

thanks

 

Do not try to wait in the airport itself, it really is not suited for that sort of arrangement and you would not be very comfortable. But there are airport hotels within a couple of miles offering some choices.

 

Iceland is really geared to people either passing through as same day transfers or short break stop-overs for a day or two in Reykjavik.

.

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Hope someone can help with the flip of the OP's question.

 

I'm looking at an Iceland Air flight from LHR to BOS with an overnight layover in Iceland, 11½ hours. Has anyone had this type of layover either in this airport or another? Just wondering if we should plan on getting a hotel room or hang out in the airport for that length of time.

 

thanks

 

With that long a layover, staying at the airport would definitely not be fun. If you're going to book a hotel then why not extend your trip with Icelandair's "free" stopover for at least a couple of nights? That way you can experience the "Golden Circle" and/or the Blue Lagoon if not just Reykjavik itself?

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We decided to stay 2 nights and have a full day to "do" the Golden Circle tour with Reykyavik Excursions (RE). We stayed 2 nights at the Northern Light Inn and really enjoyed it. RE will pick you up from there, and return, if you make e-mail arrangements with them.

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Hope someone can help with the flip of the OP's question.

 

I'm looking at an Iceland Air flight from LHR to BOS with an overnight layover in Iceland, 11½ hours. Has anyone had this type of layover either in this airport or another? Just wondering if we should plan on getting a hotel room or hang out in the airport for that length of time.

 

thanks

 

We were in Keflavik this past May. Definitely book a hotel room and do consider a slightly longer stay if possible.

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We had a seven hour layover, arriving at 11:30 pm and departing at 6:30 am. We had decided to stay at the airport, since there would really not have been enough time to take full advantage of a hotel room, factoring in that it would have taken an hour to get off the plane and out of the airport and that we would have wanted to be back at the airport two hours before our conecting flight.

 

The airport is clean and modern, but relatively small. There are a few restarants and some shops including a convenience store that sells beer and some snacks. Everything closes between midnight and 1 am and reopens around 4 or 5.

 

Airport security also closes over night, which means that it is not possible to get back airside if you leave the airport. It sounded like some backpackers had a party landside / in the check-in area, but I was not able to take a closer look since I would not have gotten back.

 

Also, although we were there in August, flying back from the US, it was very cold in Iceland. We would have loved to take a walk outside the airport, but it would have been to cold for us without jacket.

 

Would we do it again? Possibly, if the price is right. This connections saved us around 1200 EUR on our four tickets. If our layover had been slightly longer, we would have reinvested some of the savings into a hotel room.

Edited by Alex71
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We have flown Icelandair several times out of JFK going to Europe. Each time we arrived at almost midnight, took a taxi to a Keflik hotel, slept, had hotel breakfast about 9am, left hotel at about noon, caught a 4pm flight to Europe. So, staying overnight worked well for us as long as the next days flight time worked out.

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Thanks for the replies everyone. An extended stay is not possible and we will have already been to Iceland on our cruise prior to the flight there to return to the states.

 

In case you decide to overnight at the airport, at least make sure you have a jacket and a blanket with you...

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