iceland

[flare3192]

We are looking at the Southampton to reykjavik. Silver Seas includes air and I am wondering about that. We are coming from Atlanta. I was planning to upgrade to business class to London but there is no real business class from Reykjavik so did not think it would be worth it. There are no direct flights so we would need to fly through NY or Boston.

First question is, if you let them fly you economy today there are so many economy classes of economy -- do you have to pay for checked luggage? Can you choose your seats ahead of time? How much input do you get.

 

My experience with cruises is limited. We did do Viking to Antartica and were able on our own to upgrade to either comfort or business which we did. But the carrier with the most flights to Iceland is Icelandair and I am do not know anything about them. Is this who SS uses?

 

I have done a little bit of googling and I am concerned we may have to check bags (we always do carry on only) and that would cost extra. There are several types of economy each with different restrictions and I did not know which type SS uses.

 

How far in advance do you receive your flight information and how much input can you have in it?

 

Thank you

[pavementends]

I took this cruise last summer and had a great time. (I think there are actually two cruises with this route, I did the one on Moon).

 

I recommend you skip the Silversea air and make reservations yourself. This makes it easier to add on some days before or after. I arrived a few days earlier to visit a couple places in England. (Be aware that hotels in London can be very high, while at LHR and many other places they are much more reasonable).

 

I took premium economy on AA from LAX (very acceptable in terms of comfort). Business is of course nicer but the payoff is less for the shorter flights from the US east coast.

 

I used Iceland air which is just fine although their Saga class has seats roughly equivalent to US domestic first class. Remember these flights are not all that long (< 5 hr to Boston). The boarding area in the airport however is best described as chaotic with many flights to the US leaving at just about the same time. There IS a dedicated line for business although it is very difficult to find.

 

Baggage requirements are very specific to airlines. Some (BA probably among these) have very specific limits on size and weight that are erratically enforced.

[Catlover54]

Hi Flare, welcome to the Silversea (SS) forum.

 

I agree with pavementends that it is better to skip Silversea air (Silversea, not Silver Seas), especially if you want to do days before and/or after.  Some people have been happy with it, but there are too many people -- those who like control and more certainty --  who have had headaches.  You have more control over your flights, seats, details, and changes if you don't use SS.  Depending on routing, cost may be less, the same, or more (there are many variables).

 

Below is a video showing someone's nice experience flying Icelandic business class Reykjavik to LHR, which is similar to the kind of plane and service coming from the U.S. 

 

DH and I flew Iceland Air business class from the U.S. to Reykjavik and we were quite happy with the service, even though seats did not go flat, even for a longer route.  It is like U.S. domestic F in terms of leg room and recline, plus a little more on service.

Coming back from Reykjavik to the U.S.was another story.  The business lounge is very nice (shown in the video) , but it is before security for the gates that  have most planes going to the U.S., and at that time there was no separate business security line and it was extremely unpleasant and long (an hour plus) to get through in the summer heat because the U.S. flights almost all left in a big cluster, thus creating a cluster . . . 😞  .  . Despite arriving very early we almost  missed the plane because they did not post the gate with enough time to get through security, given their staffing limitations, and other tech didn't work.  I told myself when I go back to Iceland in summer months, I will leave it flying to Europe, and then connect Europe to U.S. rather than try to get on a U.S. outbound flight in high season.  

 

If you have plans in London area before cruise start in Southampton, you could fly on your usual airline (Delta?) Atlanta - LHR, spend a few days, then do the cruise, end in Reykjavik.  Then fly Saga to LHR in business one-way (as in the video below), (if pricing is acceptable to you) and then either spend more London area days or pick up a return connection set up back to Atlanta later that day, if that works. 

Or, just go Icelandic the full way, without flying back to LHR,  if you don't mind risking *potential* (not certain)  return airport chaos.

 

Must people don't recommend Icelandic economy flights.

 

Have a lovely trip.  Iceland is beautiful.

 

 

 

 

 

f

 

 

 

[les37b]

11 hours ago, Catlover54 said:

The business lounge is very nice (shown in the video) , but it is before security for the gates that  have most planes going to the U.S., and at that time there was no separate business security line and it was extremely unpleasant and long (an hour plus) to get through in the summer heat because the U.S. flights almost all left in a big cluster, thus creating a cluster . . . 😞  .  . Despite arriving very early we almost  missed the plane because they did not post the gate with enough time to get through security, given their staffing limitations, and other tech didn't work.

 

Or, just go Icelandic the full way, without flying back to LHR,  if you don't mind risking *potential* (not certain)  return airport chaos.

 

Must people don't recommend Icelandic economy flights.

 

They fell foul of the Schengen terminal in the airport. All "International" flights - ie that are foreign flights outside of the EU, go from Terminal D (I think that's the correct one from memory.) And yes, there is a queue to get through immigration at that point. I think it took us about 30 mins. Security to that point was a breeze. But once through into that terminal, you can walk freely and your gate is easily found once announced. This isn't that obvious and no one told us - I just worked it out looking at the flight board to see the pattern and then asked someone.

 

We flew 3 months ago - out with BA back with Icelandair - economy both ways - on flights booked by Viking. Thought the Icelandair was better than BA - but to be fair, that's not meant as high praise! It was fine though.

 

If the next expected "new volcano" erupts and is a "safe" one like the last 3 new ones in the last 3 years, then I could be making another visit as long as planes can land. Its getting a bit closer to Keflavik now - and Blue Lagoon and the nearby power station are currently closed I believe. I did have a visit last time on the day of embarkation, but the eruption stopped 2 days before (it had been erupting for 6 weeks) - so I missed out!

[Lirio]

Last year ee did Iceland (land trip) and Greenland cruise with Silversea. We arranged our own flights from Brasil to LHR to Reykjavik (KEF). From LHR to KEF we flew Icelandair business class (Saga) and was very good.

[LAL Cruiser]

I will join the others by saying skip Silversea air and make your own airline arrangements, especially if you are fussy about flight, timing and airlines.  I get it, we have done so many Silversea cruises and only once did we use Silversea air and, to be kind, let me say that it did not go very well and never did we use that option again.  That said, Silversea does provide "normal economy" (not the basic product that does not include baggage or seat selection), Silversea uses legacy carriers as opposed to low-fare carriers (say United instead of Frontier) and your input into flight selection is minimal - you can request certain flights or times but there is no guaranty of what you will get; and, sometimes routings can be very strange or inconvenient.  Silversea has contracts with certain airlines so the fare buckets and restrictions are rather different that what you or I are accustomed to as individual passengers. Also consider that even when booking a biz class upgrade with Silversea air, your US domestic segment could end up with a seat in coach and that is not a good thing.

 

Regarding your Iceland adventure (it s good itinerary and you will enjoy it), don't be so sure that your routing (regardless or whether you book the air individually or via Silversea) will be on Iceland Air.  During the busy summer months, United and Delta (maybe American?) fly to Iceland from hub cities so check the schedules.  Something like ATL-LHR/KEF-MSP-ATL could be an option on Delta.  And, the flights between  Iceland and the US on the US based airlines may not offer international biz class seating: as the Iceland flights are generally not more than 6 hours in duration, some airlines fly domestic configured airliners on these routes (757 or 737max, etc.)

 

Last, Iceland Air biz class is just fine for the flight duration: on a 5 or 6 hour segment, lie flat sleeping pods are not a necessity.  Bus, as some else pointed out, Iceland Air economy is not fun (well, economy class is never fun) as it is crowded and resembles a low-cost carrier product.

 

Enjoy!!!

[flare3192]

Thank you. I am reading all you suggest and am looking at what will work. I admit it seemed too good to be true to let them handle everything!

The only part of not having them do our air that I will miss is the transfer from London to the cruise port in Southampton. I have done my own air a lot of the time but cruising is relatively new to us.

I do think that we would need to arrive at least a day early if we do our own air. I can arrange a car to Southampton and maybe a tour for the next day. The ship sails at 7 pm so we would have a whole day and Southampton would be less expensive to stay than London. We have been to London before and I don't have a big desire to see it again. I found some tours to Salisbury and the Magna Carta from Southampton which would be interesting.

We would fly from Atlanta but I found I could not find business class air to London with the return from Reykjavik. I guess that is because Delta does not fly business to Reykjavik but I found it odd that they did not allow me to pick business one way. 

I agree economy is never fun but hated to spend $3200 for both of us to fly that segment for 5 hours.I would like the equivalent of delta comfort though. And we would still be on regular economy from the gateway city to Atlanta

We do want to deviate at the end of the cruise and spend some more time in Iceland -- before we looked at SS we were looking at Regent and they had a 4x4 4 day pre in Iceland we would like to still do and there appear to be a lot of companies that do this type of thing. I believe having them take care of the air with a deviation would incur an additional fee as well. If anyone has experience with this type of thing we would appreciate recommendations.

Thank you for all your help. 

 

[jpalbny]

39 minutes ago, flare3192 said:

We would fly from Atlanta but I found I could not find business class air to London with the return from Reykjavik. I guess that is because Delta does not fly business to Reykjavik but I found it odd that they did not allow me to pick business one way. 

 

Just had a look on the DL site and plugged in a few random days next July.

 

I could easily find a mixed itinerary w DL. Outbound there are at least three nonstop ATL-LHR flights in Delta One (one is Upper Class w/ VA)/ Then return home KEF-ATL with a change in either MSP, DTW, or JFK. They do not offer Delta One on that return leg, true, as it's not a business class cabin. The highest category they offer on the return leg is premium select (KEF-USA) and the domestic leg is in comfort plus.

 

But as everyone above says, it's a 5h flight so it's not as much of an issue.

[pavementends]

Unless you really want to stay in Southampton...Salisbury is interesting to visit (even if you choose not to go to Stonehenge) and is about an hour away from Southampton by train.

 

 

[gcornell]

I always do the math.  For our Med cruise SS Air with Business Class upgrade saved a lot of $. For our upcoming Iceland Cruise flying from NY it did not make sense and I saved a lot of money booking Iceland Air Saga Class (basically US domestic first class equivalent). 

[bohaiboy]

Being in Hotlanta if you book yourself, I would assume a flight to a city Iceland air serves.  The IA Saga Class is very similar to domestic US First class,  No liflat seats, but the food was good.  My wife is 5'2" tall and was comfortable, I am 6'6" and was not.  I would recommend catching the IA flight out of Boston as that is the shortest duration, around 5 hours.  I think IA codeshares with JetBlue but no one else, so your ticket to an IA gateway will be an independent ticket, meaning you will have to claim your luggage and recheck it on IA.  We had to do that San Antonio to Den on United, reclaim luggage and waited 4-5 hours on that particular flight to recheck.  Was a pain.  But IA is a decent airline with exception of non lie flat seats.  And they were half The cost of United, Delta and American.  PS  We absolutely loved Iceland.  10 day SS cruise and 10 more days on land.  A fab country.

Edited November 26, 2023 by bohaiboy