Icelandair Reviews 470

Decided that my carryon bag was oversized on the connecting flight. Watched as they harassed customers to squeeze their bags into the metal box and then struggling to get their bags out. The real kicker is the $103 charge, even if you have bag allowance and a flight that has loads of open overhead bins.... Don't expect anything for free, everything comes at a charge (soda, snacks, WiFi,) and there are no plugs to charge your devices. Oh and hope the passenger in front of you doesn't recline their seat into your lap. Horrible airline

Icelandair canceled my flight from Rome to Toronto, Canada just 4 hours before departure. We were at the train station of Rome on the way to the FCO airport, got an email that flight is canceled without any explanation or any assistance how to solve this problem, what a terrible experience, what if I did not have any internet connection? Finally we got to rebook a flight home with expedia which we original booked our tickets. Really bad reputation and experience for us, now I have to deal with the refund for our extra luggages and seats selection after 3 weeks with no answers from them.

DO NOT FLY ICELANDAIR! I absolutely loved Iceland and it is my favorite country to travel to, but unless you want to be harassed and treated like less then human don’t fly “ICELANDAIR” more like hellish air, I was traveling with my older mom, my father had sent us on a girls trip so these employees saw two women having a good time and saw a opportunity to antagonize and ruin our trip. Flying there was a breeze, but back? This is where the issue was. It was October 8th around 4pm, we were running late to our gate because they said it was a different one then it actually was because they had changed it due to a issue so they called our names and we got there quickly but immediately upon arrival we felt the energy shift, and after seeing them ignore us to look around to make sure nobody would see, we knew something was wrong. And then they asked us to fit our very small bags in the carry on section we did, and they look mad at basic physics that they fit when it was quite obvious they would. So then they asked us to put our suitcase that is specifically bought to work as a carry on which, it does. We have never had one issue with it before, and never did after this. It fit but the handle popped out and got stuck as we were trying to get it out. All this well they were screaming at us. No that isn’t an exaggeration. They would go to yelling at us to talking to each other in German I believe. We are Jewish, and it honestly felt extremely racial. As they were screaming at us to get the back and laughing, we got it out and they then started threatening to call security. We are two small women im very young and my mom is older we were wearing our large fur coats and had our designer bags we were the least threatening people there. This also felt like classism, they made me take my authentic Kelly 28 Hermès bag out of my Louis Vuitton bag and out of its dust bag to put it in the dirty thing to see if it fit which it did because it is extremely small and now it has unrepairable damage, for a second I thought I was being robbed. They hated us from the moment they saw us for no reason except we were traveling with nice clothes and we were Jewish. We were both crying, and begging them to let us go so we didn’t miss our flight. Instead of an dot of sympathy for an mother and daughter traveling alone, for the first time. They laughed in our face and said your going to miss your flight. It was absolutely appalling, so traumatic and immensely scary. It was an short large women in her mid/early 30s with dark hair at the roots and blonde on the rest. And an tall but normal sized male who was maybe late 20s with bleach blonde hair he went along very willingly but mainly looked around as to not get caught.
We felt powerless and like we were being abused we travel a lot with my father but have not flown once after this, the reason I know the suitcase hasn’t been an issue after is my father has traveled for business and had no issues. We are terrified to even step foot in an airport and to say anything. My mother is a harassment lawyer, and this shook her to her core. I’m shocked we made it back, to our luck a employee walked past and stopped to look they IMMEDIATELY said they would check the bag free of charge and let us go we got on the plane and both said we could never fly again. We had been begging the entire time this happened my mother told the women that she was so beautiful and we appreciated them for helping and the women laughed in her face, this treated was out of their own insecurity and pain that they needed to inflict onto others. I can’t imagine the amount of poor people they have done this to. For two people to be sobbing and begging yet these two had no empathy and seemed to feed off it. I never thought demons existed but if they do, we met them firsthand. We thought we would never leave I land for a second they acted as if we were going to be thrown into security and never let out, and they would be taking all of our stuff which they seemed to believe we didn’t deserve most likely because of our religion. I am still scared thinking of this and will never fully recover. I hope you can take this into account when choosing to fly “ICELANDAIR” beware it is more then a airline and they will have you tortured if they can. They use all their power to inflict suffering, and will not give up unless they risk being discovered. This is not an joke and God how I wish it was an exaggeration.
If this happens to you: Don’t fight with them, Don’t beg, Don’t reason. Get help immediately, because these are not people they are psychopaths at best.
Good-luck.

Esme from the customer service helped me handle my refund, she is patient and clear and so helpful :)

BEWARE: Icelandair misrepresented compensation terms and refuses to honor agreements. On April 19, 2025, my family and I were explicitly offered €600 PER PERSON IN CASH (€1,800 total) to voluntarily give up our seats on our Dublin-JFK flight. We confirmed this cash compensation with multiple customer service agents before agreeing. While they did provide the promised hotel and rescheduled flight, they are now attempting to issue travel vouchers instead of the cash that was guaranteed to us. This violates both our verbal agreement and EU Regulation 261/2004, which requires cash compensation unless a passenger signs an agreement accepting vouchers. Despite multiple follow-ups, phone calls where we were told our claim was "expedited," and several chat conversations with representatives, they continue to refuse honoring their cash commitment. I would never have accepted their offer had I known they intended to substitute vouchers. This deceptive practice has turned what should have been a minor inconvenience into a significant breach of trust. I'm sharing this to warn other travelers and in hopes that Icelandair management will address this unethical behavior.

It's a shame that a no low-cost company makes you fit in your cabin baggage in the dimension box and they make you pay AT THE GATE when it does not fit. I paid 300 eur for a flight from Amsterdam to reykjavik and getting hold luggage would cost an additional 120 eur. My hand luggage almost did not fit and they wanted me to pay. I removed one item and it fit. Shame that they are trying to make money in this way when the hand luggage is clearly borderline. They pay a person at the gate to make you measure it. Also, they don't offer any free food on boars. If you offer these poor services at least have lower prices, don't pretend to be a good company.

Poor service. We are out $600 because they didn’t select a tour pickup location in our package booking. Icelandia Tours was kind enough to offer a tour date transfer but couldn’t refund because it was an Icelandair Holidays issue. Icelandair Holidays said they could not move our flight 1 day later because they needed 7 days notice for a 1 day flight change. Poor service. Huge mistake. Never again. Lesson learned. We do not recommend Icelandair Holiday packages to anyone. Very disappointed.

My daughter and I arrived at JFK to check in for the Icelandair night flight to Keflavík and then on to Glasgow. We were quite early and the check in desks were not yet open. There was a very sizeable party of schoolchildren already there and taking up the whole check in line plus spilling out beyond it. There was also the Saga check in desk and, next to it, an Economy check in desk where another queue had started forming and which we joined. After about an hour, the Icelandair staff appeared and walked past everyone, no mention of people being in the “ wrong “ queue.
Service eventually began and, after the few Saga passengers checked in, our queue moved towards the Economy desk at which point all hell broke out!
The young lady “ manager “ told us we couldn’t use that queue and would have to join the other queue which meant standing for a further hour and a half. A few parties at the beginning of our line had already been processed so we asked that, in this instance, could we not be allowed through as there was no clear signage to indicate we had done anything wrong. She was hostile, rude and very threatening, told the staff not to look at or talk to us and ended up closing the tape over behind us declaring, “ you can all just stand there and miss your flight “
Another staff member, Courtney, was then sent to hurl some more abuse at us, she threatened us with Security and told us she was pulling us from the flight if we didn’t comply.
Never at any point were they interested in listening to any of us, they seemed to enjoy being abusive and throwing their weight around.
We then couldn’t get out of the corral we had been closed into but a kind man in the line managed to open the tape to let us out.
Just to add insult to injury, when we eventually did reach a check in desk another hour and a half later, they said my daughter’s cabin bag had to be checked in, that her main case was overweight, and made us pay a ridiculous amount for the privilege. Our luggage had been perfectly fine on the outward flights!
Many other passengers had more than one cabin bag, most of which were much bigger than my daughter’s plus someone was even able to take a kid’s scooter onboard!

I have complained to Icelandair and just get the usual standard reply, they don’t care at all and have now stopped communicating with me.

In mid February 2025 I flew from Denver to Keflavik on Icelandair. My single piece of checked luggage, sized to meeet Icelandair’s website (at .../support/baggage/allowance/) maximal allowed dimensions of 21.6 x 15.7 x 7.8 inches, passed inspection at the gate in Denver and flew in the overhead baggage compartment to Keflavik with no problems. However on the return flight to Denver in early March, I was charged ca. $110 for the same piece of luggage (already paid for with the original ticket), which the curt gate attendant now claimed was oversized- it stuck out of the sizing bin by ca. 4-6 inches even though it was within the maximum length of 21.6” per my measurements and per being cleared at Denver International Airport . The same claim was made against a second passenger also flying back to Denver from Keflavik, who also protested her carry-on luggage was properly sized and flew from Denver to Keflavik with no problem. Since at Keflavik International Airport the gate number for this flight was hidden from passengers until 10 min. before boarding started, there was only time to protest to the aggressive gate attendant, and no time to make alternate arrangement for the luggage. The above discrepancy between the same piece of carry-on luggage passing inspection at Denver International but not at Keflavik was ignored by the Icelandair customer support team and Icelandair’s CEO, who refused to refund this bogus charge. It appears Icelandair, which can have low fares, offsets lower ticket revenue by predatory luggage sizing practices at Keflavik International airport. This poor behavior is consistent with other comments on Icelandair at trustpilot.com. Tourists beware! Find another airline!

Avoid at any cost. Yeah, Iceland might be cool - but having to fly with these absolute horrible company, you might as well go somewhere else. They look all the cheap fares look absolutely amazing when you compare the total lack of service before and under flight. They gladly take your money, but the service? Apprently not something they do in Iceland.

Serious Health and Safety issue booked Flybus which is part of icelandair. We were at Reykjavik airport, e needed to book flybus for the following morning as had a connecting flight at the Domestic Airport the following morning. We reported to the flybus desk, ant 3.30 am anbd were advised the bus was available and the Domestic airport would be open at 4.00 am, so we boarded Bus which took us to the airport, all lights on in airport, dropped us off and drove off. To our horror the airport was closed..it is very remote site, nothing open, in freezing conditions we were outside a locked airport. We found a bus shelter to huddle in for a while, also I tried to wakeup anyone in a house I spotted nearby, to see if they could help us.
My friend has severe asthma and other health conditions and I am a pensioner.
We were freezing frightened and abandoned. We opened our cases and put extra clothes on to try to keep warm. 4 hours in freezing conditions.
I contacted Icelandair on my return, basically after 3 weeks of corresponding, they offered the price of our bus ticket as a gesture of goodwill.? Which equates to basically a cup of coffee in Iceland, also a 6 hour tour should we ever return to Iceland?
I was advised that they had addressed our plight and had implemented new procedures and Health and Safety recommendations as a result. It completely ruined our experience of Iceland. I was also advised they have a no blame culture at their organisation. Also they apologised for our inconvenience and wish us well.
This could have had a very tragic ending. The lack of customer service and concern and caring for the customer were not presented to us by this organisation.
You cannot imagine how desperate we felt and how cold we were. This could have ended very tragically.

Worst airlines we have ever used !!!!.staff not very friendly, it's a cushy job for them as on a 7hr flight we got 2 glasses of water and we asked for a diet coke and got a can poured into 2 glasses for us ....no free snacks or meals on long haul flights,you must pay and it's not cheap.they also do not promote Duty Free which is strange ....horrible airline company

Icelandair’s policy on flight changes due to illness is absolutely unacceptable. Despite providing documentation of a serious illness, they refuse to extend rebooking options beyond their arbitrary one-year window. This rigid and unreasonable policy means I am now set to lose over $8,000 in airfare. Other airlines show flexibility and compassion in cases like this, but Icelandair refuses to accommodate even under extenuating circumstances. Their customer service was unhelpful and dismissive, leaving me no choice but to file a formal complaint with the Department of Transportation. If you value fairness and flexibility in travel, avoid Icelandair at all costs.

I paid extra for the cancellation insurance for 3 tickets.
I had to cancel one of the tickets and had a medical note. The airline did not reimburse me for the entire ticket. I sent emails, copies of the Physicians note several time, disputed through my credit card. They denied reimbursement!!! Even with the extra $$ I paid for a piece of mind. Awful service will never fly them again

Flights from Italy to USA, stopover in Iceland.
Given that the prices are not much lower than other airlines, it's astounding that no in-flight meals are offered on long-haul legs.
There was also a delay of 5 hours going into to Iceland, for which I'm not holding out any compensation (and no food voucher offered).
8-hour flight from Seattle to Iceland began with some luck that the middle seat between myself (window that I paid extra for) and another passenger in the aisle, was empty meaning a more comfortable flight for both of us.
Just before take-off the stewardess approaches me and says "you know what I'm going to ask you, don't you?". She wanted to me to move to accommodate two parents that hadn't booked their seats together and that had a baby. But not only that, she wanted me to move to a middle (e) seat.
I refused saying that I had paid extra for the seat. So she walked off in a huff and managed to make some other poor soul move.
I turned to the lady in the aisle seat (who was very grateful that I had refused the request) and said "what's the bet she tries to move someone into this middle seat just to be spiteful". Sure enough, two minutes later she comes back saying "just to let you know that the gentleman now sitting near the baby may move to this seat, you know, because of the baby".
In general, I found the attitude of most of the crew to be rude, aggressive, and generally as if they couldn't care less.
Please choose another airline because, even if they do have snooty staff, at least you'll be fed.

🛑 Icelandair – The Worst Airline Experience I've Had 🛑

Icelandair canceled, delayed, and mismanaged my entire trip:

📌 Canceled my initial flight due to overbooking
📌 Misinformed me about rebooking options – had to fix their mistake myself
📌 Delayed my return flight, causing a missed connection & stranding me for 24+ hours in KEF
📌 Paid for premium seats but was never given them
📌 Completely ignored my EU 261 compensation claim for weeks

If you're thinking about flying with Icelandair, DON’T. They take your money, fail to deliver on their promises, and ignore complaints. Book with a more reliable airline.

🚨 DO NOT FLY WITH ICELANDAIR! 🚨

Terrible airline, don't recommend to anyone. I have an issue and they are not helpful at all. There is no way of escalating the issue and they simply don't care. Even Ryainair better than this. Very disappointing for an Icelandic company to have such bad customer service.

Having travelled for business across the globe with many airlines for the last 20 years this is absolutely the worst experience from start to finish. Everything about this airline does not work and moreover I am still in shock at the lies that were told to myself and my colleagues from the pilot, the cabin crew and then despite our terrible experience, an abusive customer services agent who chose to covertly penalise us marking us with SSSS on our boarding passes so that our rearranged flight the next day would have additional stress. Absolutely disgusting.
Yonina in the customer “services” desk , the supposed supervisor was malicious, unhelpful and the rudest interaction I’ve ever had from a supposed customer services agent. Ignorant Yonina doesn’t realise that we will not rest until she is held to account for her rude behaviour and her pathetic attempt to penalise us for being unhappy, with her SSSS marking on our board passes.
Our pilot reassured us over the tannoy that the connecting flight to USA would wait for us, the hostess is reassured us and yet on arrival no such reality and sued. It was easier for the cabin crew and pilot to lie and let someone else deal with it. Unfortunately, for passengers, we were greeted by the shameful Yonina.
I will never fly with your airline again nor will our company and we have a very widespread global network of business Yonina represents the worst of Icelandair with her quote “I dont care” the most shocking behaviour from a supervisor: shame on you Icelandair for allowing this to happen - where are your business values
We were travelling business class and saga members and were treated like excrement on a shoe.

Pleasant flight from BOS-KEF-OSL. The negative is you have to pay for all beverages and food and the quality is not good. Flight was comfortable, staff friendly. A good flight minus the food and beverage issues.

Avoid this airline if you can. The rate of delayed and canceled flights is high, and they reject compensation claims even when entitled under EU Regulation 261/2004.
They justify their refusal by citing reasons like 'aircraft rotation' and 'de-icing' as 'extraordinary circumstances,' even though these are routine operational issues. They also ignore follow-up emails, leaving customers without resolution.