Euro 2014 - Icelandair Report

This is the start of our nearly six-week European trip...the grand experiment to see if Wife and I can go away for long periods and be happy.

Icelandair Report

I'm sure that I've written in the past that getting anywhere in Europe or Asia from Albuquerque involves a very long flight because Albuquerque is in the middle of nowhere compared to anyplace internationally but Juarez, Mexico and you always have to change planes which, depending on the airline schedule, can mean a long layover on top of the long flight time.  Since Wife and I want our travel to be enjoyable, this translates to our flying business class.  Sine Wife and I don't have money to burn, this means always looking for deals to purchase said business class.  There can be amazing differences on prices depending on when you buy, the route, and the airline.

For this trip I found some OK but not great fares so I decided to check out Icelandair.  They offer significantly lower fares because their routes change planes in Reykjavik, Iceland.  Their is a route that goes from Denver to Amsterdam.  Like our trip to Manila, this required taking Southwest to Denver and rechecking in to Icelandair.

Negatives

• Had to leave very early from Albuquerque and have a long layover in Denver to make sure we made the Icelandair flight.  The layover in Reykjavik was only an hour but all told it was a 19 hour flight
• The business class seats on Icelandair are nothing to write home about especially if you've gotten use to the lay flat seats.  They don't even have leg rests.  I had picked out the seats that have the most room from Seat Guru which allowed Wife and I to use our small carry on as a foot rest

Positives

• The timing works out real well.  It's 8 hours from Denver to Reykjavik, enough time for a reasonable nap (at least as much of a sleep as I'm going to get on any airplane because of arthritis pain issues).  Then it is 3 hours from Reykjavik to Amsterdam, enough time for another nap.  You leave Denver at 5:30 PM and get to Amsterdam at 12:30 PM.  A lot of transatlantic flights have you arriving much earlier with more of the first, jet lagged, day to kill.
• The food was very good.  A heck of a lot better than meals I've had on United.