Icelandair Reviews 

We basically experienced almost every problem possible in a flight, and they did everything wrong; overnight delay stuck at airport, no service or assistance, delayed and damaged bags, unresponsive customer service ...

Our experience with Icelandair was unacceptable and reflects systemic failures at multiple levels.

A delay on our first flight caused us to miss our connection, leading to an overnight delay of approximately 24 hours at Keflavík Airport. Because we do not hold a Schengen visa, we were confined to the international transit zone and entirely dependent on Icelandair for assistance. Despite repeated requests, no meals, meal vouchers, accommodation, or lounge access were provided. Only minimal, ad hoc items were distributed, which did not meet basic duty-of-care expectations. As a result, both passengers became physically unwell and lost a full workday.

In addition to the handling of the delay, baggage handling was severely mishandled. On our Tuesday flight to Chicago, none of our three checked bags arrived. Hours before departure, we specifically asked the service desk to confirm that our luggage was checked in and were assured there would be no issue. Upon arrival in Chicago, we were informed that the bags had never been checked onto the flight. One bag arrived on Thursday and the remaining two on Friday. All three bags were damaged: one with a broken handle, one missing a wheel, and one with a nonfunctional telescoping handle. Contents inside one bag were also damaged, including a broken frame and other goods.

Between the prolonged delay without care, misinformation provided by staff, and delayed and damaged baggage, this trip involved nearly every major service failure possible. The overall handling showed a lack of coordination, accountability, and concern for passengers.

I submitted a complaint form and still waiting for their response

This is without question the worst long-haul flight experience of my life.
They don’t provide in flight meals.
They don’t provide headphones for the entertainment system.
All of which are basics with reputable airlines, but Icelandair charge extra.
They charge for wi-fi, which is understandable, but the connection is not worth the money.

The leg space isn’t adequate. I couldn’t even fit my bag under the seat in front because of the chairs cheap design (a large metal box obstructing) which also contributes to how uncomfortable the seats are.

The boarding process was a mess. No group order, just a free for all.
Just an awful experience. I would highly recommend to avoid flying with them for any long-haul flights.

I reserved a flight with family from Seattle to IST on Icelandair & later on I reserved the different places in Istanbul to visit & paid for tickets. A month later I received an email by airline on 01/16/2026 said your flight was cancelled without any reason & just said sorry for any inconvenience. I was told by airline to contact where I made this reservation. I called Expedia & an agent said the same thing sorry for any inconvenience, but they will contact airline & let me know. Despite of keep saying that I paid to a lot of places including hotel in IST & some will not be refunded but unfortunately no one helps & just said sorry. As of today, they mess up all my program, I had to cancel my job & many other things. I won't recommend anyone to have this flight as there is no confirmation by them. I lose my money, program just because of them. I am still waiting for my money back & again urge to people to think twice before uses this airline.

Have just spent 1 hour on the Icelandair website. Trying to get a ticket from Paris to Reykjavik. The home page lets me a simple to-from box. I enter the two cities. The next page pops up a new box that refuses to let me enter Paris. It somehow thinks that I am flying from Akureyri and Vestmannaeyjar, but refuses to let me enter any other information.
Deciding to go to Finland. So much easier.

The worst airline ever. I bought a ticket to go from iceland to denmark to see my brothers art show the same day that i would arrive and my family had planned this trip for months and everyone bought a ticket then the day before i did not get my boarding pass becouse they had OVERBOOKED the flight and with more investigation it is known that this is what they do. I called cutomer survice and they where SOO RUDE like SOOOO RUDE that i missed the hole weekend planning and did not get a refund

It is a cheaper flight but the service should be better. In flight entertainment is outdated.

I paid to be upgraded from their Economy Light to their Saga Premium. However, I was informed I would not be receiving the included "premium" meal that was being served to all the other passengers in Saga Premium, and that I could only have the bagel I had pre-ordered and paid for when I originally made the Economy Light booking.
It was a shabby, costly, and extremely disappointing experience.
I will not be rushing back to fly with Icelandair again, and would never recommend upgrading to their Saga Premium. It's too expensive, and with no guarantees you will actually receive the service you have paid for.

Their fees and the implementation of the fees is just absurd. No respect for partner airline status. Nothing reasonable. They will charge you for seats (fine) but then not refund the original seat fee if you move to different, more expensive seats, which we needed to do as had to move to front as connection timing was tight. Then their definition of a roller bag appears different to any other airlines, just fractionally enough that they can hit you up for fees at the airport. Another good trick they do is to intake the largest duffel bag first before the scam begins making any repacking of the roller bags impossible. Fortunately other more reasonable airlines exist, so use them instead.

No food on a 6+ hour flight included in tickets costing over $1500.

Charged me $130 to check a carry on bag at the check in counter because the flight was full. I have NEVER experienced this from any other airline. If the flight is full and they can’t fit your bag then any other airline checks it for you for free at the gate as standard.

They are the very epitome of a greedy airline looking to get every single sent out of you. Disgusting.

NEVER flying with them again.

We, a couple, paid £40 extra for extra legroom seats next to each other. At the gate to board, they told me I was on standby (my partner wasn't??) and they then put me on the plane, last, in between two strangers, many rows behind my partner (who got the seat he had paid for - in the exit row. The person in the seat I was meant to have had a broken arm - which I would think is unsafe for an exit row). When I then requested a difference, they said they would look at the difference in seat prices. I would never ever have paid to sit in a middle seat away from my partner, absolutely insane
Iceland air do not care about customers, at all

This is in all regards the worst airline experience I have ever had. Icelandair managed to lose both of my checked in bags in Vancouver, despite the fact that I checked in 3.5 hours before departure.

I have since received one of them, but my other one remains unaccounted for. I have called their incredibly unhelpful phone line 2-3 times each day since it happened, and they are so incredibly unable to and unwilling to offer assistance. All they do is to immediately blame the bagage handlers and state that they can't do anything.

At the end of the day, Icelandair is responsible for the bags which they seem to forget.

0/10 experience, and I will never in my life fly with this airline again, and I would certainly discourage everyone else from doing so as well.

I have traveled all around Europe on many budget and non budget airlines (Easyjet, Ryanair, British Airways, Lufthansa, Aerlingus, Aegean) and Icelandair was by far the worst! It is the most budget you can find. As with other budget airlines, your carryon must be a limited size. Easyjet and Ryanair and others all have metal labeled containers where you insert your bag in to see if it fits. Not Icelandair, No! Instead they have a CARDBOARD BOX that you can’t push your bag into because it might rip. And it is smaller than their listed size of 55x40x20. My bag always fits into Easyjet's smaller size of 45x36x20. I have flown it numerous times with the same bag (I legit flew easyjet last night from Lisbon to London and haven’t changed anything in my bag). So how does it fit in the smaller sized containers and not in Icelandair? The reasonable conclusion is that Icelandair's cardboard box is smaller than their posted size. So, they required that I pay £101. If that's not a SCAM, then I don't know what is. They know that you are at their mercy at check-in. You have a nonrefundable ticket and clearly aren’t going to leave your bag behind so you are forced to pay the excessive fee of £101 ($141). I only booked on Icelandair because I thought it would be fun to have a layover in Iceland as opposed to another city I’ve already been to. However, Keflavik airport is such a mess! It was impossible to even get food before my next flight boarded due to the crowds. And of course they don’t offer any food or drinks onboard unless you pay. It’s just a terrible airline in many regards: unfriendly staff, uncomfortable seats, overly crowded airport, and most importantly, scamming people for additional revenue upon check-in.

Terrible airline. Paid 100 dollars for extra legroom only to be told in the email confirmation that it was a non reclining seat. If this had been advertised as such I’d never have ‘upgraded’. I called customer services to request a refund but no, no refunds ‘company policy sir’. The rude customer service agent called Arnold (753AA) was unwilling to help or offer any solution that didn’t involve me paying more money. Avoid this airline like the plague.

I knew it was no frills prior so I wasn't shocked that you didn't receive any free drinks. It was the only international air travel I ever had that did not give free beer and a meal, you had to pay. At least Boston to Reykjavik was only 4 hours. Left at 10PM and arrived before 7AM (5 hour difference). Luggage came out fast!

I got told by the purser that because no one else complained my complaint about ice cold food in business class was not valid, and since I got annoyed the pilot was standing there casually telling me we didn’t get amenity bags and had to beg for it because climate change didn’t existed (sarcastically of course). It was the worst business class I have ever experienced,Amsterdam -New York via Keflavik. Rude staff, dirty planes, cold and not edible food, above all rudeness of the staff, never had such an experience before and usually not a person that complains easily but this was -10/10, first and last time with this airline. My god, like they hate you for flying with them….

I thought spirit air was bad. Rude service. They might as well charge to use the bathroom. Unorganized would be an understatement
I will NEVER fly this airline again thank God other carriers service iceland

I recently booked an Icelandair flight through MyTrip.com, and just a few hours later I needed to make a simple change or request a refund. Icelandair clearly told me that MyTrip is responsible for handling any updates or refunds and that there should be no extra fee within the first 24 hours.

However, when I contacted MyTrip, they refused to help and told me to contact Icelandair instead. I am completely stuck between the airline and the agency, with both sides blaming each other. Icelandair confirmed that MyTrip can make the change or refund, but Icelandair didn’t take any real steps to help me or communicate with the agency on my behalf.

This has caused a lot of stress and wasted time. As the airline, Icelandair should ensure customers are not left trapped in the middle and should provide better support and clearer coordination with third-party agencies.

Very disappointing experience.

This is by far the worst flight company I’ve ever flown with. Flight was cancelled, got no compensation for time missed even tho we first got there 32 hours later. Expenses during the delay was supposed to be covered but they denied it afterwards. No drinks or food on and 8 hour flight to Orlando, have to pay extra for everything, even the earphones to watch movies, simple things that EVERY other Company gives you. Please for your own sake, stay away from Icelandair

Incompetent and Stressful Experience

Icelandair has truly been the Ryanair of Iceland in the worst possible way. I attempted to reserve seats for my family on a flight to Orlando. My two sons are 6'6", so we always pay extra for legroom. The total was £945 for return seats and two bags. Icelandair took the money from my account immediately, yet still claimed the payment “didn’t go through,” blaming a mysterious “currency issue.”

My bank confirmed twice that Icelandair already had the funds pending, yet the airline insisted I needed to pay again. I spent over three hours on the phone, speaking to staff who contradicted each other at every turn. When I asked for a manager, I was told, “we don’t do that.” Instead, they said they’d send me a payment link to pay the £945 again — a link which never arrived. Four hours later, still nothing. Called again, same issue. Another agent tried sending the link to my husband’s phone — again nothing. Then suddenly there was also a “system issue” and they claimed emails weren’t sending at all.

To make matters worse, I asked if my seats could at least be held while their system was failing, and they said no — my seats would be released after 24 hours and they “can’t hold them.” So despite trying to pay in advance, I risk losing the seats next to my own children because of Icelandair’s incompetence.

When I asked for a refund of the flights so I could book with Virgin instead, I was told, “you can see about that if we don’t fix the system in time.” Unbelievable.

This has been one of the most stressful booking experiences of my life. The lack of professionalism is staggering. And to top it off, charging an extra £945 for two bags and seats on a cramped 737 for a 10-hour flight is daylight robbery — more expensive than BA or Virgin.

I will never fly Icelandair again. Absolutely appalling from start to finish!
**UPDATE**
4 days later Icelandair just get worse. They have stolen £945 from my bank account refusing to acknowledge the transaction. Call centre in India I presume going by the accents of the "customer service" dept. Today again I tried to speak to someone regarding this DOUBLE PAYMENT REMOVED from my account for seats together and 2 bags, the man at the end of the phone called me "a liar" saying and I quote "you did not pay £945 to reserve seats and bags, it doesn't cost that much, more like £400" ASTONISHING accusation considering I'm looking at the email receipt confirmation of these seats and 2 bags. He still accused me of lying, I ended up swearing at this arrogant, unprofessional idiot and and he put the phone down. 4 days, ZERO assistance from Icelandair, total refusal to let me speak to a manager "we don't do that" 4 days ago I was told a manager would call me, it's never happened. I now have to wait 30 days for my bank to get this money back but I'm now contacting my solicitor regarding all of this as all the calls to them have been recorded on my business phone👌 STAY CLEAR.

Yet another low cost airline. You have to pay for everything apart.
Customer service is subpar and their systems are annoying (i.e: chatbot is absolutely useless, forms to make claims refreshes everytime you move to another app and they have combo menus with limited options, in my case with my problem not listed).
Eventually they solved some of the issues I had (that they created in first instance such as damaged luggage and changing my seats separating my children from any adult).
Would I use it again, maybe if it is supercheap and I meditate 3 days ahead that service is not their priority.