The pilot came on frequently with updates, noting that our flight time would be a swift five hours, reassuring those traveling beyond Iceland that they would not miss their connection. departure, although there was a brief delay pushing back from the gate. The door closed right on time for the 7 p.m. A flight attendant spotted me struggling with my wheelie and helped me hoist it into the overhead bin.
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There’s no dedicated lounge for Play passengers, but if you’ve got a Priority Pass membership (which I do), you can head up to the Air France lounge, where you can grab a bite and a glass of wine before takeoff.Īt the Play boarding gate, a gaggle of cheerful crew members in scarlet uniforms ushered us onto the plane because this was a brand-new route, the plane wasn’t full and boarding was a snap. Thankfully in my case, the regular security lines moved swiftly and having cushioned my arrival time, I had plenty of opportunity to graze the duty-free stores and food and beverage options in Terminal E before the 6:30 p.m. Unfortunately, Play doesn’t participate in the TSA PreCheck program so travelers should be prepared to spend a little extra time in security.
Those shorter hops around Europe operate with a fleet of smaller Airbus A320 jets the newer transatlantic flights are via the longer 192-passenger A321 version.Īt Boston Logan Airport, Play flies out of Terminal E, where most international flights operate. From the Icelandic capital, there are connecting flights to more than 20 cities throughout Europe, including Paris, Berlin, Prague, and Barcelona. Starting with flights from Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport in April, Play now has a trio of East Coast gateways with daily transatlantic flights to Reykjavík, including Boston and, as of early June, New York (via Stewart Airport, in Newburgh). The new airline scooped up those assets and launched last year with flights to London Stansted.
So it should come as no surprise that Play, like Wow, is using narrowbody Airbus planes (painted in a bright red livery), many Wow crew, and the expertise of some executives from its predecessor, who are probably wiser after the demise of Wow. Enter Play Airlines, the latest startup from the island nation to revive the notion that yes, you can cross the Atlantic for less than you’d pay for your first hotel night ( currently fares start at $160 one way from the U.S. A few half-hearted attempts to revive the remains of that company, including a bid from Icelandair, failed.īut that’s not the end of the story. Some even pegged a subsequent downturn in tourism to the country to the collapse of Wow. Thousands of travelers were stranded and, as the saying goes, the optics were not good. While the deals are often irresistible, doubts crept in about the risks of flying to Iceland on the cheap when in 2019, another Icelandic low-cost carrier, Wow, went bust in spite of (or perhaps because of) stunts like $49 fares from the United States to Europe. Ever since Icelandair first burst on the scene with cheap transatlantic flights in the 1960s-earning it the nickname of “hippie express”- Iceland has been a waystation for budget travelers hopping the pond.
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