KCRag Forum

Trip Review: MO>>>> KEF.
I can now say that I have used both the KC Icelandair Service as well as the WOW STL Service.

Top Take Aways from the WOW Service:
1. The leg room in economy was plenty enough for a 6'2" man. Albeit, my row was empty for all of the flight after take off so I just laid out. There were a few empty/almost empty rows. Take into account at least 20 people on my flight where there because their WOW flights to CA had been cancelled. Many other STL round trippers had noted empty rows to lay out in on their flights to KEF.

2. At least 4 passengers on my flight where upgraded to "The Big Seats" after they were placed in economy after purchasing the premium economy equivalent seats. Another group that I met in KEF mentioned their flight from STL has been "canceled" after the group was asked to travel on a different date. These seems like technical difficulties that will get worked out eventually.

3. WOW isn't really worth it if your planning on staying long or traveling for business. The baggage fees really negate the low fares of WOW and the lack of Wifi cancelled out most inflight work. Connecting was a mess. This will be talked about more farther down. I do understand the purpose of WOW as an airline that helps price consciousness passengers reach destinations and take trips they wouldn't other wise be able to make. It just worries me that the A321 was only sorta full of people who are barely willing to shell out $180(w/ 1 bag) to Europe each way. Not the market that will attract and keep a pricier full service airline like BA.

Icelandair MCI Service Takeaways:
1. The planes were packed. I don't think I saw an empty seat. A WOW inaugural pax I spoke to said that flight was only 80% full. Please fill free to correct.
2. The 757 felt less spacious than WOW's A321, but it was more comfortable.
3. It is very much unfair to compare amenities and such between Icelandair and WOW due to them being in different categories, but Icelandair did have Wifi. At this point, I would expect WOW with their brand new planes to offer some sort of paid wifi service. Even Spirit is offering Wifi now. Icelandair's wifi seemed quite speedy and I was able to get a lot of photos uploaded. WOW not having wifi really was a turn off to taking business trips w/ them over Icelandair.

KEF Take Aways:
1. The airport is crowded. The current terminal was designed for ~2million yearly pax, now it does 10-11. I didn't really notice how bad it was until the return flights
2. The airport is not good for Europe to USA Flights. The USA/Canada portion of the terminal was severely cramped. It appeared to have enough seats for less than maybe 1 767. Instead it was handling multiples 75s,76,sand A321s at once. Some waiting rooms are below ground, the rest are on remote. Either way your going to do a lot of walking up and down stairs and to and from airplanes. I really enjoyed boarding my plane on the remote parking site while the 35mph rain blew me over. I'd recommend flying back a different route if possible.

Your mileage will obviously vary. My report is made up of what I saw first hand and what fellows passengers reported. Please feel free to ask questions and such. I really hope both the WOW service and Icelandair succeed so that both cities can get direct continental flights.

Thanks for sharing! Was Iceland your ultimate destination on both trips? If you were continuing through to mainland Europe, do you think you would have rather connected through Reykjavik or a US airport?

Great report. Thanks for that!

Do you know of any plans to expand KEF? It would be interesting to compare their plans with ours

tower wrote:Thanks for sharing! Was Iceland your ultimate destination on both trips? If you were continuing through to mainland Europe, do you think you would have rather connected through Reykjavik or a US airport?

Connections to Europe are not bad. Many people went to Reykjavík during their layovers. The experience of connecting in Iceland on the way to europe was generally good and I would recommend doing so. The passport control lines where pretty short and very speedy.

I would not recommend connecting in Iceland from Europe to the US. The US/Canada departures terminal was very crowded,very broken, and overall not a great experience. I have heard that there may be some expansions but they won’t be done till 2024.

Overall, I’d say take Icelandair to Europe and then look into taking something else back. It is VERY important that Kansas Citians book flights with Icelandair this year and next if we ever want to see a direct flight to the UK, France, or Germany. Whether is for summer vacation, business, or a fun and quick extended weekend trip to Iceland(like I recently took) please consider going soon.

TheLastGentleman wrote:Do you know of any plans to expand KEF? It would be interesting to compare their plans with ours

They have proposed a $1 Billion Terminal Expansion. KCAD folks went to KEF to talk with them about new terminals yesterday I believe. Sadly, I think KEF’s terminal expansion is solely planned to be EU flights only.

ldai_phs wrote:

tower wrote:Thanks for sharing! Was Iceland your ultimate destination on both trips? If you were continuing through to mainland Europe, do you think you would have rather connected through Reykjavik or a US airport?

Connections to Europe are not bad. Many people went to Reykjavík during their layovers. The experience of connecting in Iceland on the way to europe was generally good and I would recommend doing so. The passport control lines where pretty short and very speedy.

I would not recommend connecting in Iceland from Europe to the US. The US/Canada departures terminal was very crowded,very broken, and overall not a great experience. I have heard that there may be some expansions but they won’t be done till 2024.

Overall, I’d say take Icelandair to Europe and then look into taking something else back. It is VERY important that Kansas Citians book flights with Icelandair this year and next if we ever want to see a direct flight to the UK, France, or Germany. Whether is for summer vacation, business, or a fun and quick extended weekend trip to Iceland(like I recently took) please consider going soon.

Thanks for the report! Were you on the inaugural going out from KC to Iceland? What day was your return flight? Really great to see the loads performing well but to your point need to sustain the momentum.

hartliss wrote:

ldai_phs wrote:

tower wrote:Thanks for sharing! Was Iceland your ultimate destination on both trips? If you were continuing through to mainland Europe, do you think you would have rather connected through Reykjavik or a US airport?

Connections to Europe are not bad. Many people went to Reykjavík during their layovers. The experience of connecting in Iceland on the way to europe was generally good and I would recommend doing so. The passport control lines where pretty short and very speedy.

I would not recommend connecting in Iceland from Europe to the US. The US/Canada departures terminal was very crowded,very broken, and overall not a great experience. I have heard that there may be some expansions but they won’t be done till 2024.

Overall, I’d say take Icelandair to Europe and then look into taking something else back. It is VERY important that Kansas Citians book flights with Icelandair this year and next if we ever want to see a direct flight to the UK, France, or Germany. Whether is for summer vacation, business, or a fun and quick extended weekend trip to Iceland(like I recently took) please consider going soon.

Thanks for the report! Were you on the inaugural going out from KC to Iceland? What day was your return flight? Really great to see the loads performing well but to your point need to sustain the momentum.

Left on the inaugural and returned yesterday. Again, I can not stress how important it is that we fill these flights. STL was able to get their service bumped from 3 weekly to 5 weekly before their flights even started. We can do better KC!

ldai_phs wrote: Left on the inaugural and returned yesterday. Again, I can not stress how important it is that we fill these flights. STL was able to get their service bumped from 3 weekly to 5 weekly before their flights even started. We can do better KC!

Just looked on the website as I was excited about the first nonstop international and have heard Iceland is beautiful. Here’s the problem: the “special” price from KC was $900, about twice the price of other cities including those that are twice the distance away like SF. I understand the call for KC to support the new destination, but I don’t see how they can properly gauge support with prices out of standard from other cities.

Oof. I checked what a roundtrip to Reykjavik on Icelandair in mid-September currently runs - it's about $200 more than connecting flights there on the usual suspects.

FWIW, you can book Icelandair flights using Alaska miles, too.

beautyfromashes wrote:

ldai_phs wrote: Left on the inaugural and returned yesterday. Again, I can not stress how important it is that we fill these flights. STL was able to get their service bumped from 3 weekly to 5 weekly before their flights even started. We can do better KC!

Just looked on the website as I was excited about the first nonstop international and have heard Iceland is beautiful. Here’s the problem: the “special” price from KC was $900, about twice the price of other cities including those that are twice the distance away like SF. I understand the call for KC to support the new destination, but I don’t see how they can properly gauge support with prices out of standard from other cities.

That's really expensive, especially to go through the trouble of routing through Iceland.

We are flying non stop from BWI to London for next month for about the same price via British Airways with a checked bag.

I thought the whole point of these Iceland flights were to be super cheap routes to connect to major Europe destinations. They better get those prices down or it seems pointless to go through the trouble of routing through Iceland.

I posted basically the same thing but deleted it to not be too negative. The problem is it's a connecting airline with a shitty airport. You can make up for that on fairs, but if not I'd rather connect through most other US/European airports.

WoodDraw wrote:I posted basically the same thing but deleted it to not be too negative. The problem is it's a connecting airline with a shitty airport. You can make up for that on fairs, but if not I'd rather connect through most other US/European airports.

It may be a lot cheaper if your destination is mainland Europe and you spend a few days in Reykjavik. I think that's how WOW works. Iceland subsidizes those flights for tourism revenue.

But yeah, if just making a connection and paying that price, you may as well connect through a nicer airport and probably shorter travel time in US/Europe. I'm sure a nice weekend trip to Reykjavik would be fun and it will be nice to have a direct flight from KC, but leisure trips to Reykjavik won't be enough to sustain this flight.

GRID wrote:

WoodDraw wrote:I posted basically the same thing but deleted it to not be too negative. The problem is it's a connecting airline with a shitty airport. You can make up for that on fairs, but if not I'd rather connect through most other US/European airports.

It may be a lot cheaper if your destination is mainland Europe and you spend a few days in Reykjavik. I think that's how WOW works. Iceland subsidizes those flights for tourism revenue.

But yeah, if just making a connection and paying that price, you may as well connect through a nicer airport and probably shorter travel time in US/Europe. I'm sure a nice weekend trip to Reykjavik would be fun and it will be nice to have a direct flight from KC, but leisure trips to Reykjavik won't be enough to sustain this flight.

Yeah, it's just...I've been to Reykjavik. It's nice, but not every time you fly to Europe. And if they're marketing plan is tourism, they need to lower the rates.

Google's fare tracker for nonstop from KCI to Iceland. Click on See More Dates to get table of several weeks out.
https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=/m/ ... 0;sd:1;t:f

Compared to 1 stop with other airlines. Click on See More Dates to get table for several weeks out...
https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=/m/ ... 1;sd:1;t:f

earthling wrote:Google's fare tracker for nonstop from KCI to Iceland. Click on See More Dates to get table of several weeks out.
https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=/m/ ... 0;sd:1;t:f

Compared to 1 stop with other airlines. Click on See More Dates to get table for several weeks out...
https://www.google.com/flights/#flt=/m/ ... 1;sd:1;t:f

Keep in mind that MCI-KEF only operates on M/W/Sat

GRID wrote:

WoodDraw wrote:I posted basically the same thing but deleted it to not be too negative. The problem is it's a connecting airline with a shitty airport. You can make up for that on fairs, but if not I'd rather connect through most other US/European airports.

It may be a lot cheaper if your destination is mainland Europe and you spend a few days in Reykjavik. I think that's how WOW works. Iceland subsidizes those flights for tourism revenue.

But yeah, if just making a connection and paying that price, you may as well connect through a nicer airport and probably shorter travel time in US/Europe. I'm sure a nice weekend trip to Reykjavik would be fun and it will be nice to have a direct flight from KC, but leisure trips to Reykjavik won't be enough to sustain this flight.

I am 99% confident that Icelandair is the only airline that offers the extended Iceland layovers for no additional cost. WOW does not have such a program.

Not sure where you are looking at. I looked at multiple dates in August/September and every time Icelandair to London was a few hundred cheaper than the other options. It appears that Icelandair is a consistent $200-300 cheaper than the others. Even 2 weeks from now Icelandair appears to be the cheapest option to London. It is important to not that I used selected dates that have the direct service to/from KCI

ldai_phs wrote:Not sure where you are looking at. I looked at multiple dates in August/September and every time Icelandair to London was a few hundred cheaper than the other options. It appears that Icelandair is a consistent $200-300 cheaper than the others. Even 2 weeks from now Icelandair appears to be the cheapest option to London. It is important to not that I used selected dates that have the direct service to/from KCI

Looks like international flights are considerably more from KC than from DC area (or east coast in general). And because you have to connect anyway from KC to get to places like London, then you may as well go with a cheaper option such as Icelandair. So better for KC than I thought. I booked round trip from BWI returning to Dulles in Jan for a flight in July and it was about $700 round trip.

Either way, I hope people take advantage of Icelandair and make it known that KC can support international flights.

Going to be hard for me not to pick a legacy carrier given opportunity to earn/use miles and give me more options for time....whether I connect in KEF or DFW does not matter to me.