Flying Icelandair with Kids: Affordable Family-Friendly Airline Review

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Icelandair: Comfort on a Budget

If you've been following along with me for a while, you know that I'm always looking to book a new adventure to somewhere (yes, usually France). And if you read my post about the amazing app Going (find the link here), you'll also know that I was lucky enough to score roundtrip flights to Paris in September for around $500 per person. But the way I was able to pull this off was by picking Icelandair and hoping to make our one hour connection in Iceland. It was definitely an experience to run off the plane, get through passport control, find our gate and then immediately begin boarding for the next flight. Definitely one of the quickest turn arounds I've ever had, but it is doable, even with young kids in tow. And for the savings, you really can't beat it.

Booking Experience

The Icelandair website is very intuitive and easy to use. They even give you cute little loading screens where they give you a few words of Icelandic to learn while the website finishes loading, which is really quick. The options are easily laid out and you are encouraged to pre-purchase meals ahead of time. We opted not to add meals and you can buy food while on the plane but the options are more limited at the time of the flight. We also paid extra to pick our seats, which I definitely recommend for families. We only had to pay for the adults in our party, and my children were free for seat selection. Which in my opinion is incredibly fair and thoughtful for families. Overall, no issues with booking whatsoever. I even received several emails as we got closer to our trip with tips and information regarding our flight.

3. Check-In and Boarding

Check in was very easy. I downloaded the app and completed our check in process on there 24 hours before our departure. Because we had carry on bags only we just breezed right on through to security and to our gate. Because we did have a stroller I spoke with an incredibly friendly gate attendant who easily gave us a gate check tag for the stroller.

I will say gate checking our stroller was very different from what we're used to. Typically we gate check our stroller and then have the stroller returned to us as we exit the plane so we have it immediately. With Icelandair if you have a stroller you'll be checking it and it will be returned to you once you get to your final destination. Something to think about if you have young children and you're banking on your stroller to get through the Iceland airport. I will say the Iceland airport is small so you won't have too far to go without it. Luckily however, I saw our very bright red stroller bag with all the checked luggage as we exited onto the tarmac and we were able to get our stroller right there. Probably not something they do often as we had to get a few people to okay this, but for us, I was very relieved to have it. With two very tired toddlers, it's nice to have somewhere for them to sit as we went through passport control.

All of this being said, check it was very simple. I will add that they did check our carry on bags to ensure they were the correct size. So if you think you're going to sneak in a regularly sized carry on, I'm sorry to say that's probably not going to happen. The requirements for carry on bags with Icelandair are very small and not your standard size. I bought one of these carry ons for each of us and they slipped right into their size checking bin at the gate without any issue. And they held up for us as we traveled to three different cities in France within our two week trip.

4. In-Flight Experience

Once we boarded, and I will add that they allow and very much encourage families to board first, we easily found our seats. We were not in the Saga Premium seats, just standard economy for our flights. And one of my only cons of flying Icelandair is that the seats are smaller than standard economy seats on other flights we've taken, at least for our first flight. The second leg of our journey from Iceland to Paris the plane was much nicer. But unfortunately the plane we took out of our home airport was pretty old and the seats were small and rather uncomfortable. That being said though, that's only one of the three cons I have about flying Icelandair.

As far as in-flight entertainment goes I was very worried about this based on what I had been reading online. I don't know if things have changed recently or if other flights don't have the same in-flight entertainment that we did, but I kept reading that there were only two movies offered and they were both in Icelandic. I'm here to tell you that was not the case for us. They had tons and tons of movies and shows, in English, and even lots of options for the kids. So we had absolutely no issues here whatsoever.

For meals, we opted not to order food ahead of time and I'm glad we did. Our kids got a free snack box on every leg of our journey. They were incredibly adorable and came in these cute little boxes and included a main snack (like a pocket pizza or cheese and flatbread sandwich), a smaller additional snack (like a very small box of raisins), and a beverage (we got either a smoothie or apple juice depending on the flights). I think this is such a thoughtful thing Icelandair does and shows that they truly care about young kids, and their parents. I will say my son enjoyed most of the snacks but my daughter is a little pickier so I'm glad I packed additional snacks that she was more familiar with. So my advice would be to pack some snacks you know your kids will love and have these wonderful snack boxes as a great experience and backup. We as the adults ended up eating whatever our kids didn't like which worked out fantastically well.

You'll also receive Icelandic water given to you in a little plastic cup both at the beginning of the flight and at the end. And in the middle of the flight you'll be offered complimentary tea, coffee, or more water. In the era of budget flights, having this kind of beverage service is almost unheard of. The coffee was very nice and incredibly helpful as we were completely exhausted going off no sleep as we boarded for Paris from Iceland.

The flight attendants on all four of our flights were all incredibly kind and thoughtful. I will say they are very serious about having seatbelts on, seat backs up, and arm rests down for take off and landing. They come around and double check each row and will even assist in pushing your seat up when necessary. But for me, I'd rather have all the rules followed in cases like these. And when my little daughter fell asleep during one of our flights and was still out for landing, one of the flight attendants very kindly helped me get a seatbelt on her without waking her up and grabbed me a pillow to help support her head. Again, I think just showing how family oriented this airline is and that's why I find this alone to be a reason I would use Icelandair again.

5. Traveling with Kids on Icelandair

I've touched on a few of the great perks Icelandair has when traveling with kids including the free snack boxes for kids and the attentive service. We were also given a free pair of headphones on one of the flights for both of our kids which was very handy. And the snack boxes also have a set of colored pencils, a small coloring sheet, and a little paper puffin (which my kids both loved). And when traveling as a family we were always fast tracked through boarding to ensure a smooth beginning to each flight, which I truly appreciated. Overall I have to say this is one of the only airlines I know of that make such a huge effort to take care of families.

6. Budget Airline, but Better

Yes Icelandair is a budget airline, but they really try to go the extra mile with families. And to actually have complimentary beverage service on a budget airline these days is hard to find, again just highlighting that this airline is thinking about your comfort. The tight connections can be a little nerve wracking. On the way to Paris we have a one hour and ten minute connection. We easily deplaned onto the tarmac and took a waiting bus to the airport, got through passport control and to our gate just several minutes before boarding began. So it is tight. And on the way back our flight was delayed from CDG and we were sweating it before getting to Iceland. We had just thirty minutes to make it back through passport control and to our gate but we did manage it. Icelandair does this every day and knows how tight its connections are. Plus they don't want a whole fight of people missing their connection out of Iceland. So overall, if you can handle a tight connection knowing you won't have time, probably, for a bathroom break or to grab food in Iceland it is worth booking the flight with Icelandair.

7. Pros and Cons Summary

• Pros: affordability (when booking during the correct time window), family-friendly service, entertainment options, overall comfortable experience, option to include a free stop over experience in Iceland

• Cons: extra charges for bags/meals (it is a budget airline though), one of our flights was incredibly warm (I did read about this online before we booked but only one out of our four flights was warm, not hot), tight connections (this could be viewed as a positive though because even with two flights it was only a little over two hours longer than a direct flight due to the tight connection)

8. Final Verdict

I would definitely recommend Icelandair to someone, especially traveling with kids. It's a great budget option that allows you to travel to some amazing destinations for sometimes half the cost. You do need to watch prices because not soon after we booked our flight it climbed back up to $1,100 per ticket for the same itinerary. So it can be an affordable option when booking within the right time frame but keep an eye on things, or have Going do it for you.

9. Tips for Families Flying Icelandair

• Book seats early to sit together (kids seat selection is free when you pay to select your own seats as adults)

• Bring snacks for picky eaters (kids do get a free snack box but they are Icelandic foods that they might not be used to)

• Pack entertainment backups and old school headphones to plug into (though in-flight options are good)

• Take advantage of Iceland stopover program if it fits your trip (get two destinations for the price of one)