Has anybody flown with Iceland Express from Basel to Reykjavik? I am curious to know about the experience flying with them as I do not know much about the airline or its reputation. I would imagine that, as a Western European airline, it ought to be a pretty decent in terms of service and performance.
Also, having never been to Basel airport, is it easy to get to from Basel SBB?
As an Icelander myself I might be able to help you out here
If you're looking for an affordable trip to Iceland, Iceland Express would be your best option.
Iceland Express is basically the low-cost alternative to Icelandair set up a few years ago to compete against Icelandair's "monopoly". Although prices are not comparable to for example EasyJet (it's still expensive taking into account flight time) it is without a doubt the cheapest way to get to Iceland.
In my experiences, service and performance are just fine. Don't expect anything fancy though, it's still "low cost".
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Just as we have bus 50 here, in Iceland there's the Flybus.
They are not entirely comparable price-wise, though...Flybus costs 16 CHF one way, while bus 50 to Basel airport is 2.60 CHF with Halbtax. (Don't get me wrong - despite Iceland being ridiculously expensive, I would re-visit it anytime ;-)
Just a quick update: I found that it was slightly cheaper and a bit more convenient, for the days that I chose, to fly via London. I opted for a CHF 198 Zürich to London r/t with Swiss, and then a CHF 418 fare on Icelandair from London to Reykjavik. In contrast, I noticed that Iceland Express flies from Basel once a week, and the prices seem to get higher and higher with each day.
I ended up booking up a 6.5 day trip. Hopefully, that is enough time to see the best bits of Iceland!
Just a quick update: I found that it was slightly cheaper and a bit more convenient, for the days that I chose, to fly via London. I opted for a CHF 198 Zürich to London r/t with Swiss, and then a CHF 418 fare on Icelandair from London to Reykjavik. In contrast, I noticed that Iceland Express flies from Basel once a week, and the prices seem to get higher and higher with each day.
I ended up booking up a 6.5 day trip. Hopefully, that is enough time to see the best bits of Iceland!
RunningHermit, you may already be there by the time I write this - but just in case, could you give me an idea if you were able to get your ZRH to London, and then London to Rek flights on the same day?
I've been looking at schedules, and it seems that (at least from LHR) it's trickly to get a flight early enough out of ZRH (or late enough out of LHR coming back) to make the connection.
Norwegian is also decent. I fly one way from KEF to CGN via Oslo, and the other way from CGN to GDN and thereon to KEF - all in for less than EUR160 all incl. ( apart from ZRH to CGN and back )
Last edited by jrspet; 19.07.2012 at 15:18.
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Be prepaired to get an sms a few days before departure informing you that you will be stopping shortly in Berlin (or some other place along the way) to pick up more passengers.
Another budget airline joining the market this year is wowair you can check their website aswell for cheap deals.
They are not entirely comparable price-wise, though...Flybus costs 16 CHF one way, while bus 50 to Basel airport is 2.60 CHF with Halbtax. (Don't get me wrong - despite Iceland being ridiculously expensive, I would re-visit it anytime ;-)
Well that is not entirely comparable distance-wise either, the flybus goes about 50km. I dont think you need to travel that far with the bus in Basel
And you must clearly have been there before the crisis of 2008. Everything is half price now compared to then.
In 2008 you got around 60 icelandic krona for 1 CHF, now you get around 130 kronas
My wife and I flew Iceland Express from Geneva (return to Basel) a couple of years ago. We booked and paid for seats with extra leg room, but didn't get them, as when we checked-in there was no record of our booking! Eventually we got a refund. The flight to Iceland was delayed 2 hours.
Iceland was great. We visited some friends who were all sitting around in t-shirts in the blistering heat of 16°C... while I shivered in my coat.
Flight back was uneventful.
So, not a great airline experience, but no worse than any other.
__________________ If a religion is defined as a system of ideas that contains unprovable statements, then Gödel taught us that maths is not only a religion, it is the only such that can prove itself to be one. Barrow
Thanks jrspet, but in the end we decided to avoid the budget airlines and have ended up booking with SAS, via Stockholm on the way out and Oslo on the way back. CHF 849 round trip - not the cheapest, but hopefully a bit more certain to make it as planned...! The layovers are only 1-2 hours each way as well, so better connections than we could find via LHR.
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SAS considers flights to Longyearbyen from Oslo or Tromsø domestic, so a SAS EuroBonus award ticket from anywhere in Scandinavia to Svalbard costs just 12,000 EuroBonus points. This little loophole is well known by SAS frequent flyers and award availability is quite limited, so book well in advance if planning to use this.
Enjoy!
This user would like to thank jrspet for this useful post:
SAS considers flights to Longyearbyen from Oslo or Tromsø domestic, so a SAS EuroBonus award ticket from anywhere in Scandinavia to Svalbard costs just 12,000 EuroBonus points. This little loophole is well known by SAS frequent flyers and award availability is quite limited, so book well in advance if planning to use this.
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