Leg 4 of the Northern European trip: KEF(Reykjavik)-BOS(Boston)-PHX(Phoenix)-SNA(Orange County) on FI (Icelandair) and US (US Airways)
This was the return leg of a 3-country tour of Northern Europe. The other legs were:
Our flight from Keflavik was scheduled for 10:30am, so after a very early breakfast we were picked up the Flybus shuttle to the BSI bus terminal in Reykjavik at 7:30am. A few minutes and other passengers later we were at the BSI terminal changing to a large bus to go to the airport. We were at the airport by 8:20am and ready to check-in for the flight. The line was quite long because there were two Icelandair flights leaving at the same time. One was to New York JFK and the other was our flight to Boston.
The 757-200(WL) that would take us to Boston was called Skjaldbreiður. It was parked all the way at
end of terminal right next to the 757 going to JFK. The setup of the terminal was very interesting.
Since flights within Europe are treated like "domestic" flights all of the passport control stuff is not
necessary. At the very end of the terminal is passport control where overseas passengers are sent
downstairs. So they have 2 different levels operating for the same gates. Everything was set up like a normal
terminal except we were on ground level. Then there was an escalator to take us up to the gate level.
The seats on the Icelandair 757 were comfortable. The legroom was pretty good too. Each seat has a TV with lots of entertainment options. I watched an episode of Glee and The Hobbit.
The only thing I did not like about Icelandair is that you have to buy the food. Beverages were free, but any food items had to be purchased and they weren't cheap. I think this is the only airline I know of that flies internationally that has buy-on-board meals. I bought the hamburger sliders and they were tiny. Each one is about a bite and a half big. Other than that, the service and overall flight experience was great.
This is a legroom shot. They handed out bottles of water, but they serviced the flight many times.
We landed at Boston around noon, which was just over 5 hours from the time we took off. We arrived at the international terminal, Terminal E. We were the only flight arriving and getting through was a breeze. The only snafu was that the baggage claim system had broken down and there were guys trying to fix it. It took about 45 minutes for the bags to finally come out. Our 4.5 hour layover in BOS became more like 3.5 hours when all was said and done. We had to take a shuttle bus to Terminal B where US Airways flies out of. Since our bags were checked all the way home we checked in without bags. We were in desperate need of a real meal since we had eaten breakfast about 9 hours prior. We found a seafood restaurant called Legal Seafood. It was good but the prices were really expensive just like we were back in Europe. After lunch we spent the rest of the layover at the US Airways Club. Our flight to Phoenix on an A320 boarded around 4:00p. We had exit row seats again and this is a blurry shot of the legroom.
There was no entertainment on this flight. And the flight time seemed really long. It was just as long as our flight from Reykjavik, but not even close to the same distance. Well it turns out that our flight path was quite convoluted as we took a tour of the northern part of the states.
By the time we made it to PHX, I was beyond tired. We stopped in a US Airways Club to be comfortable and have some snacks. We only had about an hour until the next flight to SNA. Our A321 was brand new and even had that new plane smell. The A321 is the longest version of the A320 family and we had exit row seats toward the back. There wasn't much of a window to look out of because we were right next to a door. But there were just 2 seats together with tons of legroom. I barely remember this flight because I slept through most of it. Having been awake for such a long period of time, I could not keep my eyes open. We arrived to a pretty empty terminal at SNA around 9:45p. It was a very long day and I was happy to be home and actually in the darkness of night for the first time in a week.
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