Back in August of 2021, tentatively emerging from COVID hybernation, we took a Cruise to Bermuda, and whilst onboard took advantage of discounts to book another Viking cruise for 2023 – Iceland’s Majestic Landscapes.

The first decision was the direction to sail, as this itinerary is offered as Reykjavik-Bergen or Bergen-Reykjavik. I’d read that departures from Reykjavik could be hectic, with long lines at checkin and security, but the biggest factor in my mind was likelihood of flight disruption. There are direct flights to Reykjavik from O’Hare, but Bergen was going to require connections – which increase the risk of a delay or interruption – so we decided to sail departing Reykjavik.

Icelandair is an obvious choice for the outbound flight to Reykjavik, and while they don’t offer a true Business class cabin, Saga Premium is pretty comfortable and it’s a relatively short flight at just 5.5 hours ORD-KEF.

September 2022 – Flights booked! Yes, I book flights a long way in advance. Simple direct flights ORD-KEF on the way out, more complex returning with Bergen-Copenhagen-Reykjavik-O’Hare. 2 Business class round-trip tickets came in at $4,450, significantly less than Viking would have charged had we used their air service.

July 27th, 2023 – Day of departure. We were flying in a day early in order to have a buffer against travel delays, and to give us a day to explore Reykjavik and recover jet lag a bit. Learning from our earlier travel in and out of O’Hare, we used the limo service that my employer contracts with for transfer between home and O’Hare – and it’s a great way to start a journey!

Our flight was until 10:00pm, so we headed to the airport arriving there at around 7:20. Terminal 5, international, was pretty busy but the Icelandair check in was deserted. We weren’t especially early, there was just no one there!

Checking in was quick and simple, and once again we were glad for our TSA Pre-check courtesy of our Global Entry membership, which allowed us to bypass a lengthy, snaking line of passengers. The pre-check desk had 4 or 5 people ahead of us, and we were quickly through.

Icelandair flies a 737 Max 8 on this route, which is not a large aircraft, and this is the only route they serve from O’Hare, so unfortunately there’s no lounge access provided. We made our way to the gate area and settled in to the poor man’s lounge 😉

Darkness fell, and our incoming aircraft arrived. My last international flight was on an A380, and the 737 Max is tiny compared to the long haul international jets around it!

Time to board, and Icelandair pre-boards Saga Premium at the same time as those needing extra time, status members, etc. We were probably 2nd or 3rd onboard what felt like a very fresh, modern, aircraft. Row 1 has no underseat storage because of the bulkhead, but were were in row 2 and thus had somewhere to stash stuff.

These are not best in class, lay-flat “studios” such as you’ll find on BA or others, but they’re also much less expensive. For a 5.5 hour flight they’re a very decent compromise. We decided to try and sleep almost immediately, so I’ve nothing to report about entertainment or refreshment on this leg of the journey. I can say that the cabin crew were very welcoming and polite, and all announcements began “Dear passengers …”. Really charming.

I woke as we were leaving Greenland about to descend to Iceland:

Many (most?) flights at Reykjavik are serviced by stairs rather than a jetbridge; Iceland is racing to catch up with the explosion of tourism that has somewhat overwhelmed it’s infrastructure. You’ll either descend steps to a bus or a short walk to the terminal building. Once inside it’s an interesting design aesthetic; rugged Nordic industrial? Hardwood floors and bentwood seating is atypical for American airports!

Interestingly we haven’t been through immigration or security, but we’re immediately comingled with other passengers. If our destination was a non-Schengen country we would simply connect here in Concourse D.

We needed to pass through immigration here, and so followed well posted signs to the passport hall. You’ll see lots of machines not yet in service, installed in anticipation of new visitor tracking programs to be introduced in 2024 (allegedly).

Watch the large display board to be shown which line to join, in our case it was a pretty short wait whichever we chose. All the machines under plastic are presumably in anticipation of the ETIAS program theoretically coming in 2024.

The immigration process was very straightforward and felt less like an interrogation than arriving at Heathrow does.