London - Newfoundland.

[yellowtriumph]

Looking to benefit from the teams experience again!

We are travelling to/from Newfoundland next May for a mini-cruise. We were wondering who we should fly with in order to get the most out of our trip.

No matter who we fly with we wish to fly business class. We were wondering if we should seriously consider Icelandic Air. We thought the advantages would be:

1. The trip can be broken up in Iceland as Air Iceland seem to allow you to break the journey up in Keflavik for up to 7 days. We wondered if we might break the journey up for say an overnight stay in Kaflavik on the way out to NF (meaning a short journey from London to Keflavik and no need of a flat bed etc).

2. The onward flight to NF the next day would also only be for a few hours therefore also eliminating the need for a flat bed on that part of the journey too.

3. The same applied to the reverse journey except to spend up to 7 days in Keflavik touring around.

We have been to Iceland in the winter to see the Northern lights (we didn't see them!) and think an early summer drive around Iceland would be very different to the winter experience particularly as the Icelandic people seemed very warm and welcoming on the previous visit.

Would welcome any other thoughts and ideas from the team, as ever.

[Hartington]

According to their website Icelandair don't fly to either St Johns or Gander. Their website routes you London/Keflavik/TORONTO and then Westjet back to St Johns if I try and make a booking for May this year (2017).

Air Canada flies London/St Johns non stop in about 5hr 40min BUT they use A319s and their "Business Class" is North American "First Class" seats which are NOT lie flat.

[ExXB]

You want to break up a LON-YYT journey? Well try via DUB then, but Westjet doesn't have a business class on their DUB-YYT flight.

[Alsacienne]

If you are hoping to visit Iceland this summer, please be aware that most accommodation is already booked out so you'll need to get onto this as soon as possible. Also make sure you have good car insurance if you are hiring a car .... sand and gravel and ash insurance seem to be very important and you'll need to check your car very carefully and photograph any chips, scrapes and 'dings' before leaving. TA Iceland forum may be a helpful adjunct.

Mods, sorry if this is thread drift but it IS important to the success of yellowtriumph's plans even before he gets to Newfoundland ....

(PS Green with envy ... and have a lovely time!)

[S.o.S.]

No thread drift, Alsacienne. It's all relevant to the trip and useful for other Pax who making similar journeys. Thanks for contributing.

[yellowtriumph]

According to their website Icelandair don't fly to either St Johns or Gander. Their website routes you London/Keflavik/TORONTO and then Westjet back to St Johns if I try and make a booking for May this year (2017).

Air Canada flies London/St Johns non stop in about 5hr 40min BUT they use A319s and their "Business Class" is North American "First Class" seats which are NOT lie flat.

I see what you mean about the routing, not ideal. (I thought they did fly London/Iceland/Halifax but I can now see that's not the case - doh!). Air Canada seems to get very mixed reviews overall on the various passenger rating websites which is a concern.

I would think the relatively short flight would mean the non-flat bed seats would be tolerable.

[yellowtriumph]

If you are hoping to visit Iceland this summer, please be aware that most accommodation is already booked out so you'll need to get onto this as soon as possible. Also make sure you have good car insurance if you are hiring a car .... sand and gravel and ash insurance seem to be very important and you'll need to check your car very carefully and photograph any chips, scrapes and 'dings' before leaving. TA Iceland forum may be a helpful adjunct.

Mods, sorry if this is thread drift but it IS important to the success of yellowtriumph's plans even before he gets to Newfoundland ....

(PS Green with enyv ... and have a lovely time!)

Drop off on my part (getting over excited now that we have booked a couple of holidays!). I meant May 2018.

[WHBM]

Would be good to know where you are actually travelling to for your cruise. Newfoundland is a big place, and while St Johns on the east side is the main city (Corner Brook being the only other one really), Port au Basques right at the opposite end of the province is the main ferry port to Nova Scotia and the rest of Canada, which are sold as mini-cruises in their own right.

St Johns is not that far from Europe, only about 5 hours - the Air Canada A319 makes the round trip to London within daylight.

[yellowtriumph]

It is a pre-set itinerary, including depart/return Halifax, St John's, Red Bay, iles de la Medeleine and Charlottetown. There are other places on the route too.

AC is looking the most likely option, would you recommend business class? We do tend to think of business class as a treat to ourselves and part of the overall holiday experience.

[ExXB]

So you want to get to Halifax? That's a different story, and a fair distance from Newfoundland. AC has the only non-stop flight to/from LHR. Westjet likely has connections via ??? UA or DL might offer connections via the US, but they will be on commuter type planes in/out of YHZ - if they have business class it wont be their ling haul business product. You probably don't want to travel that way as ...

Depending on direction it's a 6~7 hour flight from Heathrow, but they do offer their longhaul J on these flights.

[yellowtriumph]

Yes a bit confusing over the airport. The brochure says a trip round Newfoundland so I was using that as a bit of shorthand which in hindsight was a bit remiss of me - sorry. The ship leaves Halifax 7pm at the latest and we suspect embarkation will be around 4pm. AC is looking the best option, maybe the only option in reality. Thanks for your input.