Iceland Part I: Missed Flights and rolling with the punches

Our Campervan rental at our first campground for the night in Vik.

I have had Iceland on my bucket list for at least the last ten years. So, when I discovered it cost less to fly home to London via Reykjavik and Icelandair was offering a stopover on the return home, Matt and I jumped at the chance to spend a few days there after visiting my mom and sister.

The start of the trip did not begin smoothly. We were heading to Heathrow airport via the train from Paddington when Matt and I both got emailed a “schedule update” for our flight and informed that our 2125 flight was now scheduled to depart at 2355. I groaned at the thought of not getting to our hotel room at the airport until the wee hours of the morning but perked up when I realized we’d have a little more time to enjoy London. We ended up arriving at the airport at 2015, and to our horror, there was no check-in desk nor any Icelandair staff to be found anywhere in Terminal 2 Departures.

We started freaking out and running from other airlines’ desks to other desks, even trying to go through security with our luggage when that was suggested to us (we had already checked in for our flight online). Turns out that the email we’d been sent was sent in error, and our flight departure time had not changed, BUT – the Icelandair rep had clearly decided to pack up early for the night and closed the counter a full 70 mins prior to the original flight departure time, despite our boarding passes clearly stating that drop off time for bags closes 60 mins prior to departure.

Our only recourse was to “call Icelandair customer service” and we were on hold for 45 mins. Eventually, we were introduced to the Heathrow Customer Relations Manager, and she was very confused when I showed her the email and text messages, confirming that there was no change made to our flight schedule. Nevertheless, we stayed on hold, and once we had a reservation agent on the line, calmed down a bit when the Manager assured us that she believed they should be able to get us on the flight leaving the next afternoon without charging us to change our ticket, since it was clearly their fault.

Sadly, after being on the phone for more than two hours, we were told that since our originally scheduled flight had already departed (due to how incompetent and slow the reservation agent was working, mind you!) that we had to pay for new tickets that cost us more than the original $944 I had paid for our Seattle-Reykyavik-London-Reykyavik-Seattle flights. They charged us $962 each to fly the next day and changed our return flight to Seattle by one day later.

I was livid. The agent did not do anything even remotely reminiscent of empathy or being a human. She vociferously explained that she couldn’t waive the charges and that our only recourse was to put our complaint in writing to the airline.

Now late, and very frustrated, we paid an additional 85 pounds for a room at the Ibis near the airport and gladly accepted some free bus vouchers from Nisha only to find a very irate and rude bus driver who demanded to know WHICH Ibis he was to drop us at since there were apparently 3 Ibis hotels on the same damn road. I was so flustered because the booking was on my phone and I no longer had airport wifi and so I asked if he’d let us board and I’d look up the address once we were seated. At first, he refused, but I just got on the bus anyways, at this point in no mood to take any more shit from anyone.  Finally found the information, checked in, and got to bed around 2am.

The next morning, we got to the airport a little more than three hours before departure as we were taking no chances. That’s when all sorts of ideas started to come to mind as to what we could have done the night before. Like – one of us could have flown with just our carry-on and the other re-booked the flight for the next day – which would have saved us $962. We also considered how one of us could have gone through security and ran to the gate to talk to/plead with the gate staff to let us check our bags at the gate due to the miscommunication we had received. We also considered that we could have gone through security – bought two carry on-size suitcases and repacked only the most essential items from our luggage and thrown the rest away and still made the plane (it didn’t leave until 10:05 pm!). I also considered that we should have consulted Claude while at the airport and followed those directions as to the best course of action (it’s been incredibly helpful with the crafting of my official complaint that I’ve filed since our return home) or at least I could have started rage tweeting @icelandair for help.

Finally on a plane flying to Reykjavik! Our faces say it all...

Of course, hindsight is 20/20 and we were just so flustered and stressed out that none of this came to us in what was a very hectic and panic-filled time for our brains to think through logical courses of action.

The flight went smoothly, and I was glad when we finally landed and headed over to Hertz to pick up our campervan – home for the next six days! Matt and I have tried vacationing with a trailer, but this was our first time trying out “van life” and I gotta say I absolutely loved it. Especially paired with the way car camping is done in Iceland which is to say you basically have to show up, and it’s always first come first served. We only found a campground to be full and got turned away one time during our visit. Though if Iceland continues growing in its popularity, I can see issues beginning in the years ahead.

The weather was pretty shitty and the sideways rained offered its welcome as we headed to Costco (of all places!) to stock up on food as we intended to self-cater for the entire trip (Iceland is super expensive – a meal out is at least $100 per person for a dinner) and try to recoup some of the spending money that had been taken out of our budget by Icelandair.

Between Costco and a supermarket next door and a liquor store, we managed to get everything we thought we’d need for six days and it cost us about $435. Which is pricey, but I have to say that food was light years better than what we’ve grown accustomed to in the US. Everything tasted just so delicious, our favorite discovery was Icelandic Skyr – technically it’s a cheese but eats like yogurt and it was creamier and felt more indulgent to eat than the best ice cream.

Visiting Seljalandsfoss en route to Vik

Still pouring rain, we set out into the still brightly lit evening sky and decided to drive as far east as we could that night, arriving to the campground in Vik around midnight. The landscape on the way was already stunning, despite the weather. The greens here are just so vibrant, and we quickly figured out that freshwater is a resource that’s incredibly plentiful in this country. So many waterfalls – we stopped at 3 for some quick photos before jumping back in the van, slightly wet and windblown. I was exhausted as we got into our van’s queen-sized bed with the specially fitted twin duvets and fell asleep to the sound of rain pattering on the roof.

Continue reading: Iceland Part II: Puffins, Ice, and Black Sand →