SRQKEF From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, RR: 1 Posted (7 months 3 weeks 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 5905 times:
Florida Vacation…The Boring Way! FI KEF-SFB r/t
Introduction
Hello everyone and welcome to my 15th report and my first in a long time not covering my around-the-world trip. I know I said in the last report that the next reports would be in reverse order but due to many reasons I decided to ditch that and to it in correct order. This report will cover my trip to Florida in October 2011. Our family always goes at least once a year (most often twice and sometimes thrice) to Sarasota, Florida where we have a house in a country club residency. Often we go via BOS or NYC but this time, as we were late booking our flights, we took the easy (and boring) way and booked Keflavik – Orlando Sanford – Keflavik on FI. This report will cover my flights out and back.
The simple route of this report:
The report
We drove the 45 minute drive from the capital to Keflavik Airport and arrived in KEF just over 1.5 hours before departure. After checking in at the Saga Class check-in desk, I received a BP with seat 15 assigned. I then walked through security which was a breeze because we arrived a little later than the less seasoned travellers which nearly always arrive 2 hrs+ before departure.
Airside
We then had some snacks at Kaffitár (the Icelandic Starbucks) before walking to our gate.
White nosed 757 operating the afternoon flight to Heathrow
Icelandic cargo birds
TF-FII (Eyjafjallajökull) heading for BOS
Our bird, TF-FIU (Hekla)
Flight information
Date: 14. October 2011
Airline: Icelandair (FI/ICE)
Aircraft: Boeing B757-200
Registration: TF-FIU
Flight number: FI 689
From: Keflavik International Airport (KEF/BIKF)
To: Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB/KSFB)
Runway at origin: 20
Runway at destination: unkown
Sched/Act departure: 17:10/17:24
Sched/Act arrival: 20:50/21:17
Blocked time: 7 hrs 40 mins
Flight time gate to gate: 7 hrs 53 mins
Flight time RWY to RWY: 7 hrs 39 mins
Seat & Class: 15F (Economy, Y)
Personal information My 208th flight, 19th in 2011
My 125th flight on FI, 121st on FI 757, 110th on FI 752
My 125th flight on 757, 114th on 752, 8th on TF-FIU
The pilot came on the PA and told us the flight time – around 8 hours because of heavy headwinds. As is standard with the Orlando flight, we pushed back 15 minutes late. That is because opposite to BOS/JFK/IAD/YYZ etc. flights, the Orlando flight has a 22 hour layover in the States. So no rush to get out.
Climbing through the clouds
And we’re above! Beautiful evening light which lasted for 6 hours.
FI winglet – looks nice, doesn’t it?
Magically the clouds disappeared as we entered Greenland. Perfect timing!
Nice
Hazy mountains
Leaving Greenland behind – see you later!
At this point I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until an hour later, realizing on the empty trays at my seatmates table that I had missed the dinner service! I pressed the call button and in under a minute a FA came and took my order. I got chicken with pasta which tasted good. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.
Cloudy again
Sunset nearing
Over Georgia
Winglet in the last sunrays of the day
Sun is gone but we keep on cruising
I stopped and talked to my brother in row 28 on my way from the loo to my seat. The sun was going down fast and the sky was getting darker by the minute.
For Jonas
Cabin shot
View from his seat
Goodbye sun, see you tomorrow!
Dark
Almost there
IFE before landing – Kvikmyndir means Games, Tónlist means Music, Leikir means Games, Þættir means TV Shows, Kannanir means Polls, Flugið Þitt means Your Flight and Um Ísland means About Iceland. Hope you liked this brief Icelandic lesson!
I’m not gonna show you some sights in Florida as the point of going to Florida isn’t exploring sights but relaxing on the beach and playing golf.
I only have 3 pics from my actual trip here:
Alligators
And a turtle
After some relaxing 2 weeks, it was time to head home. We left early (11am) to enjoy the trip up north. The flight was scheduled to leave at 7pm so we had enough time.
No offense to anyone that owns one of those, but this car is ugly!
Typical Florida highway scene
Those clouds up north don’t look good! Caused some turbulence on the flight.
Applebee’s for lunch
We then stopped at Wendy’s for some frosty dessert
Driving past Fantasy of Flight
Disney seen while driving by
Fenezia, an Italian bakery we stopped at along the way
This car isn’t pretty either!
Frontier 320 seen landing at MCO
Evening skies
Finally!
We’re definitely at the right place
Fighter jet on display just outside the airport
[IMG]http://i1051.photobucket.com/albums/s436/SRQKEF15/IMG_0287.jpg[/IMG
]
Check-in area
The FIDS show the usual UK charter airline traffic
Some triholers at the end of the line
Those MD80s of G4 are lovely! Bet they aren’t as nice inside though…
Another angle
Former Gulf Air 767
Our bird, TF-FII (Eyjafjallajökull) I can actually say Eyjafjallajokull correctly!
Yep, Foxtrot India India it is
And the name that makes many plane geeks shiver
Untitled MD80 reg N786TW. PH can you shed some light on the ownership of this bird? Could it be the charter to MEM?
Heading for the UK
Flight information
Date: 29. October 2011
Airline: Icelandair (FI/ICE)
Aircraft: Boeing B757-200
Registration: TF-FII
Flight number: FI 688
From: Orlando Sanford International Airport (SFB/KSFB)
To: Keflavik International Airport (KEF/BIKF)
Runway at origin: unknown
Runway at destination: 2
Sched/Act departure: 19:00/19:02
Sched/Act arrival: 06:10/05:29
Blocked time: 7 hrs 10 mins
Flight time gate to gate: 6 hrs 27 mins
Flight time RWY to RWY: 6 hrs 9 mins
Seat & Class: 13F (Economy, Y)
Personal information My 208th flight, 19th in 2011
My 125th flight on FI, 121st on FI 757, 110th on FI 752
My 125th flight on 757, 114th on 752, 8th on TF-FIU
Opposed to the flight southwest, on the flight back north we had some very heavy winds in our favor so a very early arrival was expected.
Inside
N786TW has been towed to a gate next to an untitled 734 which could also be flying to MEM
Sunlight is going away
Ok legroom here
IFE
Tray table in Icelandic and English
The G4 bird again
Seems like N786TW is departing
Unknown 734
Ready to depart, ontime!
Climbing away from Florida, see you in a year! Normally I would’ve gone again in half a year but because of the RTW trip I won’t go again until Oct 2012.
Sunset shot taken by my mom on the other side of the aisle
Shortly after takeoff dinner was served. First, children meals were served. As my sister didn’t want her hamburger I decided to eat it first as I wasn’t sure about the quantity of the other meal. As it turned out the quantity of the regular meal was good, but as a young and growing man, I can eat all day and still feel hungry!
Child meal
And the nice chicken. The chicken along with the sauce was great while the mashed potatoes were a bit bland. I didn’t like the blueberry muffin though.
I decided to try this movie out but I didn’t particularly like it
I then fell asleep but woke up by my brother kicking me in his sleep at this point:
Airvents
I couldn’t fall asleep again no matter how hard I tried. In the end I decided to give up and read instead, keeping an eye on the in flight maps.
Dark all around us
Leaving North America
I finally fell asleep again near Greenland and slept peacefully until we started descending.
SRQKEF From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, RR: 1 Reply 1, posted (7 months 3 weeks 1 day 10 hours ago) and read 5902 times:
History: Astraeus 737s operating for Iceland Express. CSA Holidays has now taken AEU’s place.
Our bird, shot taken while walking for immigration
Another Iceland Express/AEU 737
Icelandair’s TATL arrivals this morning – I have flown on all those services except IAD, all but SEA multiple times.
Outside the terminal
Reykjavik, I’m home!
The thing I had craved for the whole flight: my bed. I fell asleep the instant I hit the pillow.
Afterthoughts
FI offered me 2 good flights. Unlike some reports I’ve seen about them here the FAs answered the call button nearly right away and had at least 4 drink services per flight. I guess I got lucky with the crew. My dad flies FI nearly every week for work and he says that there are rotten apples in the FI crew for sure.
I hope that the report for my trip to the UK back in January will be finished before I leave for Florida mid next month.
roberts87 From Netherlands, joined Dec 2011, 657 posts, RR: 0 Reply 2, posted (7 months 3 weeks 1 day 9 hours ago) and read 5632 times:
Nice report, thanks for sharing.
I guess there is not much choice for you to fly besides FI!
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): Our family always goes at least once a year (most often twice and sometimes thrice) to Sarasota, Florida where we have a house in a country club residency.
FI doesn't fly directly to SRQ, no? They offer connecting via BOS or NYC, or do you buy seperate tickets?
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): Magically the clouds disappeared as we entered Greenland. Perfect timing!
WOW!
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): At this point I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until an hour later, realizing on the empty trays at my seatmates table that I had missed the dinner service! I
I thought FI had BOB, but from your report I get the impression the meals were free?
SRQKEF From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, RR: 1 Reply 3, posted (7 months 3 weeks 1 day 8 hours ago) and read 5411 times:
Quoting roberts87 (Reply 2): I guess there is not much choice for you to fly besides FI!
Hi Robert, thanks for reading! That's true, only way over the pond is FI to around 10-15 destinations, some all year and some seasonal, and DL to JFK in the summer. I have yet to try the DL service.
Quoting roberts87 (Reply 2): FI doesn't fly directly to SRQ, no?
Only international service SRQ gets is 1x weekly seasonal service on Air Canada. It's not a big market.
Quoting roberts87 (Reply 2): They offer connecting via BOS or NYC, or do you buy seperate tickets?
They offer connecting tix, but if you know how to find low fares individually it's better to just buy KEF-BOS-KEF and then buy a different ticket on jetBlue, Southwest, AirTran etc. on to Sarasota or Tampa. Did it that way for our next trip, booked an open jaw KEF-JFK / SFB-KEF ticket and then Delta from LaGuardia to Tampa.
Quoting roberts87 (Reply 2): I thought FI had BOB, but from your report I get the impression the meals were free?
Children meals are free. And we got free chicken as we were booked in Economy Comfort but as a family of 5 it suited us better to have a 6 seat row for ourselves.
Widebodyroga From United States of America, joined Sep 2008, 472 posts, RR: 4 Reply 4, posted (7 months 3 weeks 1 day 7 hours ago) and read 5239 times:
Hey Sveinn,
Nice to see another FI report.
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): we took the easy (and boring) way and booked Keflavik – Orlando Sanford – Keflavik on FI.
Maybe boring to you but surely not to us. If it involves FI, KEF and in this case a not terribly known US Airport like SFB then it's plenty exciting
After what that volcano did to the airline industry, FI should have retired its name and replaced it with something else, haha...
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): At this point I fell asleep and didn’t wake up until an hour later, realizing on the empty trays at my seatmates table that I had missed the dinner service! I pressed the call button and in under a minute a FA came and took my order. I got chicken with pasta which tasted good. Unfortunately, I forgot to take a picture.
That's nice of them. Surprisingly this has only happened to be once (on A3 a few years ago) and the FA was also nice enough to bring me my food (albeit with a long delay which made me think she had forgotten about me).
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): IFE before landing – Kvikmyndir means Games, Tónlist means Music, Leikir means Games, Þættir means TV Shows, Kannanir means Polls, Flugið Þitt means Your Flight and Um Ísland means About Iceland. Hope you liked this brief Icelandic lesson!
I always appreciate foreign language lessons, of any kind, so thanks. I had read somewhere that in Iceland you guys don't like to borrow foreign words and you come up with your own even for items that share a universal name in all other languages. And from what I can tell, that's absolutely true
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): Those MD80s of G4 are lovely! Bet they aren’t as nice inside though…
Is that so? Have you flown with them? For quite some time now I have been trying to make it possible to fly with G4 to SFB out of GYY (Gary/Chicago Airport in Indiana) but the times/days of the available tickets are always very inconvenient. By the way that's the only scheduled flight out of GYY so I don't even have any alternatives in order to sample this new airport for me.
Anyway, thanks for sharing your report Sveinn
Stojan
Visit my aviation page: http://widebodyroga.weebly.com/
Quoting Widebodyroga (Reply 4): Maybe boring to you but surely not to us. If it involves FI, KEF and in this case a not terribly known US Airport like SFB then it's plenty exciting
Haha true
Quoting Widebodyroga (Reply 4): After what that volcano did to the airline industry, FI should have retired its name and replaced it with something else, haha...
Haha, FI actually named it after the eruption happened! Did it to generate interest in the aircraft name and it sure has. It was used for a RTW charter (all C class config) back in Oct2010 and the pax were very interested in the name. I flew the reposition leg on FII from BOS to KEF (all C class) and it was very nice!
Quoting Widebodyroga (Reply 4): I always appreciate foreign language lessons, of any kind, so thanks. I had read somewhere that in Iceland you guys don't like to borrow foreign words and you come up with your own even for items that share a universal name in all other languages. And from what I can tell, that's absolutely true
Haha, we have a very unique language for sure!
Quoting Widebodyroga (Reply 4): Is that so? Have you flown with them? For quite some time now I have been trying to make it possible to fly with G4 to SFB out of GYY (Gary/Chicago Airport in Indiana) but the times/days of the available tickets are always very inconvenient. By the way that's the only scheduled flight out of GYY so I don't even have any alternatives in order to sample this new airport for me.
Nope, haven't flown them. My mom's brother flew them to Montana though and said the legroom wasn't good. That's expected for those low fares though!
MSS658 From Belgium, joined Oct 2010, 2202 posts, RR: 14 Reply 6, posted (7 months 3 weeks 20 hours ago) and read 4613 times:
Hey Sveinn
Nice report, thanks for sharing! Good too see you had some good crews. Maybe the Orlando sun did some good!
Great pics chasing the sunset as well!
I did enjoy the Florida pics, looks good in the summer
Quite interesting to see all the UK traffic from SFB
adamspotter From Netherlands, joined Feb 2011, 774 posts, RR: 2 Reply 7, posted (7 months 3 weeks 5 hours ago) and read 4166 times:
Hi Sveinn,
Another nice report you have made there. FI looks quite ok I definetely want to try them out sometime, but that will be from Europe to KEF as I will definetely not fly a 757 TATL
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): the Orlando flight has a 22 hour layover in the States
SRQKEF From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, RR: 1 Reply 10, posted (7 months 2 weeks 4 days 12 hours ago) and read 3142 times:
Quoting MSS658 (Reply 6): Nice report, thanks for sharing!
Hi Marc, thank you very much!
Quoting MSS658 (Reply 6): Good too see you had some good crews. Maybe the Orlando sun did some good!
Yes, that could very well be the reason!
Quoting MSS658 (Reply 6): Great pics chasing the sunset as well!
Thanks. Always nice to see the sunset from 35,000 feet.
Quoting MSS658 (Reply 6): I did enjoy the Florida pics, looks good in the summer
Going there for the 30th time in 12 days, can't wait!
Quoting MSS658 (Reply 6): Quite interesting to see all the UK traffic from SFB
If your looking for an interesting and different way across the pond (and probably cheap too) you could try Thomson/Thomas Cook/First Choice etc. ex-UK for SFB. You would also log SFB. Or even BRU-KEF-SFB on FI!
Quoting adamspotter (Reply 7): FI looks quite ok I definetely want to try them out sometime, but that will be from Europe to KEF as I will definetely not fly a 757 TATL
Haha, I've heard that alot, but never experienced any difficulties. I guess when you fly TATL in a NB nearly every time, you just get used to it.
Quoting adamspotter (Reply 7): That is quite a long layover for the plane!
The reason for it is that, with a same-day turnaround, the plane can't both catch the pax coming from Europe in the afternoon connecting via KEF to SFB, and catch the Euro departures the following morning going back for Europe. Instead the plane waits in the States until early the following evening and then flies back in order to get to KEF in time for the Euro departures. Same holds for all the longer routes FI flies (SEA, DEN and soon ANC). All flights around or under 6 hrs (JFK, BOS, YYZ etc.) have a same day turnaround though.
PlaneHunter From Germany, joined Mar 2006, 6183 posts, RR: 79 Reply 11, posted (7 months 2 weeks 3 days 9 hours ago) and read 2881 times:
Hi Sveinn,
good to see another report from you, interesting stuff as usual! I still need to fly on one of FI's nice 757s!
Quoting SRQKEF (Thread starter): Our family always goes at least once a year (most often twice and sometimes thrice) to Sarasota, Florida where we have a house in a country club residency.
SRQKEF From Iceland, joined Jun 2011, 692 posts, RR: 1 Reply 12, posted (7 months 2 weeks 3 days 5 hours ago) and read 2787 times:
Quoting PlaneHunter (Reply 11): good to see another report from you, interesting stuff as usual!
Hi PH, thanks for reading!
Quoting PlaneHunter (Reply 11): I still need to fly on one of FI's nice 757s!
Maybe couple it with some Icelandic domestics on F50s and Twotters and go via Greenland on the way back on GL? Munich - Keflavik (FI B752) / Reykjavik - Akureyri (NY F50) / Akureyri - Grimsey r/t (FNA DH6) / Akureyri - Reykjavik (NY F50) / Keflavik - Stromfjord - Copenhagen (GL DH8 + 330). That would lead to an interesting report for sure! If you want, I could produce some itineraries inside and around Iceland for you...
Haha, the funny thing is, when all airports in Europe were shut, you could actually fly TATL from KEF (under 100 miles from the volcano!). How I love some easterly winds...
Quoting PlaneHunter (Reply 11): That's operated by Ameristar Airways, offering charter services.
Thanks for the info! That must have been the MEM charter then.
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