Review of Play flight from Reykjavík to Paris in Economy

I work as a tour guide in Iceland and mid-December is one of the few very quiet times of the year – perfect time to travel. I was planning to go to Gambia with Royal Air Maroc but Morocco decided to cancel all flights to and from the country. I booked a Lufthansa flight from Paris to Cairo only four days before departure at a very reasonable rate of 550 € return in business class, and I had already booked a one-way flight from Paris to Budapest with Swiss. Here are all my flights:

Play, Keflavík to Paris, economy class (here)
Lufthansa, Paris to Munich, business class
Lufthansa, Munich to Cairo, business class
Egyptair, Cairo to Aswan, business class
Egyptair, Aswan to Cairo, business class
Lufthansa, Cairo to Munich, business class
Lufthansa, Munich to Paris, business class
Swiss, Paris to Zurich, business class
Swiss, Zurich to Budapest, business class
Wizzair, Budapest to Keflavík, economy class (no flight report)

Play is the third low-cost airline in Iceland after the now defunct Iceland Express (2002 to 2012) and Wow (2012 to 2019). Some of its managers come from Wow Air and it seems they know which mistakes not to repeat. Wow was known for the cult of personality of its CEO, poor customer service and unprofitable widebody aircrafts. Play is more low-key, has very good customer service - I asked a question on Messenger chat and had an answer from a real person (as opposed to a chatbot) within a few minutes - and a reasonable fleet of A320s and A321s.

I checked in on-line and had only hand luggage so I didn’t have to go to the check-in desk at Keflavík Airport. The terminal was very quiet anyway with no passengers at check-in.

There was almost zero waiting time at security so I was airside very quickly.

You can buy snacks at the duty free shop.

The terminal in a Christmas mood.

Only Icelandair has a lounge at the airport so Joe & The Juice was my “lounge” for a cappuccino.

Only three departures between 15.00 and 16.00. The busier time comes later.

The view of another Play aircraft.

Our plane TF-PLA, an A321neo built in 2018 and used previously by Interjet Mexico.

Load was extremely light on this flight, only about 25%. Boarding was relaxed and not crowded. Only the boarding pass and the ID were checked but not the Covid documents.

Configuration is a standard 3+3 in 41 rows.

I selected seat 15F, an emergency exit row seat. Legroom is similar to what you would expect in Emirates First Class.

The entire emergency exit row.

Seats 14BC and 15ABC.

Boarding was completed at 15.28. A flight time of only 2 hours and 55 minutes was announced. Push-back was at 15.33 for a scheduled departure time of 15.40. We took off at 15.44 from runway 19.

The view right after take-off.

Can you spot the Blue Lagoon?

The view of the cabin from the back.

The screens above the seats give information in Spanish and show the weather for cities in Mexico. The aircraft was operated by Interjet Mexico earlier but I’m sure there’s a way to set the language into English and the weather information for cities in Iceland/Europe.

The Buy-on-Board service offers a very simple choice.

I bought an Appelsín.

I spent the remaining time reading a book, sitting very comfortably in my seat.

We landed at 19.35 and reached our parking position at 19.52 for a scheduled arrival time of 20.20.

There wasn’t any document control after arrival and I was at the RER station shortly after landing.

Thank you for reading my flight report. Please feel free to comment.