KUL-KEF

 Thu 27/10/22

This was our first trip after more than 2 years after the Covid 19 pandemic. We would be taking a 13 day Iceland road trip, starting from Reykjavik clockwise.  For this trip, we took Finnair as it was the cheapest on offer and also part of the OneWorld alliance. There is no direct flight from Kuala Lumpur (KUL) to Reykjavik (KEF), so in this trip, we had to transit at Bangkok (BKK) and Helsinki (HEL) before arriving to KEF. We bought our ticket quite at the last minute, less than one month from the departure date. Our return trip ticket cost SGD 1217 or RM 4040 per person. 

The flight from KUL to BKK took 2 hours 10 min and is operated by Malaysia Airlines with meals included. Since we were from KUL, the menu was either nasi lemak or chicken noodle (usual menu in domestic flight between KUL to KCH). We transited at Bangkok for 2h 35min. There is a big prayer room at level 3 and halal stall at level 4 of the airport. We discovered that BKK is much bigger than KUL and serves more routes than KUL. 

BKK prayer room

Halal shop at BKK

For the BKK to HEL route, the flight took 12h 20min. Finnair's interior looked sleek, and the seat design is slim, hence saving space. The inflight entertainment (IFE) touch screen was easy to navigate. They did provide hand wipes to disinfect the surfaces prior to using. The earphone provided was basic with cable (you'll get a better headphone at premium seats). Blankets and pillows were also provided.

Finnair long haul economy seat 

We opted for Muslim meal (MOML) in our long haul sector BKK to HEL. For the MOML, we were provided with bun and potato salad as appetizer and briyani rice with chicken as dinner and scrambled eggs with roast tomato and chicken as breakfast (2 meals). The meals were tasty. Mineral water bottles were provided for each passenger and we were free to request for water along the journey. 

MOML Dinner 

MOML breakfast

It was a bit of chaos when we arrived at our second transit point in HEL, the security clearance line was snakingly long and we only had 1h 55min transit time. It was early in the morning at 5.50am when we arrived, but there were many other flights also arriving at the same time. A special lane was opened for those with shorter transit time, but there were some people who managed to dodge the airport security personnel and cut the queue using the special lane. 

We managed to clear security clearance in time, then sprinted to the passport check, airport personnel let us cut the queue as our flight was already boarding. Then we sprinted to our boarding gate, just in time as other passengers were still boarding the flight. There were a few of us from the same flight from KUL, and managed to board our flight. The HEL to KEF route took 3h 50 min, operated by Finnair only provided free drinks. Meal is not included. We opted for blueberry juice. 

Note: Although we already went through security check at BKK, we still have to go through it again at HEL. As for passport check, since Finland and Iceland are both in the Schengen area, HEL was our first point of entering Schengen, so the passport check was done here. Once we arrived in KEF, we only had to wait for our checked luggage and bypass immigration check. The wait wasn't too long, then off we go to buy a local SIM card and exchange a bit of Icelandic Krona (ISK). You don't have to this at all actually as credit cards are widely accepted in Iceland. We bought the SIM Card (Siminn 5GB with international call) for ISK 2900 (RM 97.50) at the convenience store / café just after exiting from luggage collection area. We then boarded the free shuttle bus to Sixt car rental (about 5 mins ride) to take our pre booked car (EUR 1022 or RM5000) . 

Arriving Iceland

We received a blue hybrid Yaris equipped with winter tyres. It wasn't a pleasant dealing with the Sixt guy, he insisted for us to add more package to our already premium package (winter tyre, loss damage waiver, theft protection, unlimited mileage). We were adamant to stick to our pre-booked and pre-paid package and finally managed to collect our car.