What’s it like flying with PLAY? Well, Narcity was recently invited on the low-cost airline’s inaugural flight from Hamilton International Airport in Canada to Reykjavik, Iceland, to experience everything the carrier has to offer. Follow along as reporters Ashna Bharkhada and Katherine Caspersz rate PLAY on check-in & boarding, seats & comfort, onboard entertainment & service, and their food and drink options to figure out if the airline is worth flying again.
Category
🏖
TravelTranscript
00:00Okay, we made it. We're at Reykjavik Airport
00:04Waiting for our bus. How you feeling? I'm feeling good
00:07And then the security guard was like you have to come back at your play airline pass is not valid anymore
00:17Hey, this is Ashna and I'm Catherine and we're both reporters with Narcity Canada
00:21We were recently invited by play airlines to take their inaugural flight from Toronto to Reykjavik Iceland through Hamilton International Airport
00:28So now we're back in Canada and we're gonna be giving you a review of the flight
00:32We're gonna be looking at four categories
00:34Check-in and boarding feats and comfort onboard entertainment and service and food and giving each a score out of five
00:41Narcy's actually done reviews like this in the past on airport lounges and airlines
00:45So make sure to head to our YouTube channel to check those out
00:47Play is a young low-cost airline from Iceland now offering Canadians flights to 34 destinations across Europe from Hamilton International Airport
00:55The carrier boasts a no-frills flying experience meaning no in-flight entertainment
00:59No Wi-Fi and no meals included and there's an extra fee for checked baggage and carry-on luggage
01:05We just came back from Iceland and took two flights on play airlines one to Reykjavik and one back to Toronto
01:10So let's get into the ratings first starting with check-in and boarding. So check-in was pretty easy
01:15It went pretty smoothly at the airport
01:17Maybe because Hamilton is a bit of a smaller airport than somewhere like Toronto Pearson
01:21One other thing to keep in mind though is actually getting to Hamilton could be an issue for you depending on where you live
01:27I'm in Brampton and Ashley's in Toronto
01:30So for both of us it took about an hour to get there
01:32But you know if you live closer it might actually easier for you to get to Hamilton compared to like Toronto Pearson
01:37We did go through a bit of a hiccup though
01:39So after going through security the security guard called me back and he said my boarding pass was no longer valid
01:44There was an issue with the barcode and they told us that everyone that was going on a play airlines flight would have to get
01:50Out of the airport get a new boarding pass and go through security again
01:54So they made me do this whole run around but long story short
01:58It ended up getting sorted out in a few moments, I guess in about five minutes
02:02Um, so it was a little bit weird and we think that it may have just been you know
02:05A first-time hiccup with play airlines first flight out of Hamilton overall
02:09We're gonna rate this a 4.5 out of 5 just for that small little hiccup
02:13But you know overall it was pretty good
02:14We would normally rate the booking experience but since play airlines invited us on the flight
02:18We didn't book the flights ourselves
02:20But this is what you can expect when you're booking a flight with play airlines
02:23Booking with play is pretty straightforward head on over to flyplay.com choose your destination and dates
02:28The airline has three ticket options basic value or flex with basic
02:33You're allowed only a personal item
02:34Whereas value includes a checked and carry-on bag flex lets you change the date of your booking once without being charged a change fee
02:41Then you can add extra luggage for a cost choose a seat pay and you're done
02:44So next we're gonna look at the overall comfort on board which includes seating
02:49The seating was pretty typical airline seating
02:51It was three by three not really much to write home about in terms of like cushioning or anything like that
02:55We did really like the headrests
02:57You can actually move them so you can adjust them up or down depending on your height
03:01You can also fold in the sides, which is nice because your heads not like rolling around when you're trying to sleep
03:07In terms of space there wasn't tons of legroom, especially if you're bringing a personal item on board. You might be a little cram
03:13So I think our experiences were a little different captain had a window seat
03:17I had a middle seat, which was not the best seat in the house
03:20I did find it a little cramped every time I reached for something in my bag
03:24My head kept hitting the seat in front of me and when the seats in front of you are reclined
03:30There really isn't much room to move around
03:32I do want to note though that you can actually purchase seats with more legroom actually 10 inches more legroom at the front of the
03:39So we're giving that an overall three and a half out of five score next let's rate onboard entertainment and service
03:45So play airlines is a no-frills airline. They don't have any onboard entertainment. They don't even have any magazines or reading material
03:52So if you want to watch movies and TV shows on the plane, you're gonna have to bring your own device
03:56What I did love was they had a little tray in front where you could rest your device
04:01That was at eye level
04:02But you're gonna have to download your movies or TV shows beforehand because there is no onboard Wi-Fi either
04:08The great thing is there were USB and USB C charging ports
04:12Yeah, so surfs on the flight was also really nice. The flight staff was really friendly
04:16They were all really excited about the inaugural trips
04:18That was really fun and in terms of like drinks and refreshments that came around really quickly after the seatbelt sign went off
04:23Which was nice
04:24They also came around quite often during the flight, you know with like drinks if you wanted to order anything
04:29You get to throw anything away. So that was good
04:31But otherwise everyone was just really personable and nice to speak to
04:35Their outfits were also really cute like they were dressed all in red. It was really fun
04:40I asked one of the girls if I could buy one of the playbills
04:45So we're scoring onboard entertainment and service three and a half out of five the next really at food and drink on board
04:51We thought the food was pretty good. There were some decent choices
04:54You want to keep in mind?
04:55This is a no-frills airline
04:56So you will have to pay for anything that you want to order non-alcoholic drinks and snacks cost around three to five euros
05:02Sandwiches were nine euros and meals cost between 12 to 18 euros, which is around 18 to 25 dollars Canadian in terms of choices
05:09There was some nice options available
05:11But we do wish that there were more hot items on the menu when you do order a meal you get Icelandic chocolate
05:16Which is great because you get an opportunity to try a treat that we don't normally get here in Canada
05:21So I really like that overall score. We're giving it a four out of five
05:25All right, our total score for play airlines is fifteen point five out of twenty
05:29Yeah, we think this is really good for a no-frills airline
05:32We both had a really good flight and the fact that we'd left on time and arrived early on both trips was also a big
05:37Bonus, so will we be flying play airlines again?
05:41Absolutely. I love the fact that you can get discounted flights to so many cities across Europe
05:45Yeah, and then another really cool feature is you can actually book a stopover in Iceland on your trip
05:50So if you want to just spend an hour in the airport, you know before continuing on you can do that
05:54You could also extend it up to a whole week. You can get some time to actually see the country
05:58All right. Well, that's it for our review
06:00Thanks so much for watching and let us know if you plan on flying play airlines soon
06:04Thanks for watching and make sure to LIKE and subscribe to our nursery channel to see more great content