Icelandair vs Virgin Atlantic

Best product each one flies

Scored on what can be verified. Service, food and ground recovery are absent deliberately: they need someone in the seat, and they live in the reviews rather than here.

One caveat on the Value line, stated rather than buried: the cabin scores describe a business product and the fares behind Value are economy. A carrier that prices economy aggressively generally prices business the same way, but they are different products. Read Value as how an airline prices against its competitors, not as what its business seat costs.

Dimension by dimension

• Seat: Virgin Atlantic

  0/10 on the 737 MAX / 757 (Saga Premium) against 10/10 on the A330neo (Upper Class Suite).

• IFE: Virgin Atlantic

  Screens, connectivity and power: 4/10 against 8/10.

• Lounge & bags: level

  What the fare includes before you board: 10/10 against 10/10.

• Value: Icelandair

  Median premium over the cheapest carrier on the same route: 10/10 against 0/10.

Where both were priced on the same dates

Every fare is November 8–14, 2026, so a difference between two rows is a difference between two airlines and nothing else. These are economy fares, while the cabin scores above describe the business product — read them as how each airline prices against its competitors, not as what its business seat costs.

What happens if the aircraft swaps

Both carriers are paying-the-same-fare-either-way propositions on some frames. The worst product each one flies:

Icelandair: Saga Premium is a wide recliner, not a lie-flat business class: roughly 20 inches wide with about 5 inches of recline. Closer to US domestic first class than to a transatlantic business seat, and the shorter Iceland sectors are what it is built for.

Virgin Atlantic: Still 1-2-1 with direct aisle access, but no closing door: the A350 uses a privacy panel and an 82-inch bed, the 787-9 an older herringbone with manual bed conversion.

Common questions

Is Icelandair or Virgin Atlantic better to Europe?

Virgin Atlantic scores 7/10 against Icelandair at 6/10 on seat, screens, lounge and fare. On the four dimensions we can verify, Icelandair wins 1 and Virgin Atlantic wins 2. Service and food are not scored here because they cannot be read off a spec sheet.

Which is cheaper, Icelandair or Virgin Atlantic?

On the 4 routes where both were priced for the same week (November 8–14, 2026), Icelandair was cheaper on 4 and Virgin Atlantic on 0. Every pair of fares is the same departure and return date in the same cabin, so the difference is the airline rather than the dates or the cabin.

Does the aircraft change the answer?

Yes. Virgin Atlantic scores 10/10 on the A330neo (Upper Class Suite) and 8/10 on the A350-1000 / 787-9. Check the equipment on your date before deciding.

Has Jon flown either of these?

Neither, so this page is product facts and fares only. Any review we publish of either will be labeled Researched until that changes.