00:00Okay, we made it. We're at Reykjavik Airport waiting for our bus. How are you feeling?
00:06I'm feeling good.
00:07And the security guard was like, you have to come back. Your Play Airline pass is not valid anymore.
00:17Hey, this is Ashna.
00:18And I'm Catherine.
00:19And 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 going to be giving you a review of the flight.
00:32We're going to be looking at four categories, check-in and boarding, feats and comfort, onboard entertainment and service, and food, and giving each a score out of five.
00:41Narcity's actually done reviews like this in the past on airport lounges and airlines, so 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-froze-flying experience, meaning no in-flight entertainment, no Wi-Fi, and no meals included.
01:02And 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.
01:11First, starting with check-in and boarding.
01:13So check-in was pretty easy.
01:15It went pretty smoothly at the airport, maybe 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.
01:28I'm in Brampton and Ashley's in Toronto, so for both of us, it took about an hour to get there.
01:32But, you know, if you live closer, it might actually be 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01:39So after going through security, the security guard called me back and he said my boarding pass was no longer valid.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 the Play Airlines flight would have to get out of the airport, get a new boarding pass, and go through security again.
01:54So they made me do this whole runaround.
01:57But long story short, it ended up getting sorted out in a few moments, I guess in about five minutes.
02:02So it was a little bit weird, and we think that it may have just been, you know, a first-time hiccup with Play Airlines' first flight out of Hamilton.
02:08Overall, we're going to rate this a 4.5 out of 5, just for that small little hiccup, but, you know, overall, it was pretty good.
02:15We would normally rate the booking experience, but since Play Airlines invited us on the flight, we 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.
02:25Head on over to flyplay.com, choose your destination, and dates.
02:29The airline has three ticket options, basic, value, or flex.
02:32With basic, you're allowed only a personal item, whereas value includes a checked and carry-on bag.
02:37Flex sets 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.
02:45So next, we're going to 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.
02:56We did really like the headrests.
02:58You can actually move them, so you can adjust them up or down, depending on your height.
03:01You can also fold in the size, which is nice because your head's not, like, rolling around when you're kind of asleep.
03:07In terms of space, there wasn't tons of legroom, especially if you're bringing a personal item on board.
03:12You might be a little cramped.
03:13So I think our experiences were a little different.
03:16Catherine 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.
03:22Every time I reached for something in my bag, my head kept in the seat in front of me.
03:27And when the seats in front of you are reclined, there really isn't much room to move around.
03:33I do want to note, though, that you can actually purchase seats with more legroom, actually 10 inches more legroom, at the front of the plane.
03:39So we're giving that an overall 3.5 out of 5 score.
03:43Next, let's rate onboard entertainment and service.
03:45So Play Airlines is a no-frills airline.
03:47They don't have any onboard entertainment.
03:49They 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 going to 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 that was at eye level.
04:02But you're going to 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 service on the flight was also really nice.
04:15The flight staff was really friendly.
04:16They were all really excited about the inaugural trip, so that was really fun.
04:19And in terms of drinks and refreshments, that came around really quickly after the seatbelt sign went off, which was nice.
04:25They also came around quite often during the flight with drinks, if you wanted to order anything, if you had to throw anything away.
04:30So that was good.
04:32But otherwise, everyone was just really personable and nice to speak to.
04:35Their outfits were also really cute.
04:38They were dressed all in red.
04:40It was really fun.
04:41I asked one of the girls if I could buy one of the Playbelts.
04:44They were so cute.
04:44So we're scoring onboard entertainment and service 3.5 out of 5.
04:49The next we're looking at food and drink onboard, we thought the food was pretty good.
04:53There were some decent choices.
04:54You want to keep in mind this is a no-frills airline, so you will have to pay for anything that you want to order.
04:59Non-alcoholic drinks and snacks cost around 3 to 5 euros.
05:02Sandwiches were 9 euros.
05:03And meals cost between 12 to 18 euros, which is around $18 to $25 Canadian.
05:08In terms of choices, there was some nice options available, but we do wish that there were more hot items on the menu.
05:14When you do order a meal, you get Icelandic chocolate, which 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.
05:23Overall score, we're giving it a 4 out of 5.
05:25All right, our total score for Play Airlines is 15.5 out of 20.
05:29Yeah, we think this is really good for a no-frills airline.
05:31We both had a really good flight, and the fact that we left on time and arrived early on both trips was also a big bonus.
05:38So will we be flying Play Airlines again?
05:41Absolutely.
05:42I love the fact that you can get discounted flights to so many cities across Europe.
05:46Yeah, and then another really cool feature is you can actually book a stopover in Iceland on your trip.
05:51So 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 so 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.
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