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.
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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