I received an email two days before departure informing me that my direct flight from Newark to Iceland had been canceled. A few hours later, I was automatically rebooked onto a flight departing from JFK with a four-hour layover in Boston.
Losing the direct flight and the seats I paid for was frustrating, but that was not even my biggest concern. The new itinerary had me departing from JFK and returning to Newark, which created a major problem. I would have had to deal with traveling across or around Manhattan after a long return flight and then still face another two-hour drive home.
I contacted Icelandair and asked whether they could switch my return flight so both directions used JFK, but they said they could not make that change. The alternative they offered was pushing the trip back by two days.
I then contacted Hotel Borg, which turned into another difficult experience. I was informed that they could not accommodate the new dates, and since my reservation was non-refundable, no exceptions could be made.
At that point I had no realistic option other than canceling the trip entirely. I reached out to Icelandair hoping for assistance, but the representative I spoke with showed very little flexibility and would not offer compensation or even travel vouchers.
Is this really how these situations are normally handled? The whole experience was extremely disappointing from start to finish.
0