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.
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TravelTranscript
00:00 Okay, we made it we're at Reykjavik Airport
00:03 Waiting for our bus. How you feeling?
00:06 I'm feeling good
00:07 The security guard was like you have to come back your Play Airline pass is not valid anymore
00:13 Hey, this is Ashna and I'm Catherine and we're both reporters with Narcissi Canada
00:21 We were recently invited by Play Airlines to take their inaugural flight from Toronto to Reykjavik Iceland through Hamilton International Airport
00:28 So now we're back in Canada and we're gonna be giving you our review of the flight
00:31 We're gonna be looking at four categories
00:33 Check-in and boarding, feats and comfort, onboard entertainment and service and food and giving each a score out of five
00:40 Narcissi's actually done reviews like this in the past on airport lounges and airlines
00:45 So make sure to head to our YouTube channel to check those out
00:47 Play is a young low-cost airline from Iceland now offering Canadians flights to 34 destinations across Europe from Hamilton International Airport
00:55 The carrier boasts a no-frills flying experience meaning no in-flight entertainment
00:59 No Wi-Fi and no meals included and there's an extra fee for checked baggage and carry-on luggage
01:05 We just came back from Iceland and took two flights on Play Airlines one to Reykjavik and one back to Toronto
01:10 So let's get into the ratings first starting with check-in and boarding
01:13 So check-in was pretty easy
01:15 It went pretty smoothly at the airport maybe because Hamilton is a bit of a smaller airport than somewhere like Toronto Pearson
01:21 One other thing to keep in mind though is actually getting to Hamilton could be an issue for you depending on where you live
01:27 I'm in Brampton and Ashley's in Toronto
01:30 So for both of us it took about an hour to get there
01:32 But you know if you live closer it might actually easier for you to get to Hamilton compared to like Toronto Pearson
01:37 We did go through a bit of a hiccup though
01:38 So after going through security the security guard called me back and he said my boarding pass was no longer valid
01:44 There was an issue with the barcode and they told us that everyone that was going on the Play Airlines flight would have to get
01:50 Out of the airport get a new boarding pass and go through security again
01:54 So they made me do this whole runaround
01:56 But long story short it ended up getting sorted out in a few moments, I guess in about five minutes
02:02 So it was a little bit weird and we think that it may have just been you know
02:05 A first-time hiccup with Play Airlines first flight out of Hamilton
02:08 Overall, we're gonna rate this a 4.5 out of 5 just for that small little hiccup
02:13 But you know overall it was pretty good
02:14 We would normally rate the booking experience, but since Play Airlines invited us on the flight
02:18 We didn't book the flights ourselves, but this is what you can expect when you're booking a flight with Play Airlines
02:23 Booking with Play is pretty straightforward head on over to flyplay.com choose your destination and dates
02:28 The airline has three ticket options basic value or flex with basic
02:33 You're allowed only a personal item
02:34 Whereas value includes a checked and carry-on bag flex lets you change the date of your booking once without being charged a change fee
02:41 Then you can add extra luggage for a cost choose a seat pay and you're done
02:44 So next we're gonna look at the overall comfort on board which includes seating
02:48 The seating was pretty typical airline seating
02:51 It was three by three not really much to write home about in terms of like cushioning or anything like that
02:55 We did really like the headrests
02:57 You can actually move them so you can adjust them up or down depending on your height
03:01 You can also fold in the sides, which is nice because your head's not like rolling around when you're trying to sleep
03:06 In terms of space there wasn't tons of legroom, especially if you're bringing a personal item on board. You might be a little cramped
03:13 So I think our experiences were a little different
03:15 Catherine had a window seat. I had a middle seat, which was not the best seat in the house
03:20 I did find it a little cramped every time I reached for something in my bag
03:24 My head kept hitting the seat in front of me and when the seats in front of you are reclined
03:30 There really isn't much room to move around
03:32 I do want to note though that you can actually purchase seats with more legroom actually 10 inches more legroom at the front of the
03:39 Plane so we're giving that an overall three and a half out of five score next
03:43 Let's rate onboard entertainment and service. So play airlines is a no-frills airline. They don't have any onboard entertainment
03:49 They don't even have any magazines or reading material
03:52 So if you want to watch movies and TV shows on the plane, you're gonna have to bring your own device
03:56 What I did love was they had a little tray in front where you could rest your device
04:00 That was at eye level
04:02 But you're gonna have to download your movies or TV shows beforehand because there is no onboard Wi-Fi either
04:08 The great thing is there were USB and USB C charging ports
04:11 Yeah, so service on the flight was also really nice. The flight staff is really friendly
04:16 They were all really excited about the inaugural trips
04:18 That was really fun and in terms of like drinks and refreshments that came around really quickly after the seatbelt sign went off
04:23 Which was nice
04:24 They also came around quite often during the flight, you know with like drinks if you wanted to order anything
04:28 You could just throw anything away. So that was good
04:31 But otherwise everyone was just really personable and nice to speak to their outfits were also really cute
04:38 Like they were dressed all in red. It was really fun
04:40 I asked one of the girls if I could buy one of the play belts
04:43 So we're scoring onboard entertainment and service three and a half out of five the next really a food and drink on board
04:51 We thought the food was pretty good. There were some decent choices
04:53 You want to keep in mind?
04:55 This is a no-frills airline
04:56 So you will have to pay for anything that you want to order non-alcoholic drinks and snacks cost around three to five euros
05:01 Sandwiches were nine euros and meals cost between 12 to 18 euros, which is around 18 to 25 dollars Canadian
05:08 In terms of choices there was some nice options available
05:10 But we do wish that there were more hot items on the menu when you do order a meal you get Icelandic chocolate
05:16 Which is great because you get an opportunity to try a treat that we don't normally get here in Canada
05:21 So I really like that overall score. We're giving it a four out of five
05:25 All right, our total score for play airlines is fifteen point five out of twenty
05:29 Yeah, we think this is really good for a no-frills airline
05:32 We both had a really good flight and the fact that we left on time and arrived early on both trips was also a big
05:37 Bonus, so will we be flying play airlines again?
05:40 Absolutely. I love the fact that you can get discounted flights to so many cities across Europe
05:45 Yeah, and then another really cool feature is you can actually book a stopover in Iceland on your trip
05:50 So if you want to just spend an hour in the airport, you know before continuing on you can do that
05:54 You could also extend it up to a whole week. You can get some time to actually see the country. All right
05:59 Well, that's it for our review. Thanks so much for watching and let us know if you plan on flying play airline soon
06:04 Thanks for watching and make sure to LIKE and subscribe to our nursery channel to see more great content