Icelandair's crew to become "stopover buddies"

One of the non-easily-replicable advantages that Icelandair can boast about when pitching its trans-Atlantic service via Iceland is the amazing beauty of the country it calls home. In fact, I have been tempted in more than one occasion to take the Icelandic route, if only to have an excuse to visit the stunning natural wonders of this Nordic country.

Icelandair is well aware of this and is leveraging the attraction of Iceland's unique nature in different ways. Besides coming up with one of the most amazing aircraft paint jobs out there, the Hekla Aurora Boeing 757, and allowing 7-day long stopovers at no extra fare, Icelandair has now come up with a truly interesting initiative: the "Stopover Buddy" service.

A number of Icelandair employees have volunteered to act as local guides for passenger stopping over in Iceland.

Whether you like mountaineering, cycling, skiing or a whole range of other activities, you can join one of Icelandair's crew in practicing these activities in their home turf. As easy as filling in a request. 

You will see that there is no shortage of activities by watching the short presentation videos where each of the would be buddies makes a short personal presentation.

While I guess the pontential number of people taking up a "stopover buddy" is somehow limited, if only because of logistic constraints, this is, again, an excellent example of airline understanding how increasingly central experiences and authenticity are becoming to the whole idea of travel.