This is one in a series of reviews/commentaries on things that happened during a recent trip I took to England with my wife and daughter.

When we started planning our trip, the flights over gave me the biggest concern. With all the ways flight prices can fluctuate, I worried about getting stuck in a deal that made no sense in the long run. There were so many questions:

• Would we find an affordable non-stop price?
• If we connect, where do we connect through?
• What is too long of a layover? What is too short?
• What time works best for our return flight?

In the end, we went with Icelandair from Dulles (between 90 minutes and two hours from home) to Heathrow through Reykjavik. The next best option would have been Aer Lingus from Philly through Dublin. I dreaded that drive, but that would have avoided our less than awesome experience in Cambridge on our last day (more on that another time) because the flight to return home would have been too early for us to go there.

But the choice ended up to be fine. We did have delays on almost every leg, but none of them made a serious impact on our trip. The biggest negative was the whole “use a bus to get to and from the plane in Iceland.” It was cold and rainy and the bus was packed. They obviously have more business than working gates.

That said, we had comfortable seats, and I enjoyed the entertainment options (even if I didn’t have headphones to plug in on the way to London and didn’t feel like springing for them). We ate on the way home and liked everything we bought. The crew members were pleasant and helpful. Plus, they didn’t lose our luggage!

I don’t know if they would be my first choice if/when we go to England again, but I certainly wouldn’t avoid using them.