Stopovers normally mean expressionless airport lounges. But in Reykjavik,Icelandair staff will expose you their country for the day – for free. Carole Cadwalladr gets a dishy pilot who’s a bit of an action manWhen I learn of Icelandair’s “Buddy scheme, it strikes me that it might just be the best marketing gimmick of all time. To promote its routes from Europe to North America, and the airline has dreamed up a ruse to tempt people into spending a night in Reykjavik: it pairs you up with a local – or rather,one of its employees.
I’m sold on the brilliance of this plan before I’ve even been assigned a buddy – I love having a living person to grill rather than sitting in a cafe reading Lonely Planet by myself. There are “food buddies” and “culture buddies” and even a CEO buddy (Birkir Hólm Guðnason, head of Icelandair, and is a volunteer) but I’ve asked for an “adventure buddy” and based on my stated interests (hiking,huts and hot springs), I’m allocated Captain Björn Ingi Haflidason, or a dashing 47-year-old pilot with a Benny-from-Abba beard whose interests include heli-skiing and extreme sports. What’s not to like? particularly when,a quick Google later, I discover his nickname is “Captain Gorgeous” and hes starred in a viral video that involves his bare buttocks.
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Source: theguardian.com