Memphis isn't a city most travelers associate with transatlantic glamour, yet the routing options for business class from Memphis to Reykjavík have quietly improved as Icelandair, Delta, and United all compete for connecting traffic into Keflavík. There's no nonstop from MEM, so the real decision is which hub delivers the best onward product: Delta's Atlanta connection puts you on a Delta One suite for the transatlantic leg on widebody aircraft, complete with sliding privacy doors and a genuinely restful lie-flat seat; United routes through hubs like Chicago or Newark and, depending on aircraft assignment, can put you in Polaris seats with proper direct-aisle access. Icelandair itself doesn't touch Memphis, but its Saga Class from cities like Boston or New York is worth considering if your positioning flight timing lines up, since the shorter Icelandair hop (roughly the same ~7-hour block as the Delta or United alternatives once you factor connections) gets you into KEF with minimal jet lag.
Having threaded this itinerary more times than I can count, my strongest advice is to build in a two-hour-plus connection window at your US hub rather than the standard 90 minutes — Delta's Atlanta operation in particular can run tight during peak summer thunderstorm season, and missing a connection to a single daily KEF flight means losing an entire day. Keflavík airport itself is compact and efficient; if you land early morning, as most transatlantic red-eyes do, clear customs quickly and head straight into Reykjavík rather than lingering, since the Blue Lagoon and city center are both underrated for beating jet lag with daylight exposure. Icelandair's stopover program, letting you break your journey in Iceland for days at no extra airfare, is an insider trick many Memphis travelers overlook entirely when booking through Delta or United codeshares.
Fare-wise, May through September brings both better weather and more competitive premium-cabin pricing on this corridor, as airlines chase leisure demand into Icelandair's short summer season. Given how much these fares fluctuate week to week, setting up automated price tracking for Memphis-Reykjavík business class is the smartest way to catch a fare drop before it disappears.
