IcelandAir gave me a credit instead of refund when they canceled my flight in early COVID days. I called asking for a refund and was refused. The credit expired before I could use it. Why is there an expiration? This was in excess of $2000. I’ll never fly IcelandAir again.

Since Iceland is in the EU, you should check a bit more if that's allowed. I'm pretty sure it isn't and when the credit expires you should still be able to collect the original amount, at least that is what happened in some other instances to avoid liquidity crisis with airlines and holiday agencies.

Iceland, like Norway where I'm from, is part of the European Economic Area[1] through the European Free Trade Association[2], but not a full EU-member. They get access to the EU single market, by agreeing to implement EU legislation in a number of areas.

It can be quite confusing at times. For example, both Iceland and Norway are part of the Schengen agreement[3], so in that respect we're "from EU" when traveling.

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Economic_Area

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/European_Free_Trade_Associatio...

[3]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schengen_Agreement

Its always confusing to people that "not all in Schengen are in the EU, and not all the EU are in Schengen".

Its incredibly useful for visa reasons though.

Iceland is not in the EU. They are in the process of joining since like a decade but have never completed their application. They are in the EFTA and the EEA however.

According to an Icelandic friend not fully joining the EU is on purpose. There are people on Iceland that enjoys the benefits of EFTA and EEA, yet does not want to fully tackle corruption. Iceland is the most corrupt Nordic country by far (yet on a global scale still pretty good).

Well yes and no, the topmost reason is that rural folk simply are very eurosceptic there (see polls on that matter) and the election system favors them a bit, so overall, the eurosceptic parties remain in power (for now). Though I've yet to see an analysis on the matter since Russia's imperialistic invasion of Ukraine.

My Ryanair Tickets were also converted to credits, but I was able to ask for money when they expired.

How is this not straight up fraud?

In (un)fairness it sounds like what all airlines do.

British Airways gave straight refunds automatically at the start of the pandemic.