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Norwegian Airlines: the worst of Europe?

Norwegian Airlines: the worst of Europe?

Old Feb 19, 2016, 2:46 pm
  #16  
 
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Seriously though (well, only kind of): some airline HAS to be at the bottom of the rankings for Europe! OP aside, it's probably not Norwegian. But who gets that honor?
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Old Feb 20, 2016, 5:58 pm
  #17  
 
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Originally Posted by KLouis
They don't: it's norWEEgian vs. aeGEEan.
Yes they do: norweGEEan and aeGEEan
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Old Feb 20, 2016, 9:29 pm
  #18  
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I flew DY within Scandinavia four times last summer and came away favorably impressed. All of my flights were on time, fares were good, planes were modern, extra legroom seats were accessible for a reasonable price, crews were friendly and professional, and planes had free wi-fi.
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Old Feb 25, 2016, 2:13 pm
  #19  
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Intra-European flights on DY are just fine. Inter-continental flights have had a lot of problems in the past, but seem to be getting much better.
Is DY "the worst of Europe"? Not even close, IMO.
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Old Feb 25, 2016, 6:48 pm
  #20  
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Originally Posted by irishguy28
Some people will always be the unlucky ones that have a bad experience with an airline. This happens to any and every airline.

I've flown with Norwegian a good many times now - never on the longhaul fleet (except when the Dreamliner was being used on the shorthaul network for familiarisation purposes!). What the OP has experienced is not a typical Norwegian experience.

They are perfectly fine to fly with. Sorry that the OP had a bad experience, but this is not the typical Norwegian experience.
For the long haul operations, it does actually sound very typical of DY. Short haul within Europe, DY Works pretty well and few people report issues.

But for long haul as the OP is talking about, there is a world of difference. Leaving people in the airport for 24 to 48 hours without much info was reported rather often. Especially in the Scandi media, being a Norwegian Company. The reports have slowed as of late, so maybe it has been getting better. So it would be interesting to hear exactly when OP had the experiences.
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Old Mar 1, 2016, 5:45 am
  #21  
 
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The only problem I had with Norwegian on the one long-haul we did (Bergen to JFK) with them was not Norwegian's problem. It was the airport.

We were in a gate that had (I counted) about 40 seats - and our flight was a 787 with several times that number of people having to stand around.

You could see construction going on in many places so I'm hoping that, by now, that problem has been alleviated.
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Old Mar 1, 2016, 1:39 pm
  #22  
 
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Originally Posted by djplong
The only problem I had with Norwegian on the one long-haul we did (Bergen to JFK) with them was not Norwegian's problem. It was the airport.
-1 for Bergen airport (BGO), although this raises a question. Can airlines poke airports (or offer to subsidize partially/pay completely) for terminal upgrades?
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Old Mar 1, 2016, 5:05 pm
  #23  
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Originally Posted by TheTakeOffRush
-1 for Bergen airport (BGO), although this raises a question. Can airlines poke airports (or offer to subsidize partially/pay completely) for terminal upgrades?
There are many examples of joint facilities development between airports and airlines. However, don't expect an LCC to get in to that game....
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Old Mar 28, 2016, 12:18 am
  #24  
 
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I've flown DY the past two summers on long haul and everything has been fantastic. I'm going to use them again this summer. The prices can't be beat and I have been able to upgrade at the counter for premium at a great rate.
I could care less if baggage and counter people are contractors. Yes, they couldn't answer questions like how much is the premium upgrade on other days.. or how often do people get it.. but I don't care.
Almost sounds like the OP is a Union member upset about DY's hiring practices.
Bonus if you know how to travel for a week on holiday with just an overhead bag.
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Old Apr 2, 2016, 5:35 am
  #25  
 
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I just returned from a DY longhaul itinerary in premium economy and was very pleasantly surprised. Flights were on time - we left a half an hour late from MCO but arrived a half an hour early in CPH nevertheless.

Crew was pleasant and efficient; aircraft was clean, spacious and airy; food was acceptable for airline E+ food (no worse than most and better than some other airlines). In fact the breakfast before landing was quite nice - smoked salmon with capers, sliced tomatoes and red onion, a warm bagel with cream cheese, coffee, juice, water and multiple offers of refills. We did not eat the dinner opting to try to sleep since the flight left MCO at 11 pm. I can't remember what the daytime lunch meal was from CPH-MCO but remember I found it quite acceptable.

I booked discount premium outbound and premium flex on the return because I thought we might need to change our return flight. Sure enough, we had to delay our return by two weeks and it was very easy - just a few mouseclicks - to change the flight to the same one two weeks later with -0- change in fare and no change fee.

We were permitted 2 checked bags each, maximum 20 kg each. On the return, we checked 3 bags rather than our allowed 4 but one was 23 kg which they let go without a fuss (no overweight charge), and one was an oversize SKB guitar case and we were also not charged extra. Our carry-ons were not weighed - we both had rollaboards (we were within the allowed limits anyway if they had checked), plus I carried a small backpack in lieu of a purse as the extra personal item. No issues either in CPH or MCO.

I was dreading this flight and have avoided trying DY since they rolled out longhaul but their itinerary was just too good this time since it allowed us a direct flight from CPH-MCO in under 10 hours outbound, 8 1/4 hours on the return. All other options require a connection (EWR, IAD, ORD, FRA, KEF) that is never pleasant and drags out the travel time to upwards of 16 hours.

My only complaint is no lie-flat option seats but the premium economy seats are quite wide and pitch is excellent (46). By comparison, a similar fare for this itinerary is Icelandair's Saga class and their Saga seats have less pitch (40 to DY's 46), although I might give their service a very slight edge (e.g. no amenity kit on DY; blanket but no pillow), but again that requires a connection in KEF.

The cabin of the 787 is far superior to FI's old 757's. SK's updated Economy Extra is also quite nice - superior service and food to DY at a similar price point - but seats have less pitch (38) and our itinerary requires clearing immigration and connecting at EWR, IAD or ORD which I prefer to avoid.

I would not be pleased if I were on one of those flights with the 48+ hour delays and hope they've sorted out those problems (although I've been stuck mid-trip in connecting cities overnight with both SK and LH and and both were a nightmare despite being in business class both times). But for our inaugural DY trip, we were satisfied.
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Old Apr 15, 2016, 3:29 am
  #26  
 
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Don't want to start a new thread so I'll ask in here.

Got my second Norwegian intra-EU flight tomorrow from BCN-LGW.
Too cheap to pay 9 for seat selection and don't really care where I sit for 2 hours or so - I'll live.
Just had a quick look at the seat map and all that's left are 7 middle seats.

Do people get the option of choosing seats say 72 hrs in advance or do Norwegian allocate seats prior to check-in? A few days ago, the majority of the aircraft was wide open and now seems pretty much full.
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Old Apr 15, 2016, 4:40 am
  #27  
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Originally Posted by xenole
Do people get the option of choosing seats say 72 hrs in advance or do Norwegian allocate seats prior to check-in? A few days ago, the majority of the aircraft was wide open and now seems pretty much full.
People who book any ticket type other than a "LowFare" ticket (i.e. LowFare+, Flex) can select a seat for free at any time.

People who book a "LowFare" ticket can select a seat for a fee at any time.

People who book a "LowFare" ticket but don't pay to select a seat will be automatically assigned a seat (no choice) at online checkin.

People who book a "LowFare" ticket but didn't pay to select a seat and checked in online may be able to change the seat assignment at the airport; people who book a "LowFare" ticket but didn't pay to select a seat and didn't check in online may choose from the few remaining seats when checking in at the airport.
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Old Apr 15, 2016, 4:48 am
  #28  
 
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Originally Posted by xenole
Don't want to start a new thread so I'll ask in here.

Got my second Norwegian intra-EU flight tomorrow from BCN-LGW.
Too cheap to pay 9 for seat selection and don't really care where I sit for 2 hours or so - I'll live.
Just had a quick look at the seat map and all that's left are 7 middle seats.

Do people get the option of choosing seats say 72 hrs in advance or do Norwegian allocate seats prior to check-in? A few days ago, the majority of the aircraft was wide open and now seems pretty much full.
I don't know the answer to your specific question, but when viewing the seat map on ExpertFlyer, in addition to those open middle seats, most seats are showing as blocked (more than half of the seats). So possibly under airport control already? Perhaps when you check in online you can select one of the other seats?

I'd wait until check-in.
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Old Apr 15, 2016, 5:31 am
  #29  
 
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Originally Posted by nsfw
I've flown DY the past two summers on long haul and everything has been fantastic. I'm going to use them again this summer. The prices can't be beat and I have been able to upgrade at the counter for premium at a great rate.
I could care less if baggage and counter people are contractors. Yes, they couldn't answer questions like how much is the premium upgrade on other days.. or how often do people get it.. but I don't care.
Almost sounds like the OP is a Union member upset about DY's hiring practices.
Bonus if you know how to travel for a week on holiday with just an overhead bag.
Good on you - and the best of luck this summer. I have flown DY many times in Europe. And most of the times as a happy chap. But when it goes wrong - it always goes very wrong. And DY could not care less. The problem with DY long haul is that when it goes wrong (and it does quite a few times) it goes very wrong indeed. Sit in airports for days - on your own dime. And then you have to bring them court to get them to cough up the money that is rightfully yours. I would be very hard pressed to go with DY longhauls. Was temted this winter with a direct flight to Florida (from CPH) - but prices were on part with a SK/UA - and then the choice was very easy. Would gladly make a detour via ORD to avoid DY. And it so happened that SK had a timing issue - but one simple call and not waiting and the issue was solved. Where do you call if you want to reach DY???

And no I am not a union member or fan. I just value my time and money too much to be bother with DYs long haul crap.

Good luck this summer - you will need it.
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Old Apr 15, 2016, 6:12 am
  #30  
 
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Originally Posted by OFFlyer
The problem with DY long haul is that when it goes wrong (and it does quite a few times) it goes very wrong indeed. Sit in airports for days - on your own dime.
The fear of this is what kept me from trying DY for quite a while, but we decided to go for it this past trip because we have homes at both ends of a direct flight (CPH-MCO). So worst case scenario is we are stuck at one of them and perhaps delayed getting back to work which I found to be an acceptable risk. Luckily, our flights were on schedule.

Originally Posted by OFFlyer
Would gladly make a detour via ORD to avoid DY. And it so happened that SK had a timing issue - but one simple call and not waiting and the issue was solved.
Are you SK EP? The multiple times I've been stuck in a connecting city in the middle of an itinerary were disastrous.

Once was SK in ORD - plane had a technical issue so we were delayed 24 hours and then pushed over to a horrific Swiss Airlines flight (two middle seats in a four-across row in the back of Y-) that delayed our arrival at final destination by about 36 hours in total after a four-hour layover in Zurich.

Could not reach anyone by phone, had to queue at the airport for the re-route and despite being ticketed in (paid) C, after having spent a couple of hours in the queue, just as we were next to be called to the counter for rescheduling, they decided to close the C queue to the delayed passengers so they could check-in the newly-arriving C passengers for the flight that day to ARN, telling us to go join the end of the Y- queue that was still at least 50 people long.

All of this was after having been shuttled to a hotel at 3 am with a breakfast voucher that didn't cover even a cup of coffee and piece of toast, and told that shuttles would collect us by 9 am because they wanted us at the ticket counter for rescheduling by 11 am.

When everyone arrived at the airport, there were no SK staff there to start the rescheduling process and we were advised they didn't come to work until 1 pm. We asked why we were directed to be at the airport so early and were told "because we thought that would be best."

I actually like flying SK, and think their Business and Economy Extra products in the air are very nice. I've found most of their flight crew to be quite pleasant.

But I hate connecting in EWR, ORD or IAD and I have found the ground staff for SK in the U.S. to be quite unpleasant on more than one occasion.
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