Originally Posted by
UltraRant
Great rant.
Anyway, Norwegian doesn't seem to have a dynamically updated 'reference currency' like the NOK. I've also been doing some shopping in different currencies on their site (you can actually change to your favorite currency on their site without changing to another language) Please do note that the NOK has plummeted recently due to the low oil prices and has, indeed, lost about 30% towards the USD recently. Apparently Norwegian just hasn't adjusted their currency rates yet.
In that case I can only advise you to use XE and the site of Norwegian (or ticket.no / ticket.se, as they don't charge extra costs) and see which currency turns out to be the cheapest.
So, instead of accusing them with overcharging US-and-the-rest-of-the-world's customers (what is it with Americans always feeling like everyone's against them and taking advantage of them at once?), you can also just take advantage of the unadjusted cheap NOK, as long as it lasts...
ps. When booking with an OTA, be sure to check what it includes. The OTA of my job automatically add 2 expensive pieces of paid luggage, for example...
How do you change the currency without changing the language? I know you
used to be able to do this, but from what I can tell, they no longer allow it, forcing you to use the Norwegian language version of their site in order to pay in NOK (and pay a credit card fee). The currency drop-down menu has only one option and it's tied to the language, unless there's some setting elsewhere I didn't see.
I have regularly monitored their fares for over a year and a half. The USD prices have always been at least 10% higher. The gap has widened somewhat in the past month, but Norwegian is definitely overcharging and this isn't just a temporary currency issue.
Great tip about the OTA automatically adding the luggage and meal. I see ticket.se/ticket.no include these without any way to deselect them. Is it even possible? And I may be wrong but it looks like they have a credit card fee (or a bank payment "discount", depending on how you look at it)...