Originally Posted by
Recondite
Planning to fly Norwegian next Christmas, assuming this years flight prices remain the same as the prices this year. Whilst I accept that the service will almost certainly be reduced compared to other airlines, I'll be low on cash at that stage (after a five month break from work for travel). From Managua to London (the main flight being Norwegian), you can book a flight for under £300 - can't complain about that, in my opinion.
That is how I feel as well. I am taking a year off of work, some of it hanging out with my girlfriend and some of it traveling, and I booked a flight on Wow from ORD to DUB for $150. All I'm traveling with is a backpack that meets their size requirements, and I will be in Europe for a month or so, so even worst case scenario, I lose a day or two up front due to some crazy delay and poor ability to recover, it is annoying, but worth the gamble to save $500.
Now, if I were working and had just 10 days in Europe, I'd probably pay more for a more reliable legacy.
But even with that said, last December I booked a flight on DL that was supposed to be PEK-DTW-CVG to spent two weeks at home with my family for Christmas. DL flies an A330 between DTW and PEK (On a similar length flight from YYZ to PEK AC flies a 777, UA flys a 777 from ORD to PEK, AA flies a 787 from ORD, and Hainan flies a 787 from ORD). The inbound aircraft was delayed by more than 3 hours because it had to stop for fuel in SEA, all the other airlines with their larger planes made it to PEK without a tech stop, that day. The delay meant that I would likely miss the last flight from DTW to CVG and Delta rebooked me to fly the next morning on a route through SEA and LAX. I recieved no compensation because it was considered a "weather" issue.
Today, even legacies have operational issues because they try to make gains around the margins, leaving the passenger holding the bag when things fall through.