Originally Posted by
SusanDK
Actually, I've used a substantial amount of time on my research. Thomas Cook did come up in my search but I had sort of dismissed them as I thought they were primarily a charter company with economy-only seating dealing in package vacations. But thank you for encouraging me to have a second look. We prefer at least premium economy, if not business class. I see that TC does have a premium economy although the seats are not as roomy as Norwegian's premium economy (I do like the Dreamliner). If we must take a connecting flight, I felt more comfortable booking a traditional airline.
Honestly, the travel that we've had to do this past year and a half has taken its toll - physically as much as financially - so a comfortable flight is as important as being cost effective. DY's direct flight in premium economy that didn't break the bank has really been appreciated, albeit I now recognize from this thread is unsustainable for them.
Most of my research has been with the 1-connection options (LH via FRA; AC via YYZ; SK via EWR, IAD or ORD; DL via AMS; FI via KEF; VS via MAN) in at least premium economy and they have been quite expensive when only booking one-way. I'm hoping that after the next trip or two, we will be able to start booking round-trip tickets that originate in the U.S. because I have found more reasonable fares for that itinerary.
Sorry about the snarky previous response. I hadn't seen where premium economy was a requirement. My understanding is that Thomas Cook has expanded from strictly charter ops to being a scheduled carrier.
If you're only buying your tickets ~2 weeks out, you'll have a pretty good idea of what Norwegian's finances are so it will be less risky to buy a ticket with that short before travel.
The short term concern that I see is their bond covenant that requires them to have a minimum of 1.5B in book equity. If they go below that amount, they will be in technical default on their bonds and it's up to the bondholders as to whether or not Norwegian will continue to operate or just be shut down. They had 3.1B in book equity at the end of the first quarter. This is why I've been watching their unrealized gains/losses in hedging very closely - that will add to/subtract from book equity.
Norwegian has, to date, had more lives than a cat. However, they have already burned through half of the fresh capital (3B NOK) that they raised in March at a new record pace for them. Whether investors are willing to throw more money at the company after losing that much money quickly is an unknown. Personally, I have to question why any investor would have put more money into this company in the last two years, as the company has not shown that they understand how to properly price their product. However, there may very well be another set of investors in Norwegian to keep them going.
Norwegian has a huge cost advantage over traditional airlines; their cost per available seat mile is ~7 cents vs 11+ cents for traditional airlines. That's why traditional airlines are more expensive than Norwegian - their costs are higher. If you're still flying this trip after Norwegian goes out of business, you can expect the price to be at least double what Norwegian charges due to both higher costs and airlines pricing their tickets at a point where they're profitable.