Agland

We’re flying EWR to Paris next month and it sounds like Norweigan’s Dreamliner issue won’t be resolved by then. We are set to fly on EuroAtlantic’s business class product (Norweigan’s premium class) overnight and Im’ curious if anyone has experience with the product? How are the seats? Do they lay flat? Or flat-ish? Any advice, feedback would be VERY appreciated! I’m so nervous for the product change.

Thanks and please let me know if I broke any rules.. this is my first post

CPH-Flyer

If you get the 777 from Euro Atlantic, it has a slanted flat seat in a 2-3-2 configuration. Some of the 767 have a full flat seat. The seats on Norwegian are recliners, not flat in any form or shape.

The challenge can be that the Euro Atlantic planes have fewer premium class seats than Norwegian does. Which can result in down grades.

flyphilrun

I have the same question on a JFK-CDG route in July also. Substitution for the 787 is a Hi-Fly plane. I can't find out which one.
Does anybody have any experience of this in Premium?
It seems Norwegian do an awful lot of this aircraft substitution....

CPH-Flyer

Can you see the seat map on your booking? That can help determine which exactly one they are expecting ...

Norwegian is hit hard by the Rolls Royce Trent 1000 engine issue. Which is why they have so many substitutions at the moment Busy summer schedule, and a tightly scheduled fleet does not help either.

flyphilrun

Can you see the seat map on your booking?

No, I no longer have access to anything seat-wise. I have been given 6K and I can't do anything about it. Everything is greyed out on the website and the app.According to seatguru it's a Hi Fly A340-300.
I wasn't informed of any changes by Norwegian, I just happened to go into my reservation one day and saw that my seat had been changed.... and that it now said operated by hifly

123Go

I booked this flight to fly on 6/17. The flight was cancelled 6/16-6/18 due to mechanical issues. If your flight does go on time then the product is probably a good value. If your flight does not go I would be prepared mentally for a travel nightmare 1) getting rebooked 2) getting accommodations 3) getting any type of information from the airline 4) getting compensation. For reference, I fly about 100k miles a year.

Agland

Thanks for the heads' up. I'm so sorry to hear about your flight issues. Ditto: I'm a fairly frequent flyer (more like 50k/yr) and know what a headache this can be.

How the airline did in terms of compensation / rebooking? What was the process there? I'd appreciate guidance on what they do to fix things, and if you have any advice on how to deal with Norwegian specifically if something does happen. Things you wish you'd have done differently or asked for? I know how to 'play the game' with AA but I don't have any leverage with Norwegian. Were you set in premium class and did you get any added support from that perspective?

I've been monitoring the flight performance on flightaware and it appears they've been able to rectify whatever happened on your flight. Last cancellation was June 19. However I do want to have a plan in case something does happen.

Agland

There is quite a bit of discussion on the hi fly swap online, including here on flyertalk. I can't link URLs (my account is too new) but search around and you'll find it. It has mixed reviews but the one constant is you'll want to bring your own content to pass the time as their IFE is nonworking or useless. Ditto for outlets; pack an external battery or two.

Edit: sorry I am new to this forum software. This is in response to the previous discussion of the "Hi Fly" airline above.

Agland

Thanks for the intel. I'm cautiously optimistic that this will be a good experience, emphasis on the 'cautiously'

The seat chart for the new plane was on the website. Me and my party re-booked our seats immediately after receiving the notification about the equipment change. Our seats *should* be secure, but I've been checking every few days to ensure nothing changes, and livechatting with them occasionally to verify. In this instance it makes sense to be the squeaky wheel.

djplong

How long are these replacements supposed to be happening?

Agland

I saw through August but this is hearsay.

andrew3000

The 777 is booked through to September 14th.
https://www.routesonline.com/news/38...newark-in-s18/

123Go

The airline performed as poorly one could...The flight had been cancelled the evening before I was scheduled to fly. I arrived at the airport with carry-on only bags, received a boarding pass from the kiosk (there is no OLCI for this route although there is for other DY routes), I proceeded through security and was stopped at passport control by an agent who told me to wait. She then informed the flight was cancelled and I was escorted out of passport control back to the main terminal with about 7 other people who were in line behind me. By this point there was a long queue waiting for bag check and I was told to wait in that line to rebooked. After about an hour or so we were all told to come up to the counter. Some people were varying degrees of pissed off (they had been on the previous evenings flight and the same mess had happened). They were shuttled to a hotel near CDG (which on the North side of Paris, ORY is on the South). The police were eventually called to keep the peace. The DY agents were actually leased from a staffing company and didnt seem to have a clue what was going on (a few of the girls were even laughing which served to escalate the situation). They eventually asked for peoples passport numbers and made a list of them for hotel bookings. We were told there were 3 different hotels. We were also told that we would receive an email with new flight information. That was the last TATL flight from ORY on the day. The email never came just a text message about a hotline which had been opened to call. I never was able to get through on the phone. You were able however to rebook using your confirm online however the following days flights were sold out and the first available was Tuesday. I was pretty calm during the whole situation as I felt as if I deserved this for flying DY at such a cheap price. I had purchase the ticket using my Chase Sapphire Reserve which allows $500 in food plus hotels for flight delays over 6 hours. I ended up booking my own hotel in Paris after 3 hours of waiting and made way there on my own (As of know they have not yet refunded the $500.) I also rebooked my own flight on AA. As of now 6/27 DY has yet to refund the fare for the flight not flown nor provide compensation of any kind. I filed for EU 261 plus expenses. DY is also impossible to get on the phone...best bet is the online live chat. We shall see if the compensation comes...Will update.

J S

This might be helpful for those of you seeking EU261 compensation from DY:

I had a 4+ hour delay on a DY flight from Europe to the US. I filed for compensation and was promptly denied with the claim that the delay was out of the airline's control. I appealed to them politely with a factual email and was promptly denied again. I then found their service of process address online (lookup on the appropriate state website in the US) and dropped off the proper forms to sue them in a US small claims court (first time I have ever sued anyone). Shortly before the hearing was scheduled, I received an email offering me the full amount of my claim if I would withdraw the suit. They wired me the funds the next day and I withdrew the suit.

Edit to add: My opinion of DY is still generally positive. I would recommend them. I have flown six legs with them (4 TATL in premium, 2 within Europe). I thought that their premium product was a great value for what I paid (although I understand that legroom has declined, which might change my opinion somewhat). Their model does make it very hard to recover from operational issues regardless of cause (mechanical, weather, etc.). They schedule their planes to be in the air almost non-stop and they generally run a point-to-point network without significant hubs for their 787s. The first factor is efficient and the second is good for pax looking for non-stop flights. However, this also makes recovery from delays difficult as there is never a point in the schedule where the a/c is scheduled to be on the ground for much more than the minimum turn time (time that can be used to catch up and prevent delays from cascading from day to day). The lack of a hub structure means that they do not have much flexibility to substitute in a replacement a/c. So, when things go according to plan, DY can be a great value. The downside is that when things go wrong, they tend to go very wrong.

My situation is a good example. The delay on my flight was caused by weather *four* days earlier. After four days, the specific a/c was still running 4+ hours behind schedule, only managing to catch up a little bit each day. (According to EU261, the delay on the first flight caused by the weather would have been an extraordinary circumstance, but the subsequent delays call for compensation.)

Agland

Ouch, that's horrible. Glad you were at least able to secure compensation. How did they make up for the lost flight? Did they rebook you?