GFrye

WheelsUpGal

I'm surprised this thread didn't get any traction. Seems like a good idea to me. I flew up to Boston on Southwest to catch my Norwegian flight and had about 7 hours in the airport and it's not really the best airport to hang out in. The general consensus seems to be that booking a flight on Norwegian is risky. I have never flown JetBlue. Do THEY have any partnerships who would help if a Norwegian flight was cancelled?

gab787

WheelsUpGal It certainly seems a good idea, at least on paper. Having a single reservation number would ensure that you do not risk missing your correspondence (or that at least you will be rebooked if you miss your second flight). A lot of Norwegian customers use a cheap local airline (like you did) to take them to or out of a Norwegian transatlantic hub and when they miss their correspondence (because cheap airlines are somewhat unreliable, Norwegian included) they have to buy super expensive walk-in tickets and they obviously end up quite upset...
PS: I really do not recommend using Southwest to catch a Norwegian flight (or using Norwegian to catch a Southwest flight). The risk that you will miss your second flight and lose a lot of money in the process is not worth taking in my opinion.

fartoomanyusers

i guess we will only find out how good a proposition it really is once passengers start missing flights ... and we see what the IRROPS service is like from the two airlines !

WheelsUpGal

I’ve had nothing but a good experience with Southwest and flew them exclusively for domestic flights for over a decade. I guess YMMV.

gab787

WheelsUpGal I did not mean anything negative about Southwest. My point was just that using two different carriers to take you to your final destination is a risky approach because if your first flight is delayed or canceled then you may miss your second flight, therefore forfeiting the cost of a ticket, and may have to purchase a new last-minute ticket at a very high cost. If the Norwegian-JetBlue deals goes through then at least it will mitigate that risk.

As fartoomanyusers pointed out, Norwegian IRROPS service is terrible and it is not clear that that aspect will improve going forward. So while having one combined reservation will mitigate the financial risk, you may still have to spend hours or even days in an airport waiting for the next flight to your final destination (on some routes Norwegian only operates a few flight per week).

WheelsUpGal

I tried to fly United but out of Nashville they were only flying tiny planes that are scary and uncomfortable. Three out of 4 of my trips in those planes were delayed for mechanical issues or cancelled due to weather. I’d rather fly Southwest to a hub - Norwegian or United or whoever - than the “toy” planes. Fully aware of the risk, thanks.

MSPeconomist

AFAIK JetBlue doesn't interline (yet) and doesn't have partners, so rebooking would presumably mean another JetBlue or Norwegian flight.

irishguy28

JetBlue has a long-standing interline arrangement with Aer Lingus, with connections at both JFK and BOS, having recently celebrated 10 years of the arrangement.

WheelsUpGal

I did NOT know that! Jet Blue only has a couple routes from Nashville but this would work. Can you book on either website? Thanks for the info!

irishguy28

Yes, but note that both airlines have other partners too, and not all destinations may fall under the interline agreement, so you may find different carriers/airlines/routings depending on what itinerary you are searching for.

GUWonder

MSP-BOS-London/Madrid/Paris/Rome? That’s the kind of thing that may have JetBlue and Norwegian eat into US3 airlines’ peak economy class fares for roundtrip TATL travel.

But JetBlue risks having a damaged brand if Norwegian’s TATL IRROPs mess up the JetBlue customers. It is to be seen how much risk JetBlue wants to take in tying up with Norwegian. Aer Lingus is a more reliable TATL service provider.