Flying with Norwegian Long Haul - for less than US $500 round-trip - for many, it might seem amazing.
For example,
March 2, LAX - CPN: $197.60
March 18, CPN - LAX: $241.00
total: $438.60 (excluding checked baggage, seat reservation and onboard meals)
+ 2 times "plus" package (1 piece of checked baggage, seat reservation and onboard meals)
= $616.60
For some, maybe seat reservation and meals are not even needed, as they just bring their own food, and water is available for free.
In that case, checked baggage by itself is just 42.00$ per one-way, so 84.00$ for round-trip, so a total of only $522.60.
For comparison's sake, other offers LAX-CPN for the same travel dates start at $860+ with American/British Airways, and that's already cheap for California to Europe...
It seems like with Norwegian Long Haul, one can travel transatlantically comparatively cheaply.
Even if it meant traveling:
As a low-fare airline, baggage, seat reservation and meals onboard are not included.
Still, personal video entertainment and the all the standard amenities of brandnew Boing Dreamliner aircraft is always included, in addition to the nice leather seat interior and of course free water.
For 89$ per one-way (on California - Scandinavia trips), "plus" can be booked, consisting of:
Nice&Tasty Menu
(breakfast + dinner)
Seat reservation
1 pcs baggage
So it seems like amenities are not bad, especially not bad when booking plus or ordering snacks outside of the Plus package.
- crammed like a sardine into an all-coach plane,
Obviously, being a low-fare airline, people looking for business and first class, have come to the wrong place.
Still, the "sardine" comparison is way off.
Lots of air carriers still use planes with 30 inch seat pitch.
No matter if it's major US airlines using 30 inch seat pitch for westcoast-eastcoast flights, or if it is AirBerlin on their new Airbus A330-200.
In opposition to that, Norwegian offers 31 inch seat pitch, like lots of other airlines (British Airways, Air France, KLM etc.) also do.
Of course, 32 inches would be nicer, but this is supposed to be low-fare air service, and it might be better than most other transatlantic carriers in Economy.
- with non-union Asian pilots and non-union US cabin crew,
- on an airline taking a page from the cruise industry and operating from a "flag of convenience" country (Ireland in this case,) with no oversight and shady business practices?
In which way does Norwegian have "shady business practices"? Yes, they have cabin crew and pilots who are not Norwegian citizens, and who are not member in a union. But does that make the airline conduct "shady business practices"? Then some US airlines must be shady as well.
Norwegian Air Shuttle, the third-largest budget airline in Europe, has been ruffling the travel industry’s feathers for months with the rollout of new international routes with exceptionally cheap fares: Think
under $500 for round trips to Europe from the U.S., with all mandatory taxes and fees included. For travelers who have come to expect to pay several hundred dollars merely for the “taxes and fees” portion of their transatlantic flight tabs, these flights look like phenomenal bargains
.
http://business.time.com/2014/02/13/an-ultra-cheap-anti-union-upstart-airline-could-transform-flying/?hpt=hp_t3
Generally, it seems like Time offers good reporting, here it seems weird how "upstart" is being used in the headline, still it right away states as well that this airline is the third-largest budget airline in Europe. It exists since 1993, so in case the time of operation is what should constitute "upstart", then JetBlue is more of an upstart than Norwegian. The "upstart" part is possibly referring to the long-haul business, still even the first transatlantic flight took place in May of last year, and meanwhile Norwegian offers transatlantic service from and to quite a lot of US and European cities, so it's not an upstart like Norwegian would just start with it, now, in February 2014, or even later.
The news may be, that up to now long-haul service is offered to and from several Scandinavian cities only, while in 2014 the flights to and from London Gatwick will start, so Norwegian long-haul will not only offer competition to SAS, but to a lot more airlines like British Airways, American, Delta etc. and it will enable Americans a cheap way to travel to England, in addition to the cheap way to travel to Scandinavia that exists now.
Still, the Time article did not get all of that across so clearly.
To answer the initial question:
Would you fly RT between Europe and USA for less than $500?
It seems some of those that already flew long-haul with Norwegian since May 2013, can answer this question with yes. The only limitiation being that by far not all fares are below $500 round-trip. Still they will be significantly cheaper in most cases, than all other airlines on the same routes.
It appears also in the future, the number who would fly Norwegian long-haul is going to increase steadily.
For people who wanna get to Europe cheaply (as no transatlantic rail connection exists yet
), for example in order to experience some affordable high-speed rail services in Europe,
it seems like Norwegian long-haul can be recommended.