Norwegian Air

My elderly and retired Mother’s life time dream was to travel to Norway because my grandparents immigrated from there and she is 100% Norwegian. My grandmother passed away last October and my Mother recently received the inheritance. She happily researched and booked a trip with my sister for April 2016. In January, she misinterpreted a text message from my sister and canceled the airline tickets for April (this happened in January). The total cost of the tickets was $ 1500.00 Norwegian Airlines will not uncancel the tickets for the future trip because of their «COMPUTER SYSTEM». They will not provide any points or any compensation besides applying for the taxes to be reimbursed. My mother lives on social security and food stamps. She is not savvy with money or booking travel online. This money is a large amount for someone like my Mother. So disappointed with this company.

The flights are incredibly cheap, and the planes are new. You should DEFINITELY purchase a flight with them **if you plan to carry on all your luggage** I flew to Oslo from OAK in September of 2015. We purchased 10 Roundtrip tickets — this was a huge family trip — and upon arriving in Oslo, my luggage wasn’t there. I waited 3 days in Oslo, one of the most expensive cities in the world, for my luggage. The afternoon of the second day, I purchased a pair of pants, underwear, shirt, and basic bathroom necessities. On the afternoon of the 3^rd day, I purchased a light jacket, more underwear, and another shirt. Finally that night, a bag arrived. But it wasn’t my bag!!! So my stuff finally arrived the morning of the 4^th day of our trip.
When I got to the airport before departing, I brought this issue up to a number of Norwegian Air Staff at their help desk, and everyone seemed relatively uninterested. It was as though the employees were completely separated from the idea of making their customers satisfied.
I filled out all of the necessary paperwork to get reimbursed for my materials, and both emailed the copies and mailed the physical copies in. It is February and I am still waiting for reimbursement. My communication with the airline, via phone and email, has largely been deflected and ignored.
The flight was cheap, the planes were new, and I got where I needed to go. But the service was really lackluster and I’m still $ 550 out on clothing.

My family of four travelled roundtrip this past holiday season with Norwegian from LAX to Madrid and then Rome to LAX. We make it a point to fly cheap, so our expectations are right where they should be. So, we were absolutely thrilled with the service and comfort we experienced on Norwegian, having booked the lowest fares. (We booked through Cheap-​o Air which was great, but now that I know about Norwegian, we’re going to book directly in the future.)
First, even though my husband and sons are around 6′, everyone was reasonably comfortable on the 10+ hour legs of our journey. Second, the Dreamliner is a beautiful plane! Power outlets, free wifi, great lighting that adjusts smoothly over the course of the flight, a decent repertoire of free movies, and on-​board meals that are acceptable. (I didn’t recall having ordered meals, but we got two on each of the long legs + two free bag checks per person. I think if we’d gone through the Norwegian site directly, we would have paid separately.)
As expected, our itinerary to Madrid had a long layover in Copenhagen– so we took the Metro into the middle of town and enjoyed the lovely Christmas Market and lunch on the square.
On the way back, we had a longer layover at Gatwick, but, again, with pre-​planning, just booked a night at a hotel attached to the airport, so we were rested for the final leg back to LA.
If you are accustomed to traveling budget, you’ll love Norwegian. Excellent on-​board service, clean planes. We experienced no delays on our four Norwegian flights– over the holidays!

The fourth star is given for the price, otherwise this is a solid three and a half star airline. I fly internationally often usually OAK to Barcelona and the prices are pretty unbeatable. Once in the EU though, its best to get around via Ryan Air or Easyjet if you’re simply looking to save money. With that said Norwegian air has much better customer service and a way better in-​flight experience than other low budget airlines.
I like the onboard menu which allows for snacks to be ordered at most times during the flight (credit cards only/​no cash) making it easy to skip purchasing the in flight meal which is expensive and never that impressive at least for vegetarians.
The one major downside is that the cheapest flights once in the EU are usually at other airports making an airport transfer necessary. Unless flying into Stockholm Paris, or Copenhagen which all fly into main airports. I am typically flying into Morocco which means an airport transfer from Gerona to BCN and a flight to RAK the following day as its hard to find connecting flights to Marrakech on the same day and there are no direct flights from OAK to RAK on Norwegian.

I used many low cost airlines before, my expectations were therefore very low. I flew Spirit many times — which is considered one of the «worst» US low cost airlines. I thought I was prepared, but it turned out I wasn’t!
Everything costs extra, choice of seat, luggage and food. But here comes the surprise. If you don’t buy the food option they also won’t give you anything to drink. I asked for water and was told that I can buy bottled water once the snack service becomes available — after the passengers who pre-​paid for their meals were served. The next surprise was the seat. It was much narrower than any other airline seat I ever sat in. After reducing the distance between rows, now airlines seem to make the seats narrower. It was a noticeable amount, a few inches. My seat neighbor actually did not fit into her seat and «spilled over» into my seat — pinning me against the left hand side of the seat for the whole 8 hour flight. Nice, I wonder why I paid for that seat? That was more torture than sitting in the last row in a seat that doesn’t recline and is right next to the toilets.
The surprises didn’t stop. In Oslo I had my 3.5 hour layover. The airport is clearly undersized for the amount of passengers they are pushing through it. It took a long time to find a place where I could sit down. It was super busy and loud, people over people everywhere. Imagine Chicago O’Hare airport on a day before a long holiday weekend, now imagine it twice as bad — that’s Oslo.
I paid $ 10 for a very sad and small sandwich with no flavor. All the other options cost even more $$$$$. Then the check-​in at the gate for my connecting flight. Yeah, there were about 10 seats for probably 150 people waiting. People were sitting and lying on the floor and hallways. Looked more like a refugee camp than an airport gate.
On my way back the bag drop off wasn’t working. I could check myself in, but then had to wait to drop off my bag. In the meanwhile the airline staff was helping the regular check-​in customers. I was getting punished for doing their job, great. They could have at least alternated between those two lines.
Bottom line, the savings are not worth the pains and hassles you have to deal with and go through when you choose Norwegian. I will never fly with them again, not even if the flight would be free — there is a limit to everything. I am not promoting Spirit, but since a lot of people think this is one of the worst airlines, then better don’t fly with Norwegian. They for sure gave the word «worst» a new definition.

They have their good and bad points.
The flight from LA to London was excellent. Friendly and helpful airport and cabin staff, and the Boeing Dreamliner is indeed a dream. The price was also excellent and, for that, I accept that everything is an extra, a la EasyJet, RyanAir.
However, I was originally flying from Oakland to London, via Stockholm. There was no way to book this as a single ticket, and I was told on 4 different occasions that I had to go through customs and immigration in Stockholm, leave the transit area, collect my bag (s), check in for the London flight, go through security again, and go through customs and immigration a second time in London. I protested the insanity of this, but got nowhere.
Unfortunately, I was in a serious car accident shortly before flying, and had a doctor’s note saying that I couldn’t fly for a few weeks. Because I hadn’t bought cancellation insurance, Norwegian wasn’t interested in the doctor’s note. To change my flights, there was a charge of $ 150 each way to rebook the transatlantic flight, and $ 85 each way for the European leg, a total of $ 470 (which varies with the Euro/​dollar exchange rate). That, plus the fare differential, which, admittedly, is normal practice. If I had bought the insurance, I would have had to pay for two sets of tickets for an unknown period of time, until my doctor’s note was processed, and my original ticket was refunded.

The plane I took was one of the larger ones, not sure which one, but it was super high tech. I was on a direct flight from Oakland to Oslo, round trip cost was $ 450 at the time which was the reason I went, then from there you find cheap flights to the rest of Europe under $ 100. Free entertainment with popular shows and movies. You can charge your phone in the USB port on the screen, but you can’t charge your tablet. The Windows don’t have screens that you pull down, instead they dim to a dark blue so you can still see outside, but the light is not blinding so you can watch the screen or try and sleep. You can buy stuff from the screen and watch the progress of the flight. Picking a seat and having and meal and luggage is all extra: I didn’t buy any, my sister and I were still able to sit together and in row 7, so we were close to the front. I brought a snack on board with me, and I packed an extra bag in my bag so I only had to check baggage on my way home since I bought some stuff. Anyways, I will definitely fly Norwegian next time I travel to the motherland.

Just got back from a 11 day trip to Europe. I was very skeptical and worried about this airline after seeing all the negative reviews. I was surprised by the time efficiency and services of this airline. We flew from Oakland to Stockholm, Stockholm to Budapest, Prague to Stockholm, and then Stockholm to Oakland. All flights were on time if not early. The staff were helpful and polite.
Is a budget airline so be expected to pay for their amenities. For the oak-​stock, pick the economy plus airfare which u pay about $ 100 more for meal and 2. check in bags. $ 623 round trip — u cant beat that. Will use this airline as a gateway to Europe in the future if they continue to keep this price.

Save yourself the time and money, fly with a different airline. I am very disappointed with Norwegians Airlines customer service. Over the past 10 days, I’ve flown on 6 Norwegian flights. On each flight, we encountered rude and disgruntled flight attendants (that’s a story in itself). Even worse, a stolen bag full of personal information and expensive souvenirs. On flight number 4 of our trip (DY3581 from Prague to Copenhagen), I accidentally left a carry on bag, on the flight. A minute after exiting the plane, I realized it was missing and went to the front desk to tell them what happened. They told me to wait 10 minutes, the plane hadn’t been cleaned yet, and that the staff would look for it. I gave them the exact location of the bag, seat 9A under the seat. After waiting 20 minutes and not hearing back from the staff, I asked again about my missing bag. They told me that the cleaning crew didn’t find anything, and that another passenger probably stole it. HIGHLY UNLIKELY. They then referred us to the information desk to see if anyone turned it in. At the information desk they told us that no one turned it in, as expected, and to talk to the airline we had just gotten off (already done.) They then referred us to a website, where you have to pay to post that you’ve lost an item — talk about kicking someone when they’re down! Two days later we were back at Copenhagen Airport for flight number 5 of our trip, and decided to ask one more time if anyone had the found bag. The service attendant at the front desk for Norwegian made a call, then told us that someone probably threw away our bag because they only keep valuables such as laptops. As if a bag full of expensive souvenirs, credit card info, and travel documents isn’t valuable… I am 100% convinced one of Norwegian Airlines employees took our items. They placed blame on other passengers, wrongfully accusing them of stealing our bag, and then proceeded to tell us our items weren’t valuable.

Had a no frills flight to Stockholm via JFK with Athens as my final destination last weekend. Flight departed on time, organized boarding process, roomy seats, clean plane. Just beware, you have to sign up for your meals upon purchase of ticket, or pay for it onboard, which you can just select from their touchpad and swipe your card, the stewardess will bring you your order right away. Everything cost, so bring your own if you can. Talking blankets, earplugs, etc. It’s a low budget airline, but pretty decent experience, even with a last minute gate change.

Traveler Beware! If your flight leaves on time and you don’t mind some of the charges that come with a budget airline, and don’t mind arriving a couple of days late if there is a problem with your plane, then you might be happy with Norwegian. Our friends have had wonderful experiences on this airline.
Here is my experience. For an 8PM flight on Wednesday to Stockholm, we received a text at 4PM while on BART to the Oakland Airport that our flight was delayed until 10PM. OK — that happens. No big deal. But at midnight our flight was finally cancelled and we were told to take a cab home (we would be reimbursed). We would get a call the next morning to let us know about a re-​scheduled flight. This airline has no US partners and no personnel to get travelers on another flight. We were offered a full refund if we chose or we could get a 75% refund if we took the rescheduled flight. That didn’t sound too bad; we would miss just a day of our vacation.
The call never came the next morning, so we waited on the phone along with a couple hundred other travelers who wanted to get to Stockholm. We finally found out that a leased plane and crew was coming from Oslo and would leave on Friday at 10PM. By this time, any other flights we might get out of Oakland or SFO would be prohibitively expensive, so we were stuck and had to wait for this flight. This meant missing two days in Stockholm, missing our overnight ferry and hotel in Helsinki (non-​refundable), and two days with our Norwegian friends who were meeting us in Stockholm.
BTW, the fares were so reasonable that we had decided to splurge and go «business/​premier» class. Finally, we got on the re-​schedule flight. We were assured that we would be in premier seating. Well, this was a 1060’s or 1970’s plane. Every seat on the plane was identical — nothing premier about anything. The narrow seats did not recline (not one inch!). There were no overhead vents. No screens or sound of any kind, except for the noisy engines, which thankfully quieted when we reached cruising altitude. Flight attendants clearly tried not to look anyone in the eye as the plane was filled with angry passengers. I have had bad airline food, but this was the worst. Again, none of the premier amenities promised in their advertising was available on this plane. The only good thing I can say about this flight is that we made it to Stockholm alive.
Upon returning home, we went through the process of getting our cab fare and 75% refund. After submitting and re-​submitting the same information, we were told that we would get the cab fare, but the flight cancellation was not their problem. Fortunately, I had kept the texts which also promised the refund, copied them, and they finally relented and gave the refund. I can only imagine that other passengers gave up and just counted it as a loss. I consider this a major ethical business issue and plan to write to the FAA about my experience.
Would I ever fly Norwegian again? What do you think?

We had a hard time finding reviews on Norwegian transatlantic services from OAK to ARN (Stockholm) before four of us set-​off on our last minute two week European adventure. So here was our experience.
First off, we knew nothing about Norwegian before seeing a poster inside the mall for one way tickets from Oakland to Oslo or Stockholm for less than $ 200 each way. We were all pretty skeptical at first, but after researching it could not believe what a great deal it was and how safe it seemed (which was my main issue). Norwegian just started flights from Oakland in May 2014, but they have been around in Europe for quite awhile and are very respected there. So less than a week later we all purchased direct tickets to Stockholm that were less than $ 500 each roundtrip, with taxes and fees. We could have done it even cheaper by not picking our seats each way and by going a couple of weeks earlier. However, paying for the seats really worked out for us as we were able to select seats with no seat in the middle.
Norwegian is a budget airline, so anything, and I mean anything you add on will be extra money. They do not give you water. They do not give you peanuts. Your ticket is literally paying for your seat and one free carry-​on bag and small personal item and that is it. You can bring your own snacks though and/​or buy snacks/​drinks/​pillows/​duty free items on the flight. A muffin was $ 4, and a soda can $ 3. Also, you can only buy food at selected times. After an hour or so in the air, they serve pre-​purchased meals to the customers that paid $ 60+ for them. After they are done an hour or so later then the snack bar opens and you can purchase food until the second meal is served (probably around a 5 – 6 hour period of it being open.) Then it closes for the last few hours of the flight while they serve the second meal.
Since we were going on 6 plane flights throughout our trip we did not pay extra for checked baggage, instead we got the largest carry-on’s possible and packed light, for a winter trip to Sweden (we also wore our boots, jackets and such onto the plane). My carry-​on was an inch or so longer than the dimensions specified and I never had a problem, just make sure it will fit in the overhead bin and doesn’t look crazy big. They will weigh your baggage though no matter what, so make sure it is under the specified weight.
The Dreamliner, which we had both ways, is amazing. They have screens for you to use in the back of the headrests with free movies, music and tv shows (you order and pay for everything here too.) A lot of the movies were pretty new too. The seats were super comfortable and had more leg room than most domestic flights (I am 6′ 1″ and my legs never hit the seat in front of me unless they reclined.) There are also USB chargers so you can keep your electronics working, but there was no wifi. The staff were nice enough, we never had any issues or concerns.
All in all we would all definitely travel with them again. Just make sure to do your research and read what is an extra fee or not. We did not pay for anything extra with them, other than snacks.

Five stars for offering a $ 300 RT flight to Stockholm. Even after adding meals and bags, we’re sub $ 500 for a non-​stop trip to Europe. Amazing!
Edit: Not sure about the other reviews, but we took a Dreamliner. Service was delayed on the way out by a couple hours, and by about five hours on the return flight from Stockholm. Service was generally fine. Norwegian Air staff appears to be mostly Thai, appears labor restrictions are less restrictive in Thailand.
I heard Norwegian Air is going to be offering low cost non-​stop flights to London 3x/​weekly Spring 2016.