Norwegian Air Discussion

JCX BXC

And the lack of competitive fares for flying to an airport in the middle of nowhere will kill the routes in my opinion.

Locker10a

JCX BXC wrote: »

And the lack of competitive fares for flying to an airport in the middle of nowhere will kill the routes in my opinion.

I wouldn't underestimate the local market who live within 2 hours of those airports and who desire to travel to Europe

marno21

Locker10a wrote: »

I wouldn't underestimate the local market who live within 2 hours of those airports and who desire to travel to Europe

This is what I was thinking will be a big slice of the market. People who live there and have cars etc could drive to Providence or Newburgh and get to London/Amsterdam/Birmingham etc via Cork/Shannon etc.

We'll have to wait and see.

jackinthemix94

marno21 wrote: »

This is what I was thinking will be a big slice of the market. People who live there and have cars etc could drive to Providence or Newburgh and get to London/Amsterdam/Birmingham etc via Cork/Shannon etc.

We'll have to wait and see.

AA already canceled their flights New York- Birmingham. The rest, maybe. Unlikely the yanks would want to be self connecting - this might be where the partnership with FR may be useful.

IsaacWunder

Norwegian are definitely manipulating the public in respect of their plans. Their CEO was interviewed in the Irish Examiner, published yesterday. When asked why he didn't use an alternative aircraft to the 737 max, which could fly the Cork - New York route successfully he replied:

Mr Trump wants American jobs and we are flying Boeing aircraft. We're setting up a lot of American jobs and also a lot of bases. So we are doing exactly what the president wants

He, and Norwegian, obviously take people to be complete fools.

Rawr

What strikes me about all of this is the plan to use 737 aircraft for such long hauls.

Assuming they use the same seating/ legroom that they put onto their regular 737-800 fleet, things will probably start to get quite uncomfortable after 4-5 hours.

I often fly NAS on short hops, and their seating on those 737s are comfortable enough. My usual 2-3 hour hop between OSL & DUB is a breeze in their seating. However in those same seats I took a much longer flight from OSL down to Malaga, and after the 3-hour mark it was starting to get uncomfortable, after 4 hours I was delighted to be away from that aircraft.

Have anyone else here much experience taking a 737 on a traditionally long-haul route? (Westjet for example?). I wonder how it compares to taking the same journey in a widebody? Would that in itself damage Norwegian's chances for making theses routes work?

Jamie2k9

IsaacWunder wrote: »

Norwegian are definitely manipulating the public in respect of their plans. Their CEO was interviewed in the Irish Examiner, published yesterday. When asked why he didn't use an alternative aircraft to the 737 max, which could fly the Cork - New York route successfully he replied:



He, and Norwegian, obviously take people to be complete fools.

They have a lot of US based crew, yes they want low cost and they are getting it. Why don't moan about another carriers practices which are on par with DY in some respects.

Irish Steve

Longest 737 flight I've done is Dublin to Istanbul, which was about 4 Hrs 30, and not unreasonable.

I don't understand this negative about 737's across to the East Coast, it's a narrowbody twin, but so it the 757, which has been and still is used on longer routes, and I don't see massive complaints about them, I did a Dublin Atlanta flight a while back on a 777, and there was less space on that than the time I came back from New York on a 757.

Having said that, I don't know what seat pitch Norwegian will be operating with, which may well be a factor, a very long time ago, we did a charter flight from Birmingham to Orlando in a 757 (tech stop in Bangor), and there was less leg room on that than there was on the Shorts 360 that took us from Dublin to Birmingham. The people I felt sorry for on that trip were the people that were on it from Gatwick, by the time it had stopped in Birmingham, and we'd cleared Immigration and Customs at Bangor, it made for a very long flight to Orlando.

If the Norwegian package is bad, people will vote with their feet, and use other carriers, while price is a very significant factor, the whole package is what has to be considered, and if the package is bad, it won't sell.

LiamaDelta

Totally agree there. There will have to be a significant price differential in order for it to be either worthwhile for some travellers to 'downgrade' or for it to be at a price point to encourage passengers that would not have ordinarily travelled. For example, Air Canada Rouge - very slimmed down version of Air Canada - depending on how long my trip is and other needs if the price is similar (which it often is) I will fly via LHR to take an Air Canada flight rather than go Rouge.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

JCX BXC

Did 5hrs 30mins last year from Dalaman-Dublin on EI-STA 737-300, no IFE, poor enough catering (paid), it was fairly bleak.

Locker10a

Fred Swanson wrote: »

At least with a flight from DUB-IST you have inflight catering and IFE.

I can't imagine facing a 7 hour trip in a 737 with nothing to kill the time.

Couldn't ya bring a book or an IPad to watch stuff ? Eat in the terminal or just buy a sandwich and a drink if you're hungry

Jamie2k9

Appears DUB/SNN services will be pre cleared.

john boye

Jamie2k9 wrote: »

Appears DUB/SNN services will be pre cleared.

Heard that the other morning and thought surely not. So will they be using T2 now?

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Fred Swanson

Fred Swanson wrote: »

This post has been deleted.

Might be reactivating pre clearance in pier 3 it has long been rumoured. US wants Ethiopian flights precleared.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

Duff

Deleted User wrote: »

Might be reactivating pre clearance in pier 3 it has long been rumoured. US wants Ethiopian flights precleared.

Hope this is true. Flying Ethiopian DUB > LAX in September and the thoughts of having to do customs when we get there..

Coil Kilcrea

I get it that price matters and low cost has transformed aviation but anything more than 4 hours and I personally find it a struggle. Maybe it's age, long legs, irritability, crankiness and the occasional arse, arm or elbow in the way.

There's an opportunity for something in between for long haul methinks. The accountants reign so maybe not .....

L1011

Locker10a wrote: »

Couldn't ya bring a book or an IPad to watch stuff ? Eat in the terminal or just buy a sandwich and a drink if you're hungry

People often eat more frequently than 7 hours when awake, and tablets rarely have that endurance

flexcon

LiamaDelta wrote: »

Totally agree there. There will have to be a significant price differential in order for it to be either worthwhile for some travellers to 'downgrade' or for it to be at a price point to encourage passengers that would not have ordinarily travelled. For example, Air Canada Rouge - very slimmed down version of Air Canada - depending on how long my trip is and other needs if the price is similar (which it often is) I will fly via LHR to take an Air Canada flight rather than go Rouge.

I used Air Canda Rouge Dublin to Vancouver August last year. First time going across on a 10 hour flight. Seemed exactly like a Are lingus flight. What is different about the Vouge? Is it seating? Genuinely curious

Jamie2k9

Deleted User wrote: »

Might be reactivating pre clearance in pier 3 it has long been rumoured. US wants Ethiopian flights precleared.

When I first heard, it's exactly what crossed my mind but expect it will be T2 for now. Easily fit them for the 14.30 and 15.00 service.

Jamie2k9

Duff wrote: »

Hope this is true. Flying Ethiopian DUB > LAX in September and the thoughts of having to do customs when we get there..

You should be fine, arriving at 9.30 in the morning.

nsa0bupkd3948x

Duff wrote: »

Hope this is true. Flying Ethiopian DUB > LAX in September and the thoughts of having to do customs when we get there..

Walked through immigration and customs when I took ET to LAX last month. No queue for machine, then walked out. Much quicker than pre-clearance.

jackinthemix94

Breanna Freezing Fisherman wrote: »

Walked through immigration and customs when I took ET to LAX last month. No queue for machine, then walked out. Much quicker than pre-clearance.

I don't get the obsession with pre clearance. Last 3 times in the U.S. I've done immigration there and been way faster than standing in line here. People loving pre clearance must be the bucket and spaders going to Florida in the summer - the queues then are quite intense.

JCX BXC

Or making a connecting flight.

jackinthemix94

JCX BXC wrote: »

Or making a connecting flight.

Ah yeah - good call.

jjbrien

jackinthemix94 wrote: »

I don't get the obsession with pre clearance. Last 3 times in the U.S. I've done immigration there and been way faster than standing in line here. People loving pre clearance must be the bucket and spaders going to Florida in the summer - the queues then are quite intense.

Agree totally there. I live here state side and have noticed the queue for pre clearance at Dublin taking anything from 20 mins to an hour depending on what time your flight is going. Flew London to Newark was able to walk right up to an immigration agent and was out of the airport in no time. Also the bags came a lot faster. In Newark Aer Lingus has a habit of unloading the bags off the plane and loading the ones for the flight back then taking the bags to the baggage hall. Had to wait an hour for bags last time. Same happened to me with them in Chicago so its not a Newark thing.

bk

Coil Kilcrea wrote: »

I get it that price matters and low cost has transformed aviation but anything more than 4 hours and I personally find it a struggle. Maybe it's age, long legs, irritability, crankiness and the occasional arse, arm or elbow in the way.

Sure, but there is also a lot if us younger, shorter people who are very happy to save money

But competition is good for all. Even if you decide to continue to use AerLingus, etc. the extra competition will keep AL on their toes and prices lower.

L1011 wrote: »

People often eat more frequently than 7 hours when awake, and tablets rarely have that endurance

What?! Most tablets have WAY more then 7 hours battery. 12 to 15 hours is the norm for most tablets.

Even Amazons cheapest £50 Fire tablets has 7 hours battery and their £80 has 12 hours!

I rarely use AerLingus IFE, it is very poor, I usually take my iPad Mini and my own content, far better. 12 hour flights to South America (not AL obviously) and it works perfectly the whole way.

As for food, bring some sandwiches!

BTW I really have to say that AerLingus IFE is very poor.

- Touch Screen is very poor, very hard to navigate, have to jab multiple times to get it to work, poor head of the person in front of me!
- Selection of movies is very small and on recent flight was rather poor
- The use of those stupid double headphone jack that doesn't work with your own better quality headphones without an adaptor.
- Terrible placement of the power socket between every two seats, where it is hard to plug in and they don't seem to work most of the time I've tried them!
- Every time the flight crew cuts into the movie you are watching, their audio is WAY louder and almost deafening! On my last flight, every time they made an announcement, everyone around me was yanking their headphones off and grimacing.

By comparison, on my last trip a few weeks ago, I flew SFO to JFK on American Airlines and then EI from JFK to Dub. My above EI experience was based on this flight (and the other recent EI flights).

But my god, the American Airlines experience was WAY better, for relatively the same flight time.

This is how you do a good IFE:

- Brilliant touch screen, very fast and responsive. As good as a modern laptop, a pleasure to use, no need to drill holes in any fellow passengers heads.
- Screen was larger and nicer looking then EI's
- Massive selection of movies. Seriously, I can't stress how much bigger it was then EI's. I'd say almost 10 times the number of movies. It took 20 minutes to just scroll through them all! And that is with the good, fast touch screen and just glancing at the name. I didn't even venture into their other content, TV shows, etc. I suspect it is massive in comparison.
- Standard 3.5" audio jacket that worked well with my own headphones (Bose QC20's).
- Each seat has it's own individual plug and USB charging socket at the back of each seat. Making them very easy to access and use and they seemed to work perfectly unlike the EI ones.
- No deafening announcements during flights!

The only way I think it could be better, is if they could eliminate the IFE box (though it is smaller the EI's) from under the seat, like some airlines have with their latest systems.

Also the seats just seemed more modern and nicer in general. Nicer cabin in general.

As an aside, this AA flight had a seriously large business class, most have been almost 50%! Economy (which I was in) was only about 30%. I suppose makes sense for such a business heavy route like SFO to JFK.

I have to say, EI's international service is WAY overrated by people here in Ireland. It really is very tired at this stage. They badly need to get the A350's soon to modernise. I hope they have a newer, much better IFE.

I also see that EI plan on competing with Norwegian directly with similar long range A321 Neo LR's narrow bodies. So this must be taking the threat seriously:

http://www.thejournal.ie/aer-lingus-new-planes-a321-3273492-Mar2017/

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.