Norwegian Air Discussion

larchill

My Brother & his family booked with these to fly from Providence (in the US) to Dublin yesterday week(Sun). His flight was cancelled & he was offered a flight on the following day to Shannon with a shuttle bus to Dublin! Something rather 'Ryanairish' about this operation - but worse.

LXFlyer

larchill wrote: »

My Brother & his family booked with these to fly from Providence (in the US) to Dublin yesterday week(Sun). His flight was cancelled & he was offered a flight on the following day to Shannon with a shuttle bus to Dublin! Something rather 'Ryanairish' about this operation - but worse.

Given that they don't fly to each Irish airport daily, and there are only six aircraft being used on the operation, if something goes wrong then the passengers are likely to have to fly to/from an alternative Irish airport due to their airport of choice not being served on that day, or on a flight to a different Irish airport due to having to spread the load across the other flights the next day.

JCX BXC

lxflyer wrote: »

Given that they don't fly to Cork or Shannon daily, and there are only six aircraft being used on the operation, if something goes wrong then the passengers are likely to have to fly to/from an alternative Irish airport.

However they do fly to Dublin 6x weekly

LXFlyer

JCX BXC wrote: »

However they do fly to Dublin 6x weekly

I edited my post to add in the loading comment.

1123heavy

larchill wrote: »

My Brother & his family booked with these to fly from Providence (in the US) to Dublin yesterday week(Sun). His flight was cancelled & he was offered a flight on the following day to Shannon with a shuttle bus to Dublin! Something rather 'Ryanairish' about this operation - but worse.

I think you mean cowboyish!

What has gone wrong is the way the whole thing was rushed. I have worked in airlines before where projects were rushed for whatever reason. The result is exactly what we are seeing here. Lack of coordination followed by a lack of pretty much everything else. In the end the books don't even add up to support it all.

If it's anything like where I was, then the people who are having the biggest nightmare here are OCC. The guys at the top can mess up all they want, but when it's time, they head home. The poor people in OCC are the ones left to their own devices through the night trying to piece together the mess that has been left behind.

Mebuntu

There seems to be an element on here hoping and praying that this operation will fail and are constantly looking for faults as it teeths.

They seem to forget very easily that even a long-established so-called 4-star Irish airline has had much worse problems with thousands of passengers being inconvenienced both T/A and shorthaul including last year's Shannon debacle.

You only have to keep a regular eye on http://www.thelingussource.com/ to see what's happening. Not to mention the passengers (sorry, guests) who were dumped into Belfast a week or so ago and left to fend for themselves overnight for hours on end. Of course, the attitude then was, ah, sure these things happen with all airlines.

Then there's BA............

I think we need to wait a while and see how the operation beds in over a period. Only those with a vested interest could not wish it well. It wouldn't be my cup of tea but there seems to be plenty of people, at least for the moment, willing to try it out and I hope it succeeds.

737max

I don't even care if Norwegian fail as other operators will learn from their failure if the drop the routes and those who come after get it right next time.

sparrowcar

Mebuntu wrote: »

There seems to be an element on here hoping and praying that this operation will fail and are constantly looking for faults as it teeths.

They seem to forget very easily that even a long-established so-called 4-star Irish airline has had much worse problems with thousands of passengers being inconvenienced both T/A and shorthaul including last year's Shannon debacle.

You only have to keep a regular eye on http://www.thelingussource.com/ to see what's happening. Not to mention the passengers (sorry, guests) who were dumped into Belfast a week or so ago and left to fend for themselves overnight for hours on end. Of course, the attitude then was, ah, sure these things happen with all airlines.

Then there's BA............

I think we need to wait a while and see how the operation beds in over a period. Only those with a vested interest could not wish it well. It wouldn't be my cup of tea but there seems to be plenty of people, at least for the moment, willing to try it out and I hope it succeeds.

Excellent post. There is a minor smear campaign going on in here largely by one individual. I'm shocked they actually think their opinion will make any difference.

Blut2

I don't think its necessary to have a secret pro-Aer Lingus agenda to be anti Norwegian.

On a personal level I'm anti flying with airlines that make the whole experience rather unpleasant, which is why I wouldn't be Norwegian's greatest fan. They're just furthering a rush to the bottom in airline quality, comfort and convenience standards.

And on a general level I'm also anti any company that treats its employees like crap, compared to industry standards. Which also wouldn't endear Norwegian to me.

jjbrien

sparrowcar wrote: »

Excellent post. There is a minor smear campaign going on in here largely by one individual. I'm shocked they actually think their opinion will make any difference.

Agree here fully. Im giving them a go myself but into London from JFK. Anything new that brings people to Ireland is a good thing.

KCAccidental

This crowd are reminding me of Flyglobespan.

JCX BXC

Well to be honest, you can't compare years upon years of Aer Lingus operations to the many problems DY have seen in the first few weeks of operation, it's slightly more than Aer Lingus have had over the same period.

Some of the criticism is getting to be a slight bit much though, there's many faults with the service however it's not horribly evil either.

jjbrien

KCAccidental wrote: »

This crowd are reminding me of Flyglobespan.

They have been around lot longer than them and actually have a good sized operation. Cant compare them really.

KCAccidental

jjbrien wrote: »

They have been around lot longer than them and actually have a good sized operation. Cant compare them really.

Can definitely compare the cancellation records!

Noxegon

Blut2 wrote: »

On a personal level I'm anti flying with airlines that make the whole experience rather unpleasant.

Sadly that is over 90% of the flights out of Dublin these days.

I flew Lufthansa recently – and the inflight product was great. It made me realise just how grotty EI and FR have become.

1123heavy

Noxegon wrote: »

Sadly that is over 90% of the flights out of Dublin these days.

I flew Lufthansa recently – and the inflight product was great. It made me realise just how grotty EI and FR have become.

Aer Lingus have simply had to adapt. LH can rely on heavy demand for large numbers of business pax travelling on their extensive long haul network so they can make a more expensive product work, especially on their feeder routes.

Aer Lingus do not have the same market for the far east etc so that will not work for them. Their long haul product is very good. Short haul though they are competing directly with Ryanair, same airport in DUB to very often the same airport in Europe. They cannot compete unless they drop to the service level of RYR on these routes.

VG31

1123heavy wrote: »

Aer Lingus have simply had to adapt. LH can rely on heavy demand for large numbers of business pax travelling on their extensive long haul network so they can make a more expensive product work, especially on their feeder routes.

I have flown with LH/LX to FRA/ZRH before without connecting onwards and they were cheaper than Aer Lingus, with much better flight times. I wouldn't always assume that these 'premium' airlines are more expensive. If you leave booking to the last minute they are usually significantly more expensive however.

Fred Swanson

This post has been deleted.

LXFlyer

LX in particular often have very reasonable fares both to and indeed through their Zurich and Geneva hubs.

I may be biased of course given my username!!

Blut2

Noxegon wrote: »

Sadly that is over 90% of the flights out of Dublin these days.

I flew Lufthansa recently – and the inflight product was great. It made me realise just how grotty EI and FR have become.

EI aren't great when compared to some European airlines, and especially when compared to Asian/ME3 ones. But I'd still rather fly on EI than Ryanair short haul, and especially on long haul EI rather than Norwegian given the reports that have emerged thus far.

Gaoth Laidir

Primera Air are also planning low cost transatlantic flights from Europe (Denmark, Latvia, etc.) to the US using 737 MAX9 aircraft, 7 of which it's just ordered from Boeing.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/customers/primera-air/primera-air-737-max9-order.page

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/primera-selects-737-max-9-for-transatlantic-expansio-437120/

JCX BXC

Gaoth Laidir wrote: »

Primera Air are also planning low cost transatlantic flights from Europe (Denmark, Latvia, etc.) to the US using 737 MAX9 aircraft, 7 of which it's just ordered from Boeing.

http://www.boeing.com/commercial/customers/primera-air/primera-air-737-max9-order.page

https://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/primera-selects-737-max-9-for-transatlantic-expansio-437120/

Not just 737MAX, they're beginning flights from BHX, CDG (!?!) and STN to EWR and BOS next year, all bookable, on the A321! (Possibly the NEO?)

I don't know why, but to me that already feels like a better planned out operation.

jjbrien

JCX BXC wrote: »

Not just 737MAX, they're beginning flights from BHX, CDG (!?!) and STN to EWR and BOS next year, all bookable, on the A321! (Possibly the NEO?)

I don't know why, but to me that already feels like a better planned out operation.

You really do want Norwegian to fail it seems. Issue is they wont. They had planned for the Max 8 to have been in service in the routes launched and were assured by boieing they would be. A logical business person would go ok I am getting these planes on this date so on this date we can start using them and selling tickets. Sadly boeing delayed the delivery of the aircraft so they decided to use next gen 737's which westjet already has been using transatlantic for a few years now.

Yes the seats aint up to BA's comfort level, food and bags you have to pay for, and you fly into airports a little further away. But for around $99 one way its a great deal. JFK isnt exactly fast to get into NYC either and Jamaica subway aint safe so takes about the same time getting into Manhatten from SWF as JFK.

I wish prima air all the best but EWR isnt cheap to land in so the tickets will not be as cheap as Norwegian. On the plus side EWR takes 20 mins by train to get into Penn Station and much safer than JFK. The more competition the better will make BA, Virgin and Aer Lingus etc lower prices too so we all win.

Irishweather

JCX BXC wrote: »

Not just 737MAX, they're beginning flights from BHX, CDG (!?!) and STN to EWR and BOS next year, all bookable, on the A321! (Possibly the NEO?)

I don't know why, but to me that already feels like a better planned out operation.

Can the A321 even reach the East Coast from Ireland, nevermind BHX?

JCX BXC

Possibly the NEO, although if the 737-800 can make it im sure the A321 can.

Also, jjbrien, yes of course I'd love to see it fail! You keep telling yourself that if it helps you evade my points

jjbrien

JCX BXC wrote: »

Possibly the NEO, although if the 737-800 can make it im sure the A321 can.

Also, jjbrien, yes of course I'd love to see it fail! You keep telling yourself that if it helps you evade my points

Not evading your points Norwegian had teething issues when they first went transatlantic with their 787's but its running fine now with good load factors.

JCX BXC

jjbrien wrote: »

Not evading your points Norwegian had teething issues when they first went transatlantic with their 787's but its running fine now with good load factors.

I think the 787 service is fairly okay, however my points were never focused on that.

1123heavy

Aer Lingus will soon start with their own A321LR services to the US. The thing is Norwegian are really up against it in that EI have numerous codeshares with US airlines allowing customers to reach far and wide beyond the initial landing point with little extra hassle. In effect they have nearly the whole country covered, along with United, Delta and AA. A very large number do not stay in the same point when going to the US and this will be to Aer Lingus' advantage. On top of this they can vary the seats available between the A332/333 and soon to be the A321LR, allowing significant financial benefits. The flying public for the most part will also prefer Aer Lingus, as do most people in other countries with their flag carrier ... Norwegian are going to really be up against it.

These are all facts, I have nothing against Norwegian whatsoever however it has to be said they seem to have underestimated what they are doing right now.

john boye

JCX BXC wrote: »

Not just 737MAX, they're beginning flights from BHX, CDG (!?!) and STN to EWR and BOS next year, all bookable, on the A321! (Possibly the NEO?)

Assume you mean the 321LR? Some of those missions sound beyond the NEO version

Salmon

1123heavy wrote: »

Aer Lingus will soon start with their own A321LR services to the US. The thing is Norwegian are really up against it in that EI have numerous codeshares with US airlines allowing customers to reach far and wide beyond the initial landing point with little extra hassle. In effect they have nearly the whole country covered, along with United, Delta and AA. A very large number do not stay in the same point when going to the US and this will be to Aer Lingus' advantage. On top of this they can vary the seats available between the A332/333 and soon to be the A321LR, allowing significant financial benefits. The flying public for the most part will also prefer Aer Lingus, as do most people in other countries with their flag carrier ... Norwegian are going to really be up against it.

These are all facts, I have nothing against Norwegian whatsoever however it has to be said they seem to have underestimated what they are doing right now.

At the end of the day if I can get a return to NY or Boston for €250-300 cheaper with norwegian theyll do just fine I reckon