I remember as a kid watching Saturday Night Live and their 1986 commercial for the the Adobe, a Mexican import that’s first car to break the $200 barrier. It was made of clay.
Well, the major airlines have been running $400-ish off-season roundtrip fares between the US and Europe. And Wow Air will run some days to Reykjavik for $99 one-way (with the flight back to the US a bit higher).
Copyright: zhukovsky / 123RF Stock Photo
Those prices are great if you have $250 or $300 to throw around. But for those of us whose names aren’t Rockefeller, there’s Norwegian’s $65 transatlantic sale fares, the first transatlantic fares to intentionally break the $70 barrier.
Norwegian has been selling flights often in the mid-$200s roundtrip from cities like New York, Los Angeles, and Oakland using new Boeing 787s.
Copyright william87 / 123RF Stock Photo
Now that they’re bringing the Boeing 737MAX into their fleet, they’re adding flights from secondary East Coast airports and selling flights for even less.
When Southwest Airlines started they were offering lower fares than their competitors, and they weren’t just drawing passengers away from other airlines — they were drawing passengers away from other modes of transportation like cars and buses (not as useful for transatlantic travel) and drawing them from out of their homes and getting them to travel. As Southwest grew and moved beyond intra-Texas travel they used less expensive and less congested secondary airports, and people who go out of their way for the savings.
Norwegian will be operating out of:
- Stewart Newburgh Airport that’s North of New York City to Dublin, Shannon, Belfast, and Edinburgh
- Hartford International in Connecticut to Edinburgh
- Providence, Rhode Island to Dublin, Shannon, Cork, Belfast, Edinburgh
With the first flights beginning mid-June, Norwegian has put thousands of tickets on sale at $65 each way, while the regular lowest prices will be $99.
Travel period begins from June 15, 2017 for routes to Scotland and July 1, 2017 for routes to Ireland and Northern Ireland. Travel period ends December 31, 2017. Fare valid as of fare filing February 21, 2017 in Q class. Availability is limited, while supplies last.
Norwegian of course flies new planes, but charges fees for advance seat assignments, checked luggage, food, and more.
get there for 65, sure, but you seem to have missed that getting BACK to the US is literally 4x more expensive than the outbound.
I think maybe you should say they are the first to break the $69 trans Atlantic barrier since I have trip on Wow air BOS/FRA trip in June for $69.
I think one needs to understand that coming back to the US on these carriers is at least 4X what it costs to cross the pond.
Not to mention the extortionist carryon fees,
@mrredskin these are great flights to use for positioning. Then you can use an award ticket back to the States. Especially decent if you are doing a leisure holiday with flexibility. The bag issue, that does add cost. We did an article on TZ on keeping to the $95’ish price without extra charges. It’s not easy. But, it can be done. And for 19 year old, why the heck not. I sign my kids up for credit cards, and many parents could do the same. Use a cheap DY fare to Europe and a Y award from a credit card sign-up to return to the states…
LINK : http://travelzork.com/norwegian-london-99-bucks-backpack-dreamliner/
Priced it out PVD-ORK to a little under $300 for the fare that includes checked bag and a meal. Still a pretty good value, especially for a route that doesn’t currently exist or have any competition. Any idea if NAI is going to ever show up in the Chase travel portal? I don’t see anything yet.
Look at Mr. Moneybags over here paying $65 PER PERSON just to fly across the pond! No thanks, I think I’ll stick to the bridge with the normal people.
finally managed to grab one ticket in Oct after TWICE failing the final confirmation step for dates in August. Those $65 were going like hot cakes. Roundtrip, $288 inc tax a.i.
I booked some college kids into Edinburgh and out of Dublin for $147.50 roundtrip from Newburgh in July. There’s definitely a deceptive “come on” approach here — the return trips to the same cities are often 4x — but if you play around with the one-ways you CAN get to Europe this summer for super cheap.
Mind you, this is insanity, as Norwegian will be basically making no money on these fares (all tax). Their business model also seems to be breathtakingly foolish. Fly them while you can.
Tickets actually seem to be generally sold out now. They must have loaded just a handful. Not surprising they would go fast.
One hundred and eight Congress critters have asked Trump to stop these flights because they hurt the US airline business model. From the article on Irish Times: It demands that Mr Trump revoke or suspend the permit until “Norwegian changes its business model to a model that does not rely on a flag of convenience and threaten America’s international aviation industry.” http://www.irishtimes.com/business/transport-and-tourism/trump-urged-to-block-norwegian-air-s-ireland-us-flights-1.2923475
Congress critter Defazio was given a bribe..I mean contributions of $882K by airlines over several years.
I love the false paradigm of a free market. /s/ American airlines are the worst.
The teaser fares went super fast. Summer fares are now around $700-$800 RT on the bare-bones fare.
I was able to book for Jan ’18 for $340RT on the LowFare+ fare that includes all the extras. So really not bad, but it was a frustrating booking experience. The first time I tried and got a “this fare is no longer available” error. Then I tried again and the Verified by Visa didn’t work. I was finally able to get it to work with my Amex but yeesh, I was pretty close to just giving up.
Over the holidays there was a Norwegian Air aircraft parked in Milwaukee, WI (MKE). I remain hopeful they will operate out of there, but I am not holding my breath.
@HC – if you’re still within the 24-hour window, I would recommend you think of cancelling your reservation. Unless you’re one of the few people for whom these secondary airports are convenient, $340 for January travel isn’t much of a deal. You can probably find that fare on secretflying.com on a “regular” airline with far less hassle and more reliable service.
There is also the uncertainty of whether this service is sustainable. As I said earlier, the business model seems extremely poor. (There’s also the political uncertainty, because Norwegian IS skirting the law by operating a “flag of convenience,” but I think that one is a small risk). Do you remember all the small airlines that thought flying odd routes into secondary airports was a good idea? Probably not, because these airlines tend not to last too long!
Gary- any thought on how mainline carriers will respond to Norwegian’s increased TATL presence? We’re already seeing US-EU flights for crazy cheap cash prices. Can they get any lower??
@Your Two cents – delta has already announced they’re going to be implementing basic economy fares in international markets, so that’s one response