Norwegian: Low Prices To/From Europe And Now Adding Boston To Gatwick

European low-cost carrier Norwegian has been making a lot of headlines over the past year with some great prices for travel between Europe and the US.

In July last year, Norwegian became the first low-cost carrier to offer flights from London to Los Angeles, New York and Boston and, with prices starting around $280 roundtrip, they definitely caught the travelling public’s attention.

Norwegian 787-800 courtesy of Eric Salard via Flickr

Now Norwegian is using the first anniversary of their flights between the UK and the US to announce increased frequencies and a new route.

“Norwegian will introduce a daily connection between London Gatwick and New York (JFK) from October and new routes to Puerto Rico from November 2015 and Boston from May 2016. The new Massachusetts route will be Gatwick’s only direct service to Boston and will go on sale later this year.”

As nice as it may be to fly in and out of Gatwick, government taxes are very high for departures from the UK and these can often negate some of the better prices Norwegian offers. For the truly great deals avoid the UK!

The Mile Value blog has been particularly good at finding some of the better deals you can get on Norwegian – here’s a good deal that’s going on right now:

New York To Berlin – $355 roundtrip

And here are a few examples of what’s been available in the past few months:

Los Angeles to Denmark, returning Sweeden to Los Angeles – $346 all-in
New York to Stockholm – $257 roundtrip
New York to Madrid – $397 roundtrip
New York to Oslo – $277 roundtrip

And if US-Europe isn’t your thing, you can make the most of Norwegian’s routes to/from the Caribbean:

New York or Boston or Baltimore to Guadeloupe/Martinique for $178 roundtrip

It’s important to note that all these deals have been readily available in the past two months, these aren’t deals from last year (or even the beginning of this year) so you can see how often good deals can come up.

Even when there aren’t “specials” on offer, if you’re flexible with your dates, you can still get some pretty decent fares:

Oslo – New York

Admittedly that’s as basic a fare as it gets but, if you’re heading to New York for a long weekend, do you really need to check a bag? If you do then Norwegian has some advice (double-click to enlarge):

You can buy a more expensive ticket now (to incorporate all you need) or pay a lot more later – so it pays to plan ahead!

Decent fares are available going the other way too….

Ok, so a $400 fare isn’t as amazing as some of the fares I highlighted earlier in the blog – but that’s not exactly expensive for anyone who would like to visit Europe in the fall.

It’s important to remember that Norwegian is a low-cost carrier, that’s how they can offer these prices, so expect surcharges on everything and not that many comforts and you won’t be disappointed.

Still, it’s not some beat-up 757 from the 90’s that Norwegian is flying on these routes – it’s shiny new 787-800 Dreamliners. That’s makes some of the planes legacy airlines are still flying across the Atlantic an even bigger embarrassment than they already were.

The fact remains that it’s great that Norwegian is offering an alternative to the established airlines. And what are you really missing by not flying with the regular airlines anyway?

• A meal? – have you seen the swill that passes for food in economy cabins on airlines nowadays
• A checked bag? – do you really need to check a bag?
• Some air miles? – are they worth paying what the regular airlines charge?

For the same dates as above the best price, on a full-service airline, per Kayak, is $680…..on Aeroflot – I’ll take my chances with Norwegian!

Featured image courtesy of karendesuyo via Flickr