Bits: 9,000 Thistle hotel rooms in London for £90, Norwegian launching low-cost Gatwick to Vegas

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• Gary says:

  10 Jun10 June 04:52

  Hi Rafel

  I actually have no problem with Norwegian airway. I flew with them once in April from Gatwick to Boston and will take it again in July. I agree that you don’t get to collect points for BA or Virgini. But as I was travelling economy, I found no difference in the experience when comparing with BA. In fact I quite enjoyed the 747 Dreamliner. For business class travelling, there is no doubt BA or Virgin are better than Norwegian airway. It is definetly one of the best option if you are travelling on budget.

  • Genghis says:

    10 Jun10 June 05:26

    787?

• Jon says:

  10 Jun10 June 05:07

  Norwegian seems like a useful option for pairing with one-way awards. If you don’t have enough avios or virgin miles for a round-trip in business – or there isn’t availability – you could use a one-way on Norwegian in the other direction. Similar idea to Virgin’s CombiFares.

  • @mkcol says:

    10 Jun10 June 07:17

    +1
    I must remember to think of them in future, always forget about that.

  • AndyR says:

    10 Jun10 June 21:27

    Plus the taxes back to the UK are usually a lot less, so fly out with Norwegian and back on a redemption.

• Mike says:

  10 Jun10 June 05:21

  It’s a shame for me they didn’t announce this a bit sooner!
  I also see the value in one way only tickets.
  I booked a one way to LAX last month in premium, and then bought a ticket cash ticket to LAS for November (under £600 total) to combine with a one way AAdvantage redemption LAX-LHR on BA in F which was my AA Miles finished off before their last devaluation.

• Will says:

  10 Jun10 June 06:37

  You can add SJO to your list of destinations ex LGW. Also they have a fleet of both 787-8 and 787-9s. Colleague of mine has seats booked to LAX later in Sept- cost her £270 return. At prices like that I can understand why people are attracted to their services.

• Lewis says:

  10 Jun10 June 07:32

  Funny, that’s exactly the opposite of what their CEO was saying the other week. They’re going to use long haul as the main focus of the business to drive their short-haul traffic from gatwick

  • harry says:

    10 Jun10 June 07:45

    Is that the current state of affairs or just a cunning plan?

    There’s probably a reason EJ and RA don’t do long-haul.

    • harry says:

      10 Jun10 June 07:49

      Just as I thought – it’s a pipe-dream at present: http://www.travelweekly.co.uk/articles/56469/big-interview-norwegian-sets-out-strategy-to-make-low-cost-long-haul-work

      • harry says:

        10 Jun10 June 08:05

        The graph at the bottom of this page says it all http://centreforaviation.com/analysis/norwegian-air-back-in-profit-signals-aggressive-long-haul-expansion-dot-help-would-be-welcome-266573

        Norwegian has grand plans for LH – but for now they remain plans and the airline is very largely SH. They don’t separate out LH profitability. All we know is that LH load factor is 90%+ whereas the SH figure lags a significant way behind EJ & RA (both 90%).

        Looks a really interesting operation to follow as it grows – because Lewis is correct in stating that the strategy is all about making LH pay, with several interesting transatlantic routes in the pipeline, including Cork – Boston.

        • TimS says:

          10 Jun10 June 09:34

          Norwegian have very big plans for LH in the future (far bigger than are mentioned in the articles above). Kjos’s focus for the future is very much on LH ratehr than SH.

          Now that he has a UK AOC and doesn’t have to rely on a dubious Irish one, the US options will open up much more. The UK AOC also opens up the options of traffic rights to other countries that couldn’t be obtained with just an Irish or Norwegian certificate.

          Personally I think Norwegian will see rapid expansion in the next 12-24 months. The biggest potential pitfall that I could forsee would be Kjos overstretching the operation & not allowing time for new routes to establish. From what I have seen and heard from former colleagues who have had dealings with him directly, he can be a stubborn bugger at times & when he gets an idea into his head he runs with it, regardless of what those close to him may advise.

• Genghis says:

  10 Jun10 June 07:37

  OT. I recently got the £24 Lloyds avios cards for FX transactions. How useful is the upgrade voucher after £7k spend?

  I have a £5k Visa / MasterCard payment coming up but should I put it on the Lloyds MasterCard (to earn only 1k avios but get closer to the £7k spend) or BMI visa (5k DC = 5k avios)? TIA.

  • RichT says:

    10 Jun10 June 07:51

    It’s ok, not as valuable as an Amex 241, but it certainly helps bring the Avios down for a premium reward.

    Remember if you want to use it for two people it only works on one leg i.e outbound OR inbound unlike the 241.

    I think it’s best used on CE redemptions with RFS where the standard business class avios aren’t horrendous so you can buy normal one way, then use the upgrade to make it bit cheaper the other way.

    If you’re flying solo, it can be a much better option than the 241 though!

    • Gavin says:

      10 Jun10 June 07:57

      Well it saved me 72000 avios so reasonably useful

      • Genghis says:

        10 Jun10 June 08:17

        Cheers both. Can it be used for others? Ie. Upgrading the MIL on a flight she takes with us?

        • Gavin says:

          10 Jun10 June 09:31

          Sounds like it might need a call to Avios as that’s what the more complex bookings need.

          Mine was an easy return from LHR but throw in a domestic connection or an open jaw and I think it’s a call to sort. They are pretty helpful whenever I’ve spoken to them

    • Mark says:

      10 Jun10 June 12:27

      We’ve just used one to book a one way Dubai to London for 2 in Club. We’re using Etihad miles in the other direction – not enough for a return in J after their devaluation last year.

      Potentially also useful for pairing with a cheap one-way Avios redemption via Madrid with Iberia, or a one-way with Norwegian – their premium cabin is probably fine for outbound day flights to the US.

    • Brian says:

      10 Jun10 June 12:46

      If you’re flying solo, it is ALWAYS a better option than the 2for1, for obvious reasons! 🙂

    • AndyR says:

      10 Jun10 June 22:58

      Of course, a 241 is of no use flying solo.

    • Alex W says:

      11 Jun11 June 00:20

      +1 I saved 78000 avios with my upgrade 🙂

  • The_Real_A says:

    10 Jun10 June 11:00

    Also you can upgrade two one way flights – provided one is out of UK and the other is into UK. For example I upgraded LHR to HKG and PVG to LHR. They were part of different trips. Very useful if availability is lacking.

    • Anon says:

      10 Jun10 June 13:33

      Also, and this is huge for those of us who don’t live in the UK, you don’t have to start the trip at London. You can do for example, USA->LHR->USA. I often end up using this to get the two of us overnight club world seats from Miami. Then pick up a return using my BA 2for1 voucher. Then get back to the US on cheap one way economy redemption or Norwegian!

  • AndyR says:

    10 Jun10 June 23:13

    I just redeemed 2 vouchers earlier for 2 of us in Club LHR-NRT. Instead of 300k Avios it came to 156k so pretty much the same as a 2-4-1.

    Biggest drawback compared to a 241 is you cannot upgrade to First.

• Ingvar says:

  10 Jun10 June 08:34

  The Thistle link is not working for me.

• Margaret says:

  10 Jun10 June 09:05

  We flew Norwegian at the end of March from Gatwick to New York on a brand new Dreamliner, which had been in service for two weeks The cabin environment was great and felt more refreshed than usual, but the economy seats were so bad I used the blanket I brought to sit on as the end of the seat pressed into the backs of my legs. Also, the entertainment broke after about an hour, so the journey wasn’t as good as expected. I would personally avoid, unless the price was REALLY cheap!

  • TimS says:

    10 Jun10 June 09:37

    From what I have heard, the thin seats in Y are a common complaint across most of the airlines using the Dreamliner.

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