Club Eurostar will get a new top tier in October

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• Dan says:

  30 Aug30 August 10:51

  Does anyone know what Norse are like at honouring their EU/UK261 obligations? As in, if I’m booked on that trimmed Barbados flight, I know they’ll be happy to move me to the flight on the previous day, but what about onto a totally different day… and what about onto the BA flight on the same day? Will they do it easily, or will I have to lay out and then MCOL?

  • Richie says:

    30 Aug30 August 11:27

    If they offer a refund, I would just take it.

    • Dan says:

      30 Aug30 August 11:52

      I wouldn’t. Then I’d have to pay hundreds more to rebook. I’d rather use my legal right to have Norse book me onto the BA or Virgin flight. Just curious how easy or difficult they’ll make that.

      • Ed says:

        30 Aug30 August 12:10

        Maybe stop being awkward and accpet a different day. Plenty of time to change

        • Dan says:

          30 Aug30 August 14:02

          True there’s time.. but chose those dates for good reason, different days are less convenient. I don’t think it’s awkward to insist on receiving what’s in the contract & law

      • Richie says:

        30 Aug30 August 12:23

        Norse may not be around at the end of a delayed and long MCOL process.

        • Dan says:

          30 Aug30 August 14:03

          Good point. Maybe better to go straight to Section 75 instead?

      • JDB says:

        30 Aug30 August 14:08

        It’s all very well ‘having’ legal rights, but exercising them and exercising successfully is a totally different matter.

        Other airlines will tell you, use your nous not Norse.

      • JDB says:

        30 Aug30 August 14:15

        There’s no evidence it’s possible to get UK261 rights via s75 and your rejection of the offer of a flight the day before (when Norse would theoretically be on the hook for a hotel) might be considered unreasonable. In offering that flight, Norse has probably in fact already complied with the terms of Article 8. Generous though the provisions of UK261 are, you don’t get carte blanche to pick and choose specific flights.

        • Dan says:

          30 Aug30 August 14:45

          I agree you don’t get carte blanche to pick any other flight with any other airline. But Article 8 + CAA guidance on Article 8 is clear that if there’s no flight on the same day + route + airline, the next reasonable offer is the same day + route on a different airline (or, at your choice, same airline on any other day). I don’t agree that Norse has complied at all

        • Paul says:

          30 Aug30 August 23:58

          No, it cannot be considered unreasonable as the regulations pertaining to cancellations are very clear. Only the passenger can make the decision on what they do.
          Re route
          Refund
          Travel at another time

          There is no reasonableness test. BA gave up fighting this during covid as they lost multiple CEDR and MCOL cases. When they cancelled my flights in F to HKG I requested reroute on QR and F class commercial seats were provided despite the booking being J and upgraded with Avios.

  • Lady London says:

    30 Aug30 August 12:23

    Exceptionally I would take a refund as Richie says. Insurance may help you accept risks and extra costs if you do fly.

    But for me the main risk is credit risk. You might have got a judgment if you had to fight it but…

    • Dan says:

      30 Aug30 August 14:03

      I’m not sure I follow, what do you mean by credit risk?

      • Jake says:

        30 Aug30 August 14:06

        Meant that Norse fight you for so long over re-booking a different carrier, they go bust before you get anywhere and left with nothing.

        A cash refund now + an additional cost with a reputable carrier may be better than nothing.

        • Dan says:

          30 Aug30 August 14:49

          True it’s better than nothing. But I don’t agree that the fallback would be nothing – it would be a S75 claim for the (balance of the) cost of the reputable carrier flight

        • His Holyness says:

          30 Aug30 August 15:54

          I pretty much agree with Ralph, but have Norse even denied you re-routing on another carrier on the same day?

• Londonsteve says:

  30 Aug30 August 12:47

  Norse is a low cost airline flying to a non-low cost destination. The Caribbean is an expensive part of the world to have a holiday. Barbados is famously non budget and I wonder how many people are arranging their flights and accommodation independently. Jamaica is an acquired taste, although it offers the obvious VFR market from the UK but is that enough? I’d be more interested in their offering if they flew somewhere budget minded travellers actually want to go, like bits of Asia. I appreciate the issue of flying time and the closure of Russian airspace is a headwind to contend with but if there are armies of backpackers, students (both UK ones seeking to have a holiday as well as overseas students seeking to get to and from courses in the UK), VFR and just lots of ‘value for money’ minded holidaymakers, many of which will appreciate the option of buying much cheaper single fares, there’s merit in the idea? Not least because BA shows such a reticence to reopen its Asian routes owing to a lack of spare airframes and the seemingly inexhaustible North America to London/Europe market.

  • ChrisBCN says:

    30 Aug30 August 13:52

    Simple math… One plane can fly London to the Carribbean and back, and then fly it again at exactly the same time the next day.

    Take the same plane, fly it to Bangkok, and it’s TWO days before it can make the trip again (you could send it somewhere shorter in between but then you add complexity etc).

    Two trips to the Caribbean at 50% full will make you more than one trip to Bangkok at 80% full. Especially when you factor in higher fares to Caribbean for the very reasons you outline. (You could make this more complex by adding fuel/staff costs etc, but the outcome will give you the same result).

    • Londonsteve says:

      31 Aug31 August 15:13

      Fair enough, but at some point the quantity of potential passengers to fly to small islands in the Caribbean will be exhausted, for they have very little to offer other to a handful of wealthy ‘fly and flop’ holidaymakers. Based on recent Norse timetable alterations, we may well have reached peak Caribbean and if a budget orientated airline wants to make money, they need to start flying to where the passengers want to go in order to have interesting travel experiences for affordable sums of money. I have no interest in flying either to the US or the Caribbean (other than Cuba) unless someone else is picking up the tab. Personally I’d like to see affordable long haul flights to Hong Kong, Mauritius, Cuba and Vietnam, but I appreciate this entirely my preference and some might wish to travel to none of the above.

  • Chris W says:

    30 Aug30 August 15:39

    Norse spend all summer flying to expensive destinations in the US!

    I would have thought Cancun would be a no-brainer this winter for a cheap sun destination they can operate with one frame.

    • Londonsteve says:

      31 Aug31 August 15:18

      I agree about Cancun, that would have wider appeal than Barbados, especially considering the low cost nature of their product. Since the only direct UK-Cuba flight is with TUI from MAN to Varadero, I’d have thought there would be strong demand for a Gatwick – Havana offering.

      As for the US flights I can envisage strong demand from budget minded US travellers seeking to get to Europe cheaply, more so than the other way around as the US is so very expensive this year, especially for Britons.

• Man of Kent says:

  30 Aug30 August 14:14

  Not often you see Barbados and Rochdale in the same headline!

  • Richie says:

    30 Aug30 August 15:43

    BTW Rochdale’s Lisa Stansfield may have visited looking for her baby.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:

      30 Aug30 August 16:02

      💀bravo Richie, best joke of the week

      • Richie says:

        30 Aug30 August 16:24

        Thanks.

• Mayfair Mike says:

  31 Aug31 August 00:15

  I grew up near Rochdale and my parents are still sadly living close to there.
  I can confirm it’s an absolute dive and comfortably ranks within the top 10 worst places to live and in poverty indices The Times and others publish occasionally.
  That town centre has seen more demolition and rebuilds in the last 30 years than anywhere else in the UK, whilst the council fritter away their grants for over-accepting their quota of asylum seekers.
  The description on the Hilton site doesn’t fill me with confidence, with spelling mistakes of the local “attractions” amongst others.
  Someone above said the Wetherspoons was “decent” 😂 Its literally just a branch of the DSS and is filthy!
  Miles from Manchester and the the Calder Valley too.
  Forget scrounging points and stay in an independent would by my advice.

  • Panda Mick says:

    31 Aug31 August 18:35

    “Miles from Manchester and the Calder Valley.” LOLZ!

    I’ve cycled in less than an hour to Tormorden from Rochdale.

    Plus, if you’re going to complain about spelling, at least attempt to use punctuation correctly.

• Concerto says:

  1 Sep1 September 09:52

  But this new Hampton by Hilton in Crotchdale is a newbuild, right?

• Roy says:

  4 Sep4 September 07:30

  Norse need to look at partnering with a tour operator in order to makes these routes work. The Caribbean is not really for people booking flights and then hotels on the cheap as cheap hotels are not a thing in the Caribbean! So unless you have property you are then faced with the cost of a hotel by which time you could have booked a package holiday with one of the popular PH Companies for less money. Simply flying to the Caribbean does not work unless you can really be low low cost.

• Alan Bowen says:

  4 Sep4 September 12:02

  Alas, despite Norse’s attempts to get operators and agents to sell their flights, they are all concerned that Norse won’t survive and the obligation to refund, particularly for packages sold will fall back on them. No insurer will offer airline failure protection, which is why anyone expecting Norse to be handing out 261 protection easily is probably also waiting for the next long haul Monarch flight to depart..

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