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Norwegian to increase flights between London Gatwick and New York

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Norwegian has announced plans to increase their daily flights from London to New York.  From 28th October 2018 there will be three daily flights instead of the current two.

The additional flight will depart from London Gatwick at 9.50am and lands at New York JFK at 1pm. The return flight will depart New York JFK at 7.40pm and land at London Gatwick at 7.10am the following day.

Norwegian adds third Gatwick to New York service

Thomas Ramdahl, Chief Commercial Officer at Norwegian said about the new frequency:

New York remains one of the most popular routes for Norwegian customers and we are delighted to be able to offer an additional frequency between London Gatwick and JFK Airport which will provide even further choice and flexibility combined with great value. Our modern fleet of aircraft allow our customers, whether travelling for work or leisure, to enjoy their trip from the moment they step on board thanks to our award-winning state of the art entertainment system, comfortable and spacious cabin and attentive cabin crew.”

My review of Norwegian’s Premium cabin is here.

Comments (62)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Anna says:

    Is there any reason why Norwegian couldn’t start flying from Manchester? The North is woefully served for US flights. Prices are very high for the few services that do exist; it’s quite common for northerners travelling to the US to fly via LHR with BA simply because the prices are so much lower, even though it’s extremely inconvenient. New York and Florida are hugely popular destinations and lack of availability pushes prices to ridiculous levels – a colleague of mine has booked flights to Orlando 15 months in advance to get affordable fares for a family with school age kids!

    • Matt says:

      3 direct flights a day to NYC is reasonable on 3 different carriers (Virgin, Delta and Thomas Cook) to provide competition? That seems to reflect in the price where looking across the rest of the year prices for economy return range between £350 to £600 which seems pretty in line with the prices I see from London. (Most prices were around £400, and prices only went >£500 on peak August dates).

      Thought you could only book flights around 11 months in advance?

      • Anna says:

        Some travel companies (I think it was Thomas Cook) allow you to book further in advance.

        Not everyone wants to go to New York though (and prices can hit £800-900 in Economy) There’s a very long list of US cities you can’t get to directly
        from Manchester. Also for such an in-demand destination, there are very few flights to Florida, which is why the airlines can charge £1000 pp as standard for an economy seat at peak time. When we went to Orlando a few years ago BA was far and away the cheapest option (that was when there was still a connection to Gatwick!)

        • Andrew says:

          Don’t forget Singapore to Houston from Manchester

          Priced from £389 including 2x23Kg hold luggage as standard. Even with overnight stays at Houston airport to ensure connections, that’s still pretty good.

  • marc shorter says:

    I clicked the link but the ‘new’ morning flight didn’t show. Only one flight per day – pm

  • Jonathan says:

    Quick question for the churners here. People talk about the benefit of taking gold and upgrading to plat for additional MR points. Has the benefit been reduced or is the normally just the 1k? Seems like all in Gold to plat with referral is 49k vs. 48k for the direct route (assuming there’s no referral for an upgrade).

    • Anna says:

      Not sure what benefit you mean, the required spend on the upgrade is £1k for 20,000 MR points. Though I haven’t seen anything definitive to say you can upgrade to Platinum charge from Gold credit card yet.

      • Jonathan says:

        Thanks, essentially I mean the benefit of churning via Gold vs. churning the platinum card directly. If you are a recipient of the referral points through getting your spouse to refer you, etc, it didn’t seem wildly different in terms of the rewards. Let me know if I’ve got this wrong.

        I guess you’re likely to incur lower fees with fewer months with the higher Plat card given it’s a only a 1k spend via the upgrade route.

        • Genghis says:

          If you’re nifty on Excel, why don’t you build a model where you can find the best routing for you, building in different points earned, how fast you spend money, likely fees etc

    • Genghis says:

      Direct to Plat is: 35k + 2k = 37k for £2k spend
      Gold then upgrade is: 22k + 2k + 20k + 1k = 45k for £3k spend
      So delta of 8k for an extra £1k spend, a decent deal.
      Question is though, can it be done with the new Gold credit card? If anyone has it and is interested in upgrading, please report back.

      • Jonathan says:

        Has it changed? On the Amex website today under Plat referral I see:
        https://www.americanexpress.com/uk/content/mgm/the-platinum-card/terms-and-conditions.html

        You will receive 18,000 bonus Membership Rewards points if your friend or family member uses the Referral Programme to apply for a card (other than a Basic Card) and is approved. You will not receive any points if they apply for a Basic Card.

        Hence this suggested to me 30k + 18k = 48k.

        • Genghis says:

          It’s been like this for a while. The person doing the referring receives 18k whether Gold or Plat, ie no delta

      • Genghis says:

        You’ve also got the additional supp numbers, 5k for direct plat vs 3k + 5k for upgrade route, increasing the delta to 11k

  • meta says:

    O/T A new Colloseum inspired Plaza Premium lounge in Rome just opened last week. It looks impressive.

    • Anna says:

      Colloseum inspired? That sounds a bit grim ????. Are they serving dormice on the buffet?!

      • meta says:

        Am flying back tonight, so will report back. From what I’ve seen online, it has 6 shower rooms, huge bar, and a large amount of seating. I am quite excited as I thought I’ll have to settle for one of those horrible other lounges!

        • John says:

          Nice bank holiday in Rome?

        • meta says:

          Yes. Very nice. Stayed at Aleph Rome on Hilton voucher + points as no availability at Waldorf and it was great. Plaza Premium lounge is opposite BA lounge and they do cooked to order pasta and pizza! @Anna, no dormice! ???? Lots of space and relatively quiet. Although the staff are not that friendly! We’re in Italy after all.

    • Alex Cohen Goldstein says:

      Didn’t realise it was new! Was there yesterday in the morning and it’s very impressive like other PP lounges, so spacious and comfortable with not many people there. Staff are friendly and someone is constantly cleaning. There are indeed lots of shower rooms and a bar, not sure it was coliseum themed though

  • TripRep says:

    Bits O/T, BA still up to their pathetic dodgy practices denying valid EU261/2004 claims…

    Loyalty Lobby pretty damning of the situation (rightly so IMHO)..

    https://loyaltylobby.com/2018/05/06/compensation-clinic-british-airways-five-hour-delay-for-cargo-door-coming-off-ec-261-2004/

    • John says:

      It’s BA standard practice to deny almost everything on your first contact

      • Anna says:

        Their CS is atrocious! Last year they cancelled 3 flights I had booked and would only offer alternative flights to another destination. When I pointed out their legal obligation to re-route our party to the original destination, their response was that this might be the law but it’s not their policy!

        • Yuff says:

          BA cancelled my outbound flight, on Thursday for May half term, and within1/2 hr I had called up and re-booked all 3 passengers, on a new flight, from a more convenient departure airport. These are RFS flights and I couldn’t book the airport, we are now departing from , as there was no availability. No issues with changing the flights whatsoever 🙂

        • Matt says:

          Did they actually say “this might be the law but it’s not their policy” or is this your hyperbole? If they actually said that I’m sure the legal ramification and PR damage will be enormous for a company like BA to vocally acknowledge they don’t follow the law.

        • Anna says:

          Do you actually know what hyperbole is?

          The actual conversation went:
          Me: “It’s a legal requirement that you re-route me on a comparable method of transport.”
          CS rep: “But that’s not our policy.”

          In the end I opted for an alternative destination as the route wasn’t served directly by another airline in any case so I would still have had to take two flights which was even more inconvenient than changing the city!

        • Evan says:

          I know what hyperbole means and I would say that your own response shows that Matt does too.

    • Danny says:

      Why are you keep plugging this pathetic, dodgy and sub standard so called blog?

      • Rob says:

        BA has paid 2 x EU261 for Anika and 1 for my brother in the last year, all within a week and all with no discussion.

      • TripRep says:

        Danny – I have no bias or agenda to plug LL, the story interested me as it clearly does others, I advise you skip on by, simply ignore my comments and links if it rattles you so much..

    • Leo says:

      This isn’t really news.

    • Nick_c says:

      We had a five hour delay on our flight back from LAX last year. We knew about it when we woke up in the morning (inbound flight delayed) and adjusted our day accordingly. Made a claim on line as soon as we got home, and BA paid out within three weeks. No hassle at all, and as the €1200 was more than we paid in fees and charges on our J 241 redemption, I felt we hit the Jackpot.

      Apparently because BA have so few A380s, when one goes technical its a real problem for them.

      My partner was stuck in Germany during the bad weather at LHR before Xmas. BA couldn’t be contacted, but they paid up quickly on the expenses claim when he got back.

      You can criticise BA for many things – and I do – but IME they pay up quickly when things go wrong.

      • RussellH says:

        I am still waiting for a reply to a claim from last March.

        • Stu N says:

          I have a downgrade from Aug that is still not sorted.

  • VJ says:

    O/T – Any one aware of extra/bonus points for adding a supplementary card to Amex Nectar!

    • Peter K says:

      I think my wife got 1k nectar points for doing it earlier this year.

  • Ant says:

    OT:planning a trip to Malaysia and Singapore next Easter. Have enough points for a Marriott Travel Package. Any recommendation for a beach hotel/resort?

    • Matt says:

      Haven’t stayed there, but the St Regis Langkawi looks stunning.

      In Singapore, I’ve stayed at the Ritz Carlton Millenia which was ok but a bit too big and busy for my liking to feel like a luxury 5*, and worst of all you could hear the traffic from your bedroom even on the top floor! Also stayed at the St Regis Singapore which I adored but realise not everyone is keen on the location compared to being down on the bay.

      Enjoy!

  • Ammar says:

    Ot- I have £225 worth of Heathrow rewarads vouchers which expire next month. Not got any flights from Heathrow, so have a couple of options I can think of, but wonder if others with more creative minds can sugg alternatives:
    1) make a trip to Heathrow and buy something from pre-security shops like luggage
    2) not sure if poss – book refundable airline ticket, check in and get boarding passs, spend voucher post security and then cancel flight before take off- not sure if I will get money back?
    3) book cheap non refundable flight one way and check in and spend vouchers…
    4) find someone travelling from Heathrow to get something for me

    Regards

    • Catalan says:

      Why not just convert them into the various airline loyalty schemes such as BA Executive Avois, Virgin Flying Club miles, Lufthansa Miles & More etc.

      • Rob says:

        Without a transfer bonus, you are ‘paying’ 1p per mile if you do this so not great value. I would sit on them until a transfer bonus comes along.

        • Matt says:

          But points expire next month so sitting on them is not a great idea …

          Does the expiry of all his points get refreshed if he earns a single point or transfers from say Emirates?

      • Ammar says:

        Sorry if I was not clear, meant I had already converted them last yr when a bonus came along, originally had planned tp buy something but as not travelling via Heathrow will loose them

        • David says:

          Sorry did you convert other miles INTO Heathrow rewards vouchers?
          Otherwise I don’t follow you.

    • Tilly says:

      Find someone travelling from Heathrow to buy something for you.

    • Shyla says:

      Sorry, I have only just read this thread. I was in your your position only two weeks ago, I travelled down to Heathrow, terminal 5 and went into W H Smith where you check-in and was able to convert them into £120 John Lewis/Waitrose gift card. On the back of the paper voucher it does say gift card purchase is not allowed however mind were accepted without question. There is also a W H Smith at arrivals but the gift card selection is very poor. Making the trip was well worth it, as the money will be put towards a new fridge.

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.