Today is the start of my trip. I am excited about my first flight because it is on an airline I have never flown with before.
Norse Atlantic Airways is a brand new airline, so it makes sense that you haven't heard of them. Their first flight took place on June 14, 2022. They have yet to reach their third month of service. I am flying with them a month to the day since August 12th, when service on the route began.
There are low cost flights between the US and Europe. They don't have a business class cabin, but they do have economy and premium cabins. They have attractive prices on flights to Europe. Premium Economy tickets start at $210 one way when flying out of JFK, while economy tickets start at $11 one way.
I am excited about this option since I am from the UK. We used to live in Virginia. We had to fly via a larger hub whenever we went back to the UK because our nearest airport was Norfolk, VA. When we travel back to the UK from the east coast, having a low cost option that flies out of JFK is appealing.
JFK is much better than the original plans. They said they would fly out of New York Stewart International airport instead of JFK. Stewart International is a small airport that is only served by Allegiant Air and Frontier Airlines, which is close to the town of Poughkeepsie. That would have made travel to Europe much more inconvenient, so it was great that they changed their plans and flew out of JFK.
They fly to the UK and it is the same situation. The original plan was for them to fly into London Stansted airport, which is mostly used by European budget airlines. We didn't have to pay for airport parking on longer trips as we could easily get a train to them when we were living in the southeast of England. After changing their plans, they now fly into the UK.
If you don't want to travel via the UK, you can get to Europe via Berlin and OSL from the US.
Norse offers attractive pricing on one-way flights. Many airlines charge more for a one-way cash ticket to Europe than they do for a round trip, so having the option to pay a low fare in just one direction can be helpful.
Europe is the first of my three continents because it is further north than england. One of the three continents that I need to visit, but there is a certain activity in the place I am heading to next that is a significant part of my trip.
I booked the last leg of my trip first because there was only one date where I could get an award for the flight. My flight to Europe was the last thing I needed to book as a result of my reverse booking. I knew that my budget wouldn't stretch to flying to Europe in business class, but I did some research to make sure.
When flying from the east coast to the UK, we usually do it in economy because it is on the shorter end of the flights. It's not like you get a chance for a full night's sleep because there is only a few hours until breakfast is served.
I wanted to fly in relative comfort because it is meant to be a dream trip.
There is a new airline called Norse Atlantic Airways.
I mentioned their attractive pricing earlier, but the exact pricing depends on a number of factors, including dates, times, how far in advance you book, add-ons, and so on.
Three days after we held the card draft, I booked my flight. I thought I had saved a picture of the pricing for flights, but I can't find it. The cheapest economy ticket was $114 and the cheapest premium economy ticket was $229.
You can fly to Europe in Premium Economy for less than $250. I will be writing a flight review once I have flown with them to share my experience.
The seat has 46” of pitch and 12” of recline and is not a lie-flat seat.
Premium Economy includes two meals with one beer, glass of wine or a soft drink. Depending on the menu that can be accessed here, meals may include a hot item or sandwich, chips, nuts or a candy bar for a reasonable fee.
I had enough money in my budget for Premium Economy. The cheapest price shown in the search results is for the most limited benefits. There are three premium economy options.
The price for Premium Economy was $229, while the price for Premium Light was only $19. There are different benefits and perks for the Premium Economy option.
If you need to check a bag, you will have to pay a $90 fee, which is more than you would pay for Premium Light. For my flight, Premium Plus cost more than double the price of Premium Light; the only difference between the two is that it would give two checked bags.
During the booking process, Norse gives the chance to prepayment for checked baggage. The pricing options on my flight were the same, but I am not sure if they differ depending on the route.
The cost of a light checked bag is $60 and the cost of a standard checked bag is $70. The $90 additional cost is more than just booking a Premium Light fare and adding a checked bag, so I don't see why I should choose a Premium Classic ticket over a Premium Light ticket.
It is not an issue for this trip. I only have a backpack as my carry-on for this trip and I will be sharing more about what I have packed in a post tomorrow. I booked the $229 fare because Premium Light was enough for what I needed.
Seat selection is one of the benefits of the premium plus pricing. If you choose Premium Light or Premium Classic, you have to pay for seat selection or wait for it to be assigned for free when you check in.
Selecting a seat doesn't come cheap. The seats on my flight cost anywhere from $35 for a middle seat to $100 for a seat at the front of the cabin which has better legroom.
On my flight, the Premium Economy cabin is in a 3-4-2 configuration. It was a 6 in 7 chance that I would end up in an aisle or window seat on my flight. I decided to take my chances and hope I don't end up in the middle seat because I wasn't willing to spend $60 to get one of those seats. If I was assigned a middle seat, I assumed it would be a different configuration than the economy one.
6 in 7 of avoiding a middle seat was worse for me. Five seats of the Premium Economy cabin were not available when I booked my ticket. There was a chance that 8 of the remaining seats were middle seats. I was hoping that the Premium Economy cabin would be empty enough that I could move to an aisle seat even if I was assigned a middle seat.
I think that might be what I need to do. I crossed my fingers that I was assigned an aisle seat, because I like to sit in a window seat. The one seat left at the front of the cabin was assigned to me by the airline.
SeatMaps suggests that there isn't a lot of legroom in the picture.
There are a lot of window and aisle seats that are unallocated. I decided to hold off on checking in because I wanted another Premium Economy passenger to check-in before I did. I will be able to move to an aisle seat regardless if that doesn't happen.
I can't wait to see what the experience is like and if it'll be my go-to option when flying back to the UK in the future. I have a few flights over the next 24 to 36 hours to get to a more remote part of Europe.
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