Norwegian STOLE Your Money ONCE, Should You FORGIVE And Fly Them?

[@Travelog]

So Norwegian. Did you get burned when they went bankrupt? Or are they trustworthy and dependable for getting around Europe? Let me know your thoughts!

[@MaxQ10001]

They wew first struck by the Boein 787 scandal, then the MAX. They were close to bankrupt when the pandemic hit. That a small part of the company even survived is just incredible. Thousands upon thousands of companies went bankrupt during the pandemic. Nobody asked for a pandemic. Money got lost. It's just a fact of life. Customer lost some millions. But the owners of the company lost billions. The share was 99% wiped out. Your anger is a bit out of place -- are you that angry at any business that went out of business due to COVID? Because all of them had creditors that lost money...

[@honeytgb]

@@MaxQ10001 if you paid $1,000 for a service you never received, nor got a refund, are you simply going to shrug your shoulders and feel sorry for them?

[@MaxQ10001]

@@honeytgb I would of course be mad about it, but I mean, we got a pandemic. That society survived like it did, is just amazing. It didn't go as well after the Spanish flu or the black death. That we lost a lot of businesses and that people lost some money is sad, but we survived. We see extremely self centered, egotistical attitudes nowadays... Also, a lot of those tickets wouldn't have been used anyway, because the world shut down.

[@travelvideos]

I got my refund. I had never flown with them so I decided to try, LAX to Oslo or something like that. I requested refund in March and I got my money in May. 2 months of waiting was fine and I was very chill to wait. It is the Nordic way of doing business: very slow.

[@Cta2006]

Norwegian long haul was a different division than the Norwegian of today. To call Norwegian ultra low cost, says a lot about your knowledge. To compare Norwegian with Ryanair, Easyjet and Wizzair is just silly.

[@Travelog]

I'm guessing you haven't gotten to that bit yet, but I explicitly discuss the fact that the long haul Norwegian flights were operated by a different legal entity. But that's not the point. To the average customer, it's still "Norwegian." In there eyes. Also genuine question, what then would make the difference between a low and ultra low cost carrier in your eyes? They created legal entities for their ground and cabin crews, have outsourced a lot to Spain and Latvia, and charge for everything from seat selection to baggage to meals.

[@Cta2006]

@@Travelog There is a reason why all of Wizzair's domestic routes in Norway were ditched, which had been operating for less than a year. Their business practises does not align with Norway's employment standards. Norwegian is more in line with SAS. Far from the bottom of the barrel low ultra cost of Ryainair and Wizzair

[@le_nopeman8997]

@@Travelog the difference is usually in the way their staff is treated. To be able to be ultra low cost like Ryanair, or Wizz you need to get your labor costs down to a point where it's basically modern slavery. As CTA2006 stated, there is a reason wizz needed to ditch their nordic exploration. Honestly I am surprised people anywhere in Europe accept companies treating their staff the way these do. Also, When Ryanair or Wizz advertise flights, it's at or around 20€, Norwegian is closer to 50. So personally, I'd consider Norwegian low cost, and Ryanair and these as Ultra low cost.

[@MaxQ10001]

@@Travelog That's even not true! You have several ticket classes with different things included. Your ticket included both carry on and checked bagage... you didn't have to pay any fee at all. Apart from the network affiliation, what's tje difference between Norwegian and SAS? Or any other legacy carrier? They all charge for seat reservation on the cheapest ticket.

[@Derek-bx5sb]

You should start using aerolopa for seat maps, it gives you a window alignment and everything although some airlines aren’t on there

[@Travelog]

Thanks, thanks actually exactly what I did following this flight. Aerolopa has been great!

[@KevinEnjoyer]

Norwegian is hoarding their cash, investing it and not doling it out to passengers they screwed over. They anticipated a crisis coming, and it came. Their pilots threatened to strike if they didn't get a pay rise, and Norwegian complied. In a flash, their prospects at a profit before summer were completely wiped out. H1 losses were high, but acceptable for Norwegian, given that the summer profits were right around the corner.

[@semsemeini7905]

Am flying them for first time to Oslo from Rhodes. Hope it goes well. Only nonstop. They are also buying Wideroe (read that) we are flying on. They have the domestic monopoly. Fares are expensive. Some lost a lot of money when Crystal cruises and another cruise line went bankrupt.

[@einarbolstad8150]

Who has the domestic monopoly? There are three airlines operating domestic routes.

[@Fuxser]

@@einarbolstad8150 I get where he's coming from with the FOT-routes that Wideroe rights to. In the FOT agreemeant its mentioned that no other airline is allowed to compete.

[@einarbolstad8150]

@@Fuxser That could by why, agreed. Still, it's a gross misrepresentation of the facts.

[@MB.S560]

I’ve given you a follow love the video

[@andrethaugen]

Wouldn't call them ultra low-cost as Ryanair and Wizz.

[@Travelog]

Can you explain the difference? I find such a distinction completely arbitrary. You have a base fare, and need to pay for seats, bags, meals, changes, etc. Northing is included in the base ticket. Their corporate structure of creating new legal entities for ground crews and cabin crews was explicitly designed to reduce costs. Lower them if you will.

[@Fuxser]

Good review but i dont really get why you are so angry with Norwegian. Norwegian long haul operations was/is a totally different company and they really got bankrupt. Also, ULTRA LOW COST doesnt really fit with Norwegian. After watching this and the Widerøe video its pretty clear that you know alot about aircraft and stuff, but how the airlines you review operate from day to day you dont have a clue about. Sorry but thats a fact.

[@Fuxser]

Dont get me wrong, most of your reviews are VERY good but your opinion on Norwegian as a company influences the whole video.

[@Travelog]

You're absolutely right. I don't have any sort of industry knowledge about the inner workings of airlines (though other teams at my company do a bit of work with American). I'm just an economist who likes to travel. All of my commentary just comes from reading blogs in the travel hacker space, as well as news articles. I am not, and do not claim to be an expert. All I can do is express my views shaped by my experiences both in travel, as well as working in the private sector for big multinationals and more recently governments. A lot of airlines did a lot of selfish/arguably immoral things during the pandemic. United changed the definition of of what a delayed flight was to include 18 hours, so they wouldn't give refunds. Icelandair and Qantas sold tickets for flights they had no intention of operating. Air Canada and Aeromexico refused to give refunds. All of these were anti-consumer if not immoral. I have called out each of these in their respective videos. It simply was Norwegian's turn. I know that the tickets were sold by a different legal entity. That's kind of the point of the video. But to a lay person in the US (most of my audience), they wouldn't know that. The name and brand is the same, so they'd assume it was the same company. And I'm not kidding that I know people out thousands of dollars personally. As their friend, and more broadly as a traveler always pushing for a more pro-consumer stance, I wish they got a refund. I understand why they didn't, but that still doesn't make it right.

[@Fuxser]

@@Travelog Fair enough, thanks for explaining!

[@linesided]

Well, honestly if you're the kind of person that loves to give thieves money then SURE, go ahead lol