Flights from Boston to Oslo - your experience or recommendations

Was not aware of financial problems at Norwegian Air, but their problems with the Rolls Royce engines on the 787 fleet has caused havoc with having to ground planes and substitute chartered planes.

Delta has very nice lay flat seats in biz class, as does AA and BA. Even the seats that are "almost" lay flat are very good.

I assume you will be looking for business class. The seats/comfort/experience may vary tremendously.

For details on seat comfort, you need to keep in mind that it depends on the specific aircraft type that your flight is on. So you might look at Air Canada or Delta, for example, but all Air Canada or Delta flights are not the same. You need to look at the aircraft type in use on that specific flight - because the seats can vary dramatically from one aircraft to the next.

Use seatguru.com as a starting point, but be aware that it's not 100% reliable (it's often a good indicator though), but then google for (your airline) (flight number) (business class) (review) and you'll find an excess of details about what you can expect (and a lot of self-pimping nonsense, too, so take that with a grain of salt). Focus on the details of the seat: does it go fully flat or not, how wide, how claustrophobic, etc. Trust reviews where the reviewer doesn't have anything to gain rather than self-promoters and credit card shills.

Is a shame but appears Norwegian has done away with their Boston to Oslo flight I have flown on previously.
They added some new direct routes from Boston to Paris and England and I guess decided those were better hubs so no longer fly direct to Oslo at least to my knowledge. (think there is still a New York to Oslo direct option)

What is more of a pain for me trying to reach Lofoten someday is Norwegian won't let you book a flight on their website with 2 connections ; so it is impossible for me to fly Boston to Lofoten on Norwegian. I would need to buy separate tickets Boston to Oslo with a connection and then Oslo to one of the smaller airports near Lofoten (which Norwegian does fly to)!

Don't think anyone will touch Norwegian's pricing though if needing business class or higher. Those legacy airlines I am sure have more comfortable business/first class but sell them to those with companies paying, no budget cares or with tons of excess points so the pricing in my opinion is out of the realm of reality.

You may want to look into some credit card offers for both of you to see how many points you may be able to obtain that way.
Reliability will be higher for sure with KLM, Air Canada or Delta.

Thank you, everyone. The fact that each airline has its own names for economy, economy plus, business etc is so customer-unfriendly. To make matters worse, some airlines has 2 different business class names - one for domestic flights and another for international. Drives me nuts.

I agree that seatguru has its flaws and misinformation. I feel encouraged by your comments and know that I can figure this out.
Best wishes, R

I would consider SAS, their new long haul business class seats are very nice lie flat seats. And they have direct New York-Oslo flights. And as a flag carrier they are a bit more reliable than Norwegian. If you don't need a flat bed, the seats in Plus (premium economy) recline quite a bit and can be very affordable. (All their widebodies have the new plus seats, and all except an old spare aircraft have the new business seats.)

Hi Badger
Thank you for your seat info; SAS is now a top contender and I will proceed to buy. I had noticed their Plus seats and wondered if they would be as described. Thanks for taking the time to respond. Happy travels, P

They have some information about the seats on their website: https://www.flysas.com/us-en/fly-with-us/travel-classes/

Good luck with the booking/planning, and I hope you have a nice trip!

We've been happy with our SAS flights to Nordic countries in the past. We booked our March travel in August from SFO to OSL and return. Our Booking Class T (SAS Go Saver) tickets cost $600 each RT plus $100 each for seat selection on four flights. The SAS Go price includes a carry on plus one checked bag each and meal service included. The "Saver" means no refunds after 24 hours of booking.

SAS' CPH hub is compact, efficient and easy to make a connection. Our return flight from HEL several years ago only had a 50 min layover. The aircaft for our flight from HEL to CPH arrived in HEL 10 or 15 minutes late and we were further delayed by deicing. Arriving with about a half-hour to connect was not a problem and we actually had to wait for an on-time departre from CPH.

rstevemo,
As you discuss flying out of Boston and the desire for a flat bed, I will share my slightly different technique for attaining this flat bed. I fly British Air and take their day flight to Europe. I arrive at Heathrow, Terminal 5 in the evening. I get a room at the Sofitel, which is down a corridor outside of Terminal 5. The cost of the room for a real bed and room service at the Sofitel is much lower (and infinitely more pleasant) than paying for business class on an overnight flight. The next morning I fly BA from Terminal 5 to my destination in Europe. I refuse to take an overnight flight unless there is not an alternative, but fortunately from Boston there is an alternative. So think about this lovely alternative.

Thank you, everyone, especially Wray who suggested a day BA flight from BOS, overnight layover at Sofitel and then direct flight to OSL. Mmmmm, why didn't I think of that? Minimizes jet lag and delivers us to OSL, well rested and at an ideal time. My gratitude, Wray. Happy trails and travels to all, R.

This doesn't exactly pertain to your question but in reference to Air Canada, my second flight (never flew Air Canada before) with them was the return from Montreal to SFO, had to change there since we flew out of Quebec. This was in July of 2017.

That connecting Air Canada flight was one hour late. In the long run it didn't matter since SFO was our terminus anyway but still, more than just a coincidence, my second flight with them, so late. Chances are United might not have been any different...can't help/comment on the type of seat. I always fly basic Economy.

When do you plan to travel? If going after March 29th I would not book a trip with BA just to avoid having to worry about the current political situation in the UK.

Thanks, Badger, for Brexit comment; wow, why didn't I think of that? All these comments have been very helpful. Best wishes to all, R

Hopefully there will be some kind of Withdrawal Agreement or extension period in place, but if it isn't we are heading for a no deal-brexit and that has the potential to create problems. And unfortunately no deal seems like a possible outcome at the moment. So if the choice is between flying BA and having to worry about Brexit, or flying SAS, Lufthansa or some other airline and not having to care about it, it's a very easy choice for me at least. Even if it costs a bit more.

And it's not only BA I would avoid, but any route that involves a stop in the UK, until there is a WA or new ASAs.

Listening to Badger, It's a good thing we decided to wait until next fall to go back to Europe. I'll see what happens in April. To me it is worth waiting for the day flight as I like the entire trip to be pleasant...or we'll travel last minute in March before the change over or we'll just stay in the UK for that trip OR this will be like all the Y2K fears, that never happened, which I never worried about. After all, I used to visit Europe before the EU and did not have any issues... And, the adventure of it all! Just please don't take away my day flight and bed at the Sofitel!

No reason to skip going to Europe. Flights between US and the EU27 will operate as normal. Hopefully so will flights to and from the UK, but at the moment we can't be sure. Note that a no deal will not only affect flights between the UK and the EU27, but also between the UK and the US. Article 50 of the Lisbon treaty is pretty clear:

The Treaties shall cease to apply to the State in question from the
date of entry into force of the withdrawal agreement or, failing that,
two years after the notification referred to in paragraph 2, unless
the European Council, in agreement with the Member State concerned,
unanimously decides to extend this period.

"The Treaties" doesn't only mean the Lisbon treaty, but also other treaties the EU has signed, such as the EU–US Open Skies Agreement. And if the UK leaves the Open Skies Agreement, it will have an effect on flights between the UK and the US.

It is also worth noting that the Y2K bug caused a lot of problems, but the major ones were avoided due to a large amount of programmers working to solve the issue. So far, there seems to be a lack of progress in Whitehall. But there are a couple of months left, so there might still be some time to sign a Withdrawal agreement.

"...skip going to Europe. " Not an option, I wouldn't even think of it. The next trip is planned with a departure from non-stop OAK or SFO to London, whichever is easier, cheaper, etc with Br Air. If not that, more planning is in the works, most likely SFO to Paris CDG.

We flew Norwegian Air from Boston to Paris in early September. No issues whatsoever with tickets/reservations. Seats don't go completely flat in the 'fancy seats' section, but they were by far worth the extra money! My traveling companion has medical issues that make it necessary for her to be able to recline or lie down and the seats accomplished this for her easily. Service was great-even the food was good! I will for sure be using Norwegian again when I next fly to Europe. Checking websites about the engine problems-seems they been addressed by Boeing and flights are good to go. As far as Norwegian cancelling less profitable routes, well, that's the way of the business world...

I flew the same flight in July (Boston to Paris direct on Norwegian)
Was quite stressful until we got on the plane.

Each day the week of I received texts asking for volunteers to give up seats for compensation due to the flight being overbooked. The compensation went up each day and feared they would still be bumping passengers.
My sisters flight home was cancelled (we flew on the same flight over but on different return days) ; they booked her on a return flight the same day to Boston but was from England and she had to pay out of pocket to get herself to England (other option was to fly home from Paris 2 days later)
Our Flight was hours delayed but we were all pleased we still had a seat and the flight itself was uneventful.

It is in my opinion, not wise to trust them or any route will be available the following year.
Their Boston to Oslo direct flight was fairly new but got permanently cancelled. Their Providence to Bergen, same thing.
Neither of those are now available routes.
Point being, they tend to throw darts to see what routes stick/are profitable much more than other airlines.

I have flown them a few times and not saying I would not again, (the planes and prices are both great) ; I just don't trust them too much.

mreynolds, unfortunately your comments about Norwegian Air-induced stress (overbooking and trip disruption) don't surprise me. I'm sorry that it happened to you and your sister. What bothers me most is that Norwegian runs ads for cancelled flight itineraries on TV/radio/print media MONTHS after those flight runs have been cancelled. And the ticket agents sold tickets for those cancelled runs as well; they had no clue. At the same time Norwegian told me they had cancelled the flight runs and that I would need to fly out of another airport. Major flaw in their internal communication system!

I admire the country of Norway and its people very much and such behaviors are so out of character..... what the heck?

As a PP said check the aircraft type. A lot of what Delta has been peddling lately as “business” class does NOT lie flat anymore - see https://www.delta.com/en_US/traveling-with-us/onboard-experience/delta-premium-economy - when you choose “first” on point redemptions, especially, a lot of this crap comes up for them. To me, if it ain’t flat, it ain’t first.

We always take the daytime flights to Europe in Premium Econ to avoid paying for BusinessClass seats on overnight flights. We land in London and also stay overnight at the Sofitel there like Wray does.