Airline dragging their feet or is this a normal amount of time to respond?

It's been what, about 3.5 weeks since your initial contact - right?
As you said yourself, it appears their average response time is 8 weeks.
Is my math wrong here, or am I missing something?

Your math is perfect. My question is whether this 8 week time period is typical of most airlines. My feeling is that 8 weeks seems like a long time.

I think they should acknowledge your request. How do you know your request was not lost? I'd be calling.

Is 8 weeks typical of most airlines? No, I wouldn't think so. It seems like a long (unacceptably long) length of time to me for any business.

But "other airlines" (and what I'd expect from them) doesn't have anything to do with it. This is a "low cost carrier" you're talking about. Their prices are low for many reasons - one of which is that they appear to do without frills like responsive customer service.

More to the point, the research you've done suggests that 8 weeks is their average response time. Mind you, that's average, not a promised minimum. So, if your research is correct, it appears that it would not be unusual for it to take 8 weeks, 10 weeks, maybe 12 weeks or longer to get a response.

I understand that you would like a quick response, but if you've found that 8 weeks is the average response, is there some reason you expect that you will get a response in less than half the average time?

Personally, I would be bugging them every few days. It might not help, but it would make me feel better.

Have you posted a comment on Norwegian's Facebook page?

This might help:

Why does Norwegian get so many complaints

And

Will Norwegian Survive

In America, you maybe used to getting compensation quickly, but 8 weeks average doesn’t sound too bad to me.

The trouble with Norwegian is that it’s expanded so quickly, it maybe that some parts of the business (such as the complaints/ refund departments) haven’t expanded at the same rate. It’s not helping their dire cash flow situation if they pay out too promptly!

Good luck with your claim.

Thanks for everyone’s replies. I will just have to be patient and see what happens. The Guardian and Forbes articles were illuminating. In any case, I have spent my last dollar with Norwegian.

Frank II - Interesting articles.

“Don’t be fooled by the prices, your vacation is at risk,” - Good advice.

For a somewhat similar refund with us, it took a half hour on the phone with Delta, mostly hold time and then getting transferred to a supervisor who had computer system permissions to see the see ticket purchased vs. ticket flown. They credited back the C+ refund 'on the spot' and it showed up in my credit card ledger a day or two later

8 weeks average doesn’t sound too bad to me.

It sounds absurdly long to me, and is likely to be the kind of reason why I probably would never fly Norwegian. I had an issue with lost luggage with Icelandair a few years ago, and it took less than a week to get some reimbursement, and the complaint procedure was done on-line and was very simple.