Norwegian Air will start flying this route with a 787 in May, starting May 12:
http://www.mercurynews.com/business/ci_29250793/norwegian-air-adds-london-flights-from-oakland
I checked and there are tickets in Economy available for $294 outbound and $328 on the way back, for a total of $622. This is their lowest level of service, but for $81 more you can get the next level, with meals and checked baggage.
Or their Premium cabin for just over $2000 RT.
Needless to say that the big legacy air carriers are not too thrilled to see the third largest budget European air carrier flying into the U.S. We flew Norwegian Air Shuttle Orlando-Copenhagen and Bergen-Orlando 3 mos. ago, and it was fine.
We're flying into Rome and out of Venice in May for a very low airfare.
I'll picnic and take my own drinks on the flight to save 50% of the "majors."
Oh....it just dawned on me what those "stop the Norwegian shark"lobbyist posters at the Navy Yard Metro station (US DOT exit) were all about a few months back....must be about the undercut pricing.
Thanks for posting this Lola, great to know.
Wow, what a great price. I would be willing to "rough" it for that price. Thanks for posting.
They have been flying from LAX to Gatwick for more than a year now. I checked this route for some random dates in May and the price is $703, not bad. What disappoints me is checking this route for July and August dates. Their very lowest prices for July are only $180 less than several legacy carriers and in August they are less than $100 different. It will be interesting to watch this airline and its growing US market to see if they are creating the competition or inching up their prices for peak summer travel months. If the latter is the case, I'd book with a major airline if the price wasn't much different because there are more flights per day and partner airlines for the legacy carriers, something to fall back on if a flight gets cancelled.
Our kids (2 adults and 2 children) flew on Norwegian from LAX to Gatwick last summer. Sure enough, there was a flight cancellation that caused them to have to fly 2 days earlier or 3 days later. They picked the only option that could work for them because of travel commitments going forward from London.
I wonder if they fly out of DFW? Debra, do you know? We're already booked on British Airways for next spring, but it would be great to have some budget alternative for future trips.
As of now they only fly to/from 3 east coast cities and 3 west coast (if you count Las Vegas) cities. Here is the link to the drop down menu for airports. https://www.norwegian.com/us/booking/flight-tickets
I wonder if those July August prices will come down over the next few months. I remember last year watching their summer prices from Oakland to some European cities and seeing amazing prices for summer flights. What is amazing is that very few people in Northern California are aware about the Norwegian option, even my friend who is Norwegian and whose mom flies back there every so often. They're not listed on most of the Travelocity/expedia/kayak type sites, so that probably has a lot to do with it.
Thanks, Mona; I'll bookmark the link.
Thank you for the information!
I'm looking at traveling from the east coast to Europe in May and found it for $650, before that, the cheapest was $1280!
I will definitely keep an eye on this site.
