My Honest Review of Norse Airways: Not as Bad as They say!

I’m a U.S. citizen residing in a major airline market (NYC). I usually fly B6 and AA domestically, and UA for international. This should give you an idea of what my baseline is for dealing with nonsense while travelling.

I had the opportunity to fly Norse JFK-FCO in January with both their premium economy product and standard economy. Reading all of the horror stories, I was originally nervous that I would end up stranded or otherwise in a predicament caused by them, but overall i’d say they have a solid product as long as you manage expectations.

Cost: I paid ~$550 USD for a Business/Economy split round trip between JFK and FCO. I utilized my Clawbot to find and book this itinerary so YMMV.

Airport: Be prepared to check in in-person and wait in line unless you purchase a business ticket or have priority check in. I found the add-on lounge experience at JFK to be worth it due to the self-service liquor & decent food at the $60 price point. Outside of the lounge, the terminal and infrastructure they use at JFK is “early 2000’s at best”.

On Board: I would compare their “business” class to be in between a US carrier’s domestic first class and the Spirit “Big Front Seat”. Basically, they’re bulkhead style seats.

The good: Decent seat pitch for me (6’2”), seats were comfy, and IFE was satisfactory. FA’s were pleasant and kept me well fed and kept giving me wine. 10/10. Their all 787 fleet is also comfortable for me given my sensitivity to altitude.

The bad: No wifi. Drink a lot and prepare to sleep the entire flight. Additionally, like Frontier and Spirit, they are militant about bag sizes. The fees are exorbitant. I recommend traveling light. At FCO, the gate and desk agents were not particularly pleasant and seemed to have an issue with me in particular.

As for the standard economy experience, you get what you pay for. I’d compare it closest to American’s basic economy seating on their 738s. No in-flight service is provided other than a small cup of water, if that, so ensure you have enough snacks and drinks before you board. I found the seats in economy to be quite tight given my height.

If I was flying a legacy carrier at legacy carrier prices, I would be upset, but, I paid next to nothing for a trans-atlantic round trip.

The key takeaways:

Set your expectations accordingly, travel light, bring snacks, be able to have flexibility on your plans as they are not customer-service forward. Bring headphones so that you can watch an entire season of Entourage before getting to Athens or Rome.

Overall (given the price point)

Check-in: 5/10

Customer Service: 4/10

On-Board: 8/10

Price Point: 10/10

Given recent global developments, I don’t foresee Norse surviving much longer, but I honestly hope they do as it provides a really competitive price point for Transatlantic routing compared to even US and European budget carriers. If they are able to survive the high fuel costs and maintain their JFK slots I will absolutely fly with them again even given some of the negatives I experienced.