Norwegian Air Shuttle
 

My experience with NAS has compelled me to share with others to give them the information I wish I had before making the ticket purchase.

1. Norwegian Air Shuttle (NAS) is not the same kind of airlines most of us are accustomed to. It's a "discounted" kind of airlines that resembles more of a K-Mart kind of service.

2. NAS does not have its own employees at any airport in the world except at OSL, as far as ground crew and customer service are concerned. This means you'd be served by contracted staff who have very interests -if any- in providing high quality service or even care about the company's image. They get paid minimum and provide the minimum service accordingly.

3. Customer service doesn't really exist, despite the company's claim. It's a real waste of time trying to get a sensible or responsible response from NAS. The closest to a response from NAS is a computer-generated response that tells you they've received your email. If and when you actually get to speak with the so-called customer relations department, you'll quickly find out about their incredible incompetency and inability to process any thing you have to say intelligently.

In short, Norwegian airlines is more like a dysfunctional Greyhound bus service in the US, but only with worse management. It looks like NAS is run by a bunch of Nazi wannabes whose greed governs their business model.

I would spend more money flying with a real airlines!

When you book a low cost carrier, you need to adjust your expectations accordingly. Have you heard that you get what you pay for?

Alot of airlines outsource services like check in, bag drop etc all around the world, it is not unique to Norwegian nor is it unique to low cost airlines. How do you know they get paid minimum? You know nothing about the management of Norwegian.

Why don't you say what went wrong with your trip with them? I've travelled with them several times and have no complaints at all.

I flew Norwegian last year from Stockholm to Oslo and from Kirkenes to Oslo. It is true they are a low cost airline - you even pay for water on board and I tagged my own bag in Stockholm - but they were a perfectly fine low cost airline. I would have no hesitation in using them again.

If you want a "real" airline, then pay for one, although economy class service on a "real" airline is the much same as the discount airlines these days. You had better pay for business class.

I used to fly with Norwegian Air Shuttle when I was living in Oslo. One thing I noticed was the customer service was abysmal. No one on the ground seemed to care. In fact, there several occasions where I noticed the gate attendant closed the gate early to go home, especially during the weekend. And yes, it's true that most, if not all, ground service personnel are contracted, meaning the service is provided by a company other than Norwegian itself. Personally I'd try my best to avoid Norwegian if all possible.

I guess you will have a very limited choice of international vacation destination if you want to fly only with airlines which directly employ ground staff at either end of your journey.
Regardless if you fly with a big name legacy carrier or a low-cost airline.
Or do you think that Delta Inc. USA is the direct employer of the 3 or 4 check-in agents which handle the one and only Delta flight per day from Munich to Atlanta?

I've take Norwegian on intra-European flights several times now. And all flights had been uneventful, on-time, with regularly priced food and beverages on board - and with FREE WiFi.

<I>The problem is many of those contracted services care very little, if at all, about the customers that are not really theirs.</I>

Of course the customers are theirs. If ground services companies are awarded contracts with airlines then the airline & their customers do become those of the ground services company.

I hardly ever need any interaction with any ground staff, what can the complaint be about? You mostly tag your own bag, you do online check-in or use an airport kiosk, you pass security, pass passport control, you hand your passport and boarding pass to the gate agent when boarding. How many opportunities are there for interaction where you can judge ground staff to be incompetent, poorly trained, rude and cold. What did you ask them for?

<I>No one on the ground seemed to care. In fact, there several occasions where I noticed the gate attendant closed the gate early to go home, especially during the weekend.</i>

So you think that a gate agent has sole authority to decide to close a gate just so they can go home early? And you know they went home and not to another gate? And the issue was what, passengers getting left behind, is that what you are saying? Or had all expected passengers already boarded therefore it was ok to close the gate and push back early?

It seems we have a little collection of trolls here, or perhaps one troll with three names. Three newbies bent on backing each other up. Better to just ignore them.

In response to thursdaysd on Jun 2, 16 at 5:18am

Quite typical... If something you don't want to hear, you'd label it as "troll". That's getting too old. OK, you'll be ignored.

I avoid Norwegian (in Europe) as I don't particularly like what I have read bout their hiring practices and the way they play around with regulations. I do not want to contribute to the deterioration of working conditions in the aviation industry, especially when it comes to pilots and other qualified staff.

Nevertheless I have used Norwegian twice. The reason was that Norwegian offered WIFI while SAS didn't and I needed WIFI to communicate with a colleague. They were my only nonstop alternatives and I was short on time, otherwise I prefer other airlines.

I can't remember how it was at the airports so everything must have gone fairly smoothly. I always check in a big suitcase. When you fly SAS you also have to pay for water (not coffee though), so I thought Norwegian was similar to SAS, but SAS feels more professional for some reason. Norwegian's aircraft were newer (I always check the age from the registration number) but less well maintained on the inside.