Discount airlines

[mbcdefg]

Other than restrictive baggage allowances, is there a catch to discount airlines such as Primera Air and Norwegian Airlines? I'm eyeing some nonstop cheap flights to Europe in November.

ETA: We'd have a 1.5 year-old with us, if that influences your answer. 

[goldengirlz]

We flew Norwegian last month! I loved it.

The catch with discount airlines, besides the upcharges, is that they generally have limited ground personnel in their non-hub cities and no codeshares. So if your flight is canceled for any reason, it can really screw up your trip. We flew Vueling once and even though we were at the airport, we couldn’t talk to a single person about our canceled flight and had to call their customer service line, with lengthy hold times. And then they couldn’t get us on another flight that day. It was awful.

If I recall, Norwegian had a couple of people doing check-in in Oakland but it was mostly kiosk. But everything went smoothly for us and the in-flight experience was great. DD loved the entertainment system and the food was pretty decent (we did the $90-something add-on to choose seats, check bags and get food.)

[dutchgirl678]

It really depends on the airline. I've heard terrible things of Vueling as well, canceling flights last-minute and leaving their passengers stranded with nobody to contact. Some airlines such as Ryanair keep reducing the amount of luggage you can take and also have terribly uncomfortable chairs and little leg room. I have actually flown with Norwegian regularly and I've always liked them. It was only a 2-hour flight but they provide good service and comfortable seats.

[GilliC]

There isn’t really a “catch” per se. You just have to be clear that you know what you’re getting into. For example, on the cheapest Norwegian fare you’d need to pay extra for (or bring your own) food, blanket, and pillow. And free entertainment may be limited (the options have changed a bit over time). In addition to luggage fees, there’s also a fee for seat selection.

In terms of true gotchas, RyanAir probably cornered the market on that. They’ve been known to charge extra for checking in at the airport instead of online, and non-European passport holders are required to go through a special passport check well before reaching the gate. A lot of the discount airline sites are also very sneaky about trying to get you to buy optional trip insurance. Norwegian is a bit more straightforward about these things, since they compete with SAS for a lot of European routes (incidentally, SAS is starting to feel more like a budget airline than a legacy European carrier).

The biggest issue I’ve seen with the budget airlines, especially long-haul, is that they operate with extremely tight margins. If an aircraft requires unexpected maintenance or there are staffing issues, it can lead to significant delays, since there may not be a replacement available. If you’re on a very tight schedule, I would think twice about budget long-haul, since it’s more likely to see delays of a day or more. Also, Norwegian goes through a silly hiccup almost every year in late June and early July, when tons of their flight staff take vacation for the school holidays, and they’re left scrambling to sort out staffing. It's good to be aware of their increased delay risk when booking trips in that timeframe, but it wouldn't be a problem in November.

[goldengirlz]

One more thing:

I had never heard of Primera before today but the reviews say that they don’t have seatback entertainment and some of their planes don’t have outlets by the seats. So if you’re traveling with a kid, that could be an issue.

One thing I liked about Norwegian was flying in the 787 Dreamliner because it had amenities that we didn’t have on Wow Air, the other discount airliner we’ve flown recently.

(Somehow my bad experience with Vueling hasn’t deterred my tour of budget airlines around the world!)

[mbcdefg]

Thanks!

It's probably a moot point now ... I brought it up to MH last night and he just laughed and shook his head, so I don't think he's in the mood to fly anywhere this year. Boo.

[ESF]

I flew Level last year, which is a discount airline operated by Iberian and a couple other airlines. It was fine. Limited seatback entertainment. We paid extra for seat selection, bag check and food. Airline food is never good, but I hate feeling like I need to bring a meal when I'm getting on a very long flight (this one was 11+ hours), and the food was probably above average by airline food standards.

The biggest problem we had was that there was a lot of confusion as to what Level actually is. We got booking confirmation and tickets through Iberia, not Level. Our tickets said Iberia. It was ok when we flew to Barcelona because Oakland is tiny and doesn't have much in the way of ticket counters, so we were able to figure out where to go (though I don't recall signage for either Iberia or Level and we had to wander a bit). But when we were flying out of Barcelona, nobody knew where we were supposed to check in. We actually waited in three different lines, only to be told the first two times we were told the wrong line to go in. When we finally got to our correct line, a lot of other people had had a similar experience. Then they didn't have enough people to check everyone in, and the process took a very, very long time. The impression I got was that they didn't have a designated check in spot, and would basically just squat in whatever one of the major partner airlines had an open kiosk at the time they needed to check people in. So I would get to the airport super early.

[ESF]

Aug 30, 2018 0:30:26 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

We flew Norwegian last month! I loved it.

The catch with discount airlines, besides the upcharges, is that they generally have limited ground personnel in their non-hub cities and no codeshares. So if your flight is canceled for any reason, it can really screw up your trip. We flew Vueling once and even though we were at the airport, we couldn’t talk to a single person about our canceled flight and had to call their customer service line, with lengthy hold times. And then they couldn’t get us on another flight that day. It was awful.

If I recall, Norwegian had a couple of people doing check-in in Oakland but it was mostly kiosk. But everything went smoothly for us and the in-flight experience was great. DD loved the entertainment system and the food was pretty decent (we did the $90-something add-on to choose seats, check bags and get food.)

Threadjack --  how was your return to Oakland? When we got back from Barcelona last year, it was a major shit show. It took us like two hours to get off the plane, get our bags, and go through customs. It was better when we fly back from Mexico in June because the baggage system seemed to be under control, but there were nowhere near enough customs kiosks to get people through efficiently, and we waited a LONG time. H is hesitant to go international through Oakland again, but getting to/from SFO is such a pain unless the flight is so early or so late, that he's going to need to suck it up.  I'm curious if your experience was any better.

[goldengirlz]

Aug 30, 2018 10:54:01 GMT -5 ESF said:

Aug 30, 2018 0:30:26 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

We flew Norwegian last month! I loved it.

The catch with discount airlines, besides the upcharges, is that they generally have limited ground personnel in their non-hub cities and no codeshares. So if your flight is canceled for any reason, it can really screw up your trip. We flew Vueling once and even though we were at the airport, we couldn’t talk to a single person about our canceled flight and had to call their customer service line, with lengthy hold times. And then they couldn’t get us on another flight that day. It was awful.

If I recall, Norwegian had a couple of people doing check-in in Oakland but it was mostly kiosk. But everything went smoothly for us and the in-flight experience was great. DD loved the entertainment system and the food was pretty decent (we did the $90-something add-on to choose seats, check bags and get food.)

Threadjack --  how was your return to Oakland? When we got back from Barcelona last year, it was a major shit show. It took us like two hours to get off the plane, get our bags, and go through customs. It was better when we fly back from Mexico in June because the baggage system seemed to be under control, but there were nowhere near enough customs kiosks to get people through efficiently, and we waited a LONG time. H is hesitant to go international through Oakland again, but getting to/from SFO is such a pain unless the flight is so early or so late, that he's going to need to suck it up.  I'm curious if your experience was any better.

It was actually! I was steeling myself for a shitshow because of your earlier post but it was fine. They did seem a bit disorganized — like they insisted we wait in a line that seemed to be primarily for foreign passport holders (we’re all U.S. citizens). Even the immigration agent was confused. But otherwise the line moved and there were no issues. We landed on a Saturday evening and luckily we seemed to be the only flight that they were dealing with at that time.

I have the opposite issue though — I live much closer to SFO so the price really needs to be worth it to go all the way to Oakland. But look into Global Entry (I have it but didn’t use it because H and DD don’t yet. When we were in our strange line, I kept joking I would leave them because Global Entry seemed much faster!)

[ESF]

Aug 30, 2018 11:35:12 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

Aug 30, 2018 10:54:01 GMT -5 ESF said:

Threadjack --  how was your return to Oakland? When we got back from Barcelona last year, it was a major shit show. It took us like two hours to get off the plane, get our bags, and go through customs. It was better when we fly back from Mexico in June because the baggage system seemed to be under control, but there were nowhere near enough customs kiosks to get people through efficiently, and we waited a LONG time. H is hesitant to go international through Oakland again, but getting to/from SFO is such a pain unless the flight is so early or so late, that he's going to need to suck it up.  I'm curious if your experience was any better.

It was actually! I was steeling myself for a shitshow because of your earlier post but it was fine. They did seem a bit disorganized — like they insisted we wait in a line that seemed to be primarily for foreign passport holders (we’re all U.S. citizens). Even the immigration agent was confused. But otherwise the line moved and there were no issues. We landed on a Saturday evening and luckily we seemed to be the only flight that they were dealing with at that time.

I have the opposite issue though — I live much closer to SFO so the price really needs to be worth it to go all the way to Oakland. But look into Global Entry (I have it but didn’t use it because H and DD don’t yet. When we were in our strange line, I kept joking I would leave them because Global Entry seemed much faster!)

I don't know why I thought you lived in Oakland. Getting to SFO from the East Bay used to be not awful, but as you know, it's a nightmare most of the time now so I try to avoid it. We're flying in/out of SFO over the holidays, but our flight times are such that we can drive or take Lyft and have a minimal risk of a 90 minute wait in traffic.

My two international arrivals at Oakland were both marked by other international flights arriving at the same time, so that definitely seems to be the key. Global Entry is definitely our to-do list!

[ESF]

Aug 30, 2018 12:23:41 GMT -5 goldengirlz said:

Aug 30, 2018 12:16:51 GMT -5 ESF said:

I don't know why I thought you lived in Oakland. Getting to SFO from the East Bay used to be not awful, but as you know, it's a nightmare most of the time now so I try to avoid it. We're flying in/out of SFO over the holidays, but our flight times are such that we can drive or take Lyft and have a minimal risk of a 90 minute wait in traffic.

My two international arrivals at Oakland were both marked by other international flights arriving at the same time, so that definitely seems to be the key. Global Entry is definitely our to-do list!

I’m on the Peninsula!

But yeah, we only considered Norwegian because 1) it was SO much cheaper for a direct flight (I’d rather sit in traffic in a Lyft than deal with an East Coast connection annnnyyy day) and 2) we were not trying to cross a bridge during rush hour. I do find the San Mateo/Hayward crossing to be a lot better than the Bay Bridge. BART to SFO is also pretty painless though it could also take an hour from Oakland.

Yeah, BART is fine from SFO, and we have done it, but it does take nearly 90 minutes door to door, between wait times and all that. When we researched Europe options last year, I was really surprised at how few direct flights there were out of SFO. It's not *that* great of an international airport, which is shocking given what I'm sure is a huge demand for international flights. There are some, but it's definitely not up to par with other big cities. And direct flights to anywhere in the Americas other than Mexico are pretty much non-existent. (Oakland is terrible there too.) It's too bad.