Fly Norwegian

Friends, it is true! I flew with Norwegian recently. When I traveled back from Marrakech I booked a ticket with the red nosed carrier. Call it benchmarking if you like. Why you might ask? well, there aren’t many options flying from Marrakech to Stockholm and for the price of just above 600 SEK with an evening departure instead of spending the whole night flying Qatar though Doha the decision was easy. Norwegian has been creating red headlines in the news the last half year due to financial problems, I have honestly never thought that their rapid growth would be the way to success but who am I to say that? I just studied business for four years at the uni and have 34 years of life experience. The future will though tell how long Norwegian will stay in the air. I will now tell you the story about my flight from Marrakech (RAK) airport in Marrocco to Stockholm (ARN) in Sweden. So lets begin.

At the airport

With Norwegian it was not possible to check in online from Marrakech so after passing the security check to enter the terminal I walked to the Norwegian counter and checked in. There was no line so it all went smooth. I didn’t checked in any bag so I brought it with me though the emigration and security check before I went to the lounge.

Could been the best lounge I ever visited. The visit was not thanks to Norwegian but thanks to my Priority pass. I was starving the day after running a marathon and I had not prioritized having lunch either so guess if I was happy when they had both sallad, pasta and a lot of deserts. And wine. And loads of different settings to sit down at. My flight was supposed to depart at 19:30 but it was an hour delayed they told me while checking in and also the boarding time was set to 19:00 at my boarding card.

Boarding

But after 45 minutes in the lounge I felt for a short walk at the airport so I left. Checked where the gate were and saw “last call”. What? It was only 18:30? So of course I walked to the gate and was about the last one to board. Strange. After me came another handful of guys running that also was confused about that fact. Well, all on board. The flight were just filled to 1/3rd so loads of space.

Boeing 737MAX

The plane was a brand new Boeing 737MAX one of about 250 each in service. It is the model that crashed in Indonesia in 2018 when the pilots couldn’t control the plane. Scary. I though know that safety and security is no one for all airlines so no way idea to worry. Outside the front door Norwegian welcomes you by telling that they are the best low cost airline both in Europe and the world. Creating high expectations. But were they met?

Interior

The Boeing Max plane has the sky interior concept and a 3-3 config. Like many other narrow body aircrafts today. All marketing material tells that Norwegian has free wifi onboard but of course not this plane hadn’t although the wifi box were installed at the roof. Maybe it just didn’t work?

Seats

I am an easy customer, I just sit down at the seat I get and are happy with that. If I don’t like it I always think “it is just XX hours of my life, you can do this” and it works. This time I got a whole row for myself just over the wing. This plane had Recaro seats but not my favorite model. It is a new slim line of which Norwegian was the release customer. The armrests are pretty weak and also some other constructions. The comfy level were soso since they were kind of hard.

Food & Beverage

I wanted some snacks so I checked the menu and ordered some candy. But I was glad that I had eaten at the airport. The crew announced that they didn’t offer any sandwiches or sallads. The only food they had catered with was instant pasta. Thanks but no thanks. A five hour flight and offering instant pasta or snacks – room for improvement I would say. But I understand the problem when planning catering, if they never load enough items no one will see the consumption of items that customers had not had the chance to buy so there will often be shortages. And catering is expensive.

My Norwegian experience in summary

After all we landed half an hour late in Stockholm just after midnight. I am not impressed by Norwegian and running late can happen to all carriers. It was not a wow flight but I got back from Marrakech directly to Stockholm. Norwegian isn’t or won’t be my first choice when it comes to booking flight tickets but it works. Have you had any Norwegian experiences? if so, what do you think?

/ Pernilla that loves to try out airlines