I trusted the wrong airline so you don’t have to

Waiting on the next adventure

Everyone who travels on a budget has done it. I waited and watched flight prices for months. Then, at the exact right moment, I bought the cheapest tickets. I’ve flown Norwegian before. Were there bumps both times? Yes there were. However, I didn’t see any danger in flying them again.

Two years ago, my friend, Megan, and I took Norwegian from Bergen to Oslo. It was a little odd that all the luggage drops were computerized and nobody actually was around to help. Once onboard, I was impressed with the in flight wifi. Other than that, the flight wasn’t memorable.

When we disembarked in Stockholm, Megan’s bag was nowhere to be seen. We waited in a ridiculously long line to report her bag lost. The people at the desk were polite enough, but didn’t offer any sort of compensation. When the bag eventually was found and brought to our hostel, something was obviously wrong. All of her packing cubes were opened and about half of her clothes were missing. Everything from underwear to dresses to shirts was gone. We called Norwegian and informed them of this mistake. They were useless. Megan still received no compensation. She had to spend all of her emergency budget upfront to replace basic necessities she had stolen from her.  After about 3 months and several long, trying calls with Norwegian and a police report of stolen goods- Megan was finally reimbursed for her stolen possessions. It shouldn’t be such a trial for such an obvious mistake.

The next time I flew Norwegian, we were delayed 8 hours. Apparently this was a fairly normal delay. One flyer who flew the route regularly even said that 8 hours wasn’t too bad. Once onboard, I had an extremely pleasant flight. The food was good, the wine was free, we had ample legroom and they had a fine selection of movies to choose from. We did have to upgrade (around $100) to check a bag, get a meal and a free glass of wine. The total ticket from Copenhagen to JFK was still a steal at $395.

Cut to August 10: I’m supposed to be flying Norwegian to Prague. All the flights into JFK were delayed or cancelled due to weather. My flight was delayed 7 hours and I was going to miss my connection by mere minutes to get on the flight. I called Norwegian and their answer was disappointing: they didn’t have any flights to accomodate for 3 days and for an additional $290. I decided it was best for me to not fly to JFK and waste money on a hotel for 3 days. I needed to make sure I could get a flight to JFK for 3 days later through JetBlue so I told the person on the phone I would call back.

JetBlue was wonderful and offered me the flight of my choosing because of the delay. I called Norwegian back and the person on the phone did not understand what my problem was. “Your flight to Prague isn’t delayed,” he said simply. I tried to explain that I was delayed, not the Norwegian flight.

He wasn’t following at first. When he did catch on he told me it was going to be $400 to change flights. I tried to explain to him that I wasn’t changing my flight – I missed it. I already paid for a flight. I have never heard of someone having to pay to change a flight that they missed due to weather. I asked to call back to check the terms of my ticket.

When I did call back (maybe an hour later) I was told that I lost my ticket and would have to purchase a new one for $800. I was flabbergasted. This wouldn’t have happened if I talked to someone at the airport. The problem is that I didn’t. I didn’t get on the flight to JFK because I knew the next flight wasn’t for 3 days. I asked about a refund. “It’s too late for that. You don’t get a refund with this type of ticket.”

I cancelled my trip to Prague and Poland. I couldn’t justify the price of the new ticket. I had to cancel due to Norwegian’s terrible customer service and lousy policies. Because of my previous bad experiences, I should have known this was a possibility. However, I chose to take away the excellent on board service and ignore the warning signs.

I have learned a valuable lesson. It may be an extra $100-$200 to get on a better airline. Do it. If it really is a necessity – get travel insurence. It’ll end up being worth it in the end.

Anybody else have an airline horror story.