‘I flew to New York for £69’ – was it worth it?

MSE_Luke

'Earlier this year low-cost airline Norwegian launched a new route from the UK to New York, with one-way tickets selling for just £69. But what sacrifices do you have to make to get a price that low? We sent MSE Megan to find out...'

Read MSE Megan's full blog: '‘I flew to New York for £69’ – was it worth it?'

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leylandsunaddict

MSE_Luke wrote: »

Read MSE Megan's full blog: '‘I flew to New York for £69’ – was it worth it?'

[URL=

I guess not when the link is to an article by a totally different person on a totally different subject.

Gleeful

This is hilarious. So the £69 fare was a bargain, but added up to over £120. And the home leg cost £250, so she paid £370 for a return flight when she could have flown with a scheduled airline for that.

richardw

Try this link http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/team-blog/2017/10/17/flew-new-york-69-worth/ for the story

Westin

Gleeful wrote: »

This is hilarious. So the £69 fare was a bargain, but added up to over £120. And the home leg cost £250, so she paid £370 for a return flight when she could have flown with a scheduled airline for that.

I'd agree.

It does seem like a bit of a non-story.

As I expect most MSE readers would be looking for a return trip, rather than a one way ticket to America, the attention grabbing headline is a little stretched.

I guess a headline of "I flew round trip to New York for £370 [...and the outbound trip took me 22 hours]" would not be quite as attention hitting.

richardw

These flights on Norwegian to Newburgh Stewart and Providence are great for those who are close to the UK airports which they fly from and who want to hire cars and get out and about. They're not that great for short city breaks to NYC and Boston.

Pollycat

Gleeful wrote: »

This is hilarious. So the £69 fare was a bargain, but added up to over £120. And the home leg cost £250, so she paid £370 for a return flight when she could have flown with a scheduled airline for that.

From the article:

Actually, it turned out to be quite a few catches. The flight departed from Belfast – as I live in the South East of England, I had to fly there from London first. The flight arrived at Stewart International Airport, 65 miles north of Manhattan. It was hand luggage only. And I had to make my own entertainment for much of the flight and five-hour layover (of which more below).

Lots of things to put me off.
I'd possibly want to take hold luggage (maybe not so that wouldn't be a deal breaker).
Flight to Belfast to pick up the Norwegian flight? No thanks.
5 hour layover? If I'm having a break in New York, I'd want to hit the ground running and a flight from my local airport to Belfast then a 5 hour layover on top of a transatlantic flight wouldn't be the best option (for me).

Unsurprisingly, there was no TV screen in the back of the seat in front of me, just a tiny screen about halfway up the plane which seemed to alternate between cartoons and adverts – so it really wasn’t the end of the world that I couldn’t plug my headphones in to listen. I spent a fair bit of time reading, the rest of it sleeping.
Even though it was a transatlantic flight, there were no pillows, eye masks or blankets, although you could buy them on board (the cynic in me wonders if that was why the plane was on the chilly side). I was prepared, though, and had brought my own.
What might be a dealbreaker for some is that you have to pay for all your food and drinks, which was a first for me when flying long-haul. Again, though, I’d known this in advance so had come prepared – I just bought a £3.99 meal deal at the airport with the largest bottle of water I could find.

Some of the downside things mentioned above wouldn't have bothered me.
No in-flight entertainment? I have my phone. And a book.
No mask, pillows or blanket? I have my own pillow, mask and pashmina that I use for long-haul but only if I have hold luggage because hand luggage only wouldn't give me enough room for them.
Pay for food & drink? I'd stock up at the airport.

I think there's doing things on the cheap and making things hard for yourself.
I'd give it a miss.

sensibleshoes

If you're happy to forgo inflight entertainment & free food & drink & live close to Edinburgh or Belfast then I would recommend Norwegian Air.

Service I've encountered is the same as BA or Virgin but with a saving of at least £150 on the fare & no need to go via London etc.

I have eaten the meal on Norwegian & it wasn't worth the £20 each way price.

I've also encountered delays at immigration at the US airports due to staff not being available or another International flight has arrived at the same time. These airports don't need immigration staff there all the time so needed as & when.

bertiewhite

Gleeful wrote: »

This is hilarious. So the £69 fare was a bargain, but added up to over £120. And the home leg cost £250, so she paid £370 for a return flight when she could have flown with a scheduled airline for that.

Westin wrote: »

I'd agree.

It does seem like a bit of a non-story.

The point of the story was in the title - "‘I flew to New York for £69’ – was it worth it?"

Which it didn't appear to be. Which is why it was written in the first place.

MSE_Luke

leylandsunaddict wrote: »

I guess not when the link is to an article by a totally different person on a totally different subject.

Good spot - I've added the correct link to the original post.