Norwegian Extends Use Of Leased Aircraft On New York Routes

I flew EWR-FCO round trip on privilege style 777. Definite upgrade over Norwegian premium economy. Crew were good and food was same as Norwegian offered.

Only issue is 3 of the seats were broken. Privilege style doesn't seem to have the necessary maintenance people to keep the old ex-singapore business class seats operational. Also with the exception of Tuesday (flight is 6x weekly), the plane has little downtime to fix any issue. I imagine going forward a good number of first class seats are going to be broken causing some difficulties onboard.

@ Dan - could you confirm if the premium seats looked liked the image I have found of the 767?

@James -

Will the economy section on the EC-MNY be in a 3-3-3 or 2-4-2 configuration? You gave us contradictory informations:

"There are 20 premium seats and 309 economy seats in a 2-4-2 layout." and "Economy class passengers will be in a 3-3-3 configuration, the same as the Norwegian Dreamliner that would usually operate the service."

Friends of mine were notified the other day that they had a plane swap from the Dreamliner to Wamos 330-200 on October 29, LGW-FLL route. They are all in economy...

Pretty glad that I ended up not booking with them.

@ Bongo -good pickup. ExpertFlyer shows 3-3-3 for the A300-200 flights so I would expect the seating to be that way, regardless of the exact rego that ends up operating the flight. I've updated the post to reflect that.

You claim the experience for economy passengers is the same.

Is that true? Norwegian offers extensive IFE. Do these planes?

@ JJJ - I meant the seating would be similar in terms of layout. There's not enough publicly available information about things like IFE so I don't want to take a risk of saying if the flights will or will not have IFE and whether it will or won't be turned on.

James - those seats are similar but not identical. Design is different with seat controls mounted on the outside armrest rather than interior armrest and with significantly fewer control options on 777. The center console is bigger in the 777 than in that picture. I also believe the privilege style seats are significantly wider since this plane is a 2-2-2 777 while the picture is a 2-2-2 767.

I unfortunately don't have any OMAAT caliber pictures.

Typo - meant to say Privilege Style 777 seats are significantly wider than the 767 privilege style business class shown above.

I flew on the Privilege Style 767 LIS-OSL last fall (a TAP flight) and was very impressed with the quality of service -- very attentive and professional FAs.

I actually don't understand how you casually say 3-3-3 on economy on a 787, 330 and 777 is the "same layout".
Everyone knows the experience on a 787 and 777 in 3-3-3 is drastically different, no matter the airline. And I'm actually afraid to think of a 330 in 3-3-3 config.

Seeing how mixed up the fleet is brings me to an interesting question.

Can one setup an airline with 0 planes and keep leasing these jets?

Recently did FCO-EWR on privelege style. Seats were very similar to above, a definite upgrade (even though not fully flat). I managed 4 hours sleep, not something I would on Norwegian normal recliners.

Food and service were also not bad at all. Obviously no IFE.

The Vamos A332 C looks like the old LH C, where bulkhead seats can be turned completely flat manually

The Privilege Style 777 has the old SQ "SpaceBed" (formerly of Raffles Class) in business. A comfortable seat when first introduced... in 2001. No question that these seats have been through the ringer and I would expect mechanical problems, not to mention cosmetic issues. With that said, I believe the SpaceBed has manual controls for recline and foot/legrest, so even if the motor is buggy, you might still be able to get the seat into a bed.

Very similar to the original p.s. First seat on United when the product was introduced in 2004.

@ Eskimo - if they want an inconsistent fleet and product they can!

We just returned from Orly on the Euroatlantic flight chartered by Norwegian and it was horrible...the plane that is. The crew was very nice but seemed overwhelmed although they definetly took care of all the children on the plane making sure they are fed. If you wanted anything after 2 hrs of servicing the prepaid you had to wait in line at the back of the plane. All the cabin lights were turned off but only a handful of overhead lights worked...guess I’m done reading and it seemed the heat was turned on in he plane as we were all sweating. I’m a huge fan of Norwegian but that plane was absolutely not even close to what I have come to expect from the airline. Even as a low cost airline I think they are better then most other airlines and they always have the best personnel. That charter was a disappointment.

The Privilege Style 777 I assume operated for SIA throughout its lifetime, before being leased to RB for a short while, returned to SIA, and then retired, not delivered new to RB and then sold to SIA as the article implies.

@ Ivan: Air Inter (integrated into the AF group in 1997, I worked there...) had A300 B4s with the same fuselage diametre as the later A330, in an all 9 abreast configuration
(3-3-3) and it was perfectly livable. The pitch, if I remember well, was 32", paltry at the time but almost luxurious by today's standard and especially for LCCs.

The longest scheduled route was Paris Orly to Nice (1.20 hr) but these aircraft routinely did charters for AF to places as far as Cairo, Amman or Tel Aviv. Some even did ORY- JFK with max fuel and reduced pax numbers. The only reason they were not widespread was AF's reluctance then to market twins over the Atlantic. They were not ETOPS.

I took several Norwegian transatlantic flights in premium cabin B787. I must say I will not return. Pricing is up for premium and my route requires stopover in BCN or Oslo adding 4-5 hours to the trip. Also Norwegian has a lot of delays and they comped me $11 for late dinner which is a joke. I was able to get 4 bananas at EWR for their voucher. Beer was excluded.
Going west on Norwegian is fine but eastbound overnight in semi reclining seat without foot support is a torture for my aging body. I would rather spend extra few hundred $ and fly non stop on flat seat on one of euro lines and with better food service than Norwegian bento box dinner. Can’t comment on their leased junk yard fleet as London is not on my route but anything lie flat on junk jet is better than overnight semi reclined 787.

James,

Excellent post. Extremely comprehensive! 🙂

Great post, James! Comments are also enlightening 😀

@James I flew the privilege style 777 from EWR to FCO and can confirm the premium seating does look like the photo you provided. In regards to the economy, the benefit of this 777 was the extra legroom, however, this aircraft has no in-seat power or IFE so it really depends on the person. I got through the flight with a mobile battery.

I am flying the Paris route in January, any idea if the 787 will be back?

Hi James,
I booked myself and 4 other friends on Norwegian because the Premium Economy was a great deal from Newark to Rome. I have traveled on most airlines but never on Norwegian. Now as you know and the people above mentioned, the airline is now using Privilege Style charter while their jets are being retrofit. Norwegian has no info or seat map or pictures and there is no phone # on Privilege Style's site for info. Do any of your followers have pictures and/or videos of the Premium Economy cabin? Also, I asked them if there is a USB port and they told me yes but some of your followers above said no. I can't believe Norwegian has absolutely no info, crazy. I have called them several times and tried live chat several times with no help.
thanks...

I am booked on Norwegian Flight D17171 LGW-DEN for November 6. I just got a text update informing me that they are switching to the Wamos a330. Just curious if anyone has any further information. Is this the same a330 they were using for the JFK flight or have they leased more? Wamos Air shows 5 different seat maps on their website for the a330. Also curious to know how they handle downgrades (a330 has only 20 b-seats compared to 35 on the 787).

Love this article.
(I think I found a mistake. Under Wamos Air A332 picture, it says Vamos instead of Wamos)

Well. I was booked into premium economy LGW to Miami. I thought I would be on a Dreamliner like last time, which was lovely. 2-3-2 configuration.

I’m actually on a B777 2-2-2 configuration. Huge seats. Obviously an older aircraft but feels very luxurious.

I shall let you know how the flight goes!