NORWEGIAN AIRLINES ARE advertising €99 USA flights from Ireland but is that the final price?
The final amount deducted from your card by low-cost airlines, however, could be more when additional costs (often included in the price for other companies) are included.
Would this be the case here? We take a look at what the cost really will be for customers of Norwegian Air.
This week, it launched a series of cheap transatlantic routes which will take off from Cork, Shannon and Dublin to the US east coast from 1 July.
The flights will serve smaller US airports on the east coast, on the outskirts of New York, Boston and New England.
The new routes will include Cork Airport’s first ever transatlantic flight, with three weekly services to Providence Airport in Warwick, serving the Boston and New England areas.
Four weekly transatlantic flights will run from Shannon airport to two US destinations. There will be two weekly flights to Stewart International in New York state, and two weekly flights to Providence Airport.
Finally, Dublin Airport will see daily flights to Stewart International in Orange County, New York, along with five weekly flights to Providence Airport.
The airline is in the middle of a 10-day special offer (until 3 June), where passengers can avail of €99 one-way flights to the above airports.
How much you’ll really pay:
The €99 one-way tickets are only available for the ‘LowFare’ tickets. The price includes €84.10 in taxes and airport surcharges.
Without adding on extras, the low fare ticket offers one free 10kg hand baggage.
Checked baggage, seat reservations, the fast track check-in system, in-flight meals and cancellation coverage all come at an additional cost.
TheJournal.ie looked at how much a round-trip flight with the above additions would cost.
Checked baggage is limited to two pieces at a maximum of 20kg for each passenger. One checked bag comes at a price of €35 each-way, coming to €70 for a round-trip. Two checked bags cost €75 each-way – €150 for a round-trip. Additional checked and excess baggage will be charged extra.
With the low fare tickets, passengers have the option of availing of a randomly allocated seat. For a personal seat selection – passengers will pay €30 to select their own seat on each flight, coming to €60 for a round-trip.
Inflight meals come at a cost of €30 per meal, per flight.
The low fare €99 tickets are non-refundable. During the purchasing process, passengers are offered cancellation protection for €12 per person for the round-trip. This covers passengers if they are unable to travel due to personal or family illness.
While the tickets are non-refundable, they can be cancelled without charge within 24 hours of booking up to one week before departure.
These additional costs were calculated from a return Dublin to Providence Airport flight, departing on 5 July and returning on 12 July.
The actual total return flight cost comes to anywhere between €192.30 (to travel with no bags, insurance, food or selected seat – and which is less than €99 each way) to €394.30 (all the additional extras; €471.30 if you want two bags).
The additional extras are also applicable to the other above flight options from Dublin, Shannon and Cork.
A ‘LowFare+’ one-way ticket for the above dates costs €164 before taxes. Along with the free 10kg hand baggage offered in the low fare, one free 20kg bag is included per person. Meals and seat reservations are free.
A ‘Flex’ one-way ticket for the above dates costs €500.60 before taxes. This fare includes, one free 10kg hand baggage per person per flight, one free 20kg checked baggage, free seat reservation and meals. This is a refundable ticket.
Getting a train or bus from Providence to Boston, once you land, costs between $11 and $12.
An Aer Lingus return flight from Dublin to Boston for the same dates is currently priced at €700.05.
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say