The nose of our Norse Atlantic Airways Dreamliner we flew back to New York after a great time in Oslo. Photo by: Evan Berman

After a fun-filled few days in Norway, it was time to head back to the US. I returned the same way that I arrived: flying Norse Atlantic Airways. The deal was a major reason why I headed to Norway in the first place– the roundtrip flights cost $261 and in essence, I paid $133 for this Transatlantic flight!

This review of the flight from Oslo to New York is a part of the larger Nordic Expedition. For more on this trip, follow these links:

Intro

Flight: Delta Comfort+, CHS-JFK

JFK Lounges

Flight: Norse Airways Economy, JFK-OSL

Flight: Norwegian Economy, OSL-BGO

The Magic of Bergen, Norway

Christmas Markets

Hotel: Clarion Collection Hotel Havnekontoret, Bergen, Norway

Flight: SAS Economy, BGO-SVG

Flight: SAS Economy, SVG-OSL

2 Days in Oslo, Norway

Oslo Restaurants

Hotel: Comfort Karl Johan, Oslo, Norway

Flight: SAS Economy, OSL-TOS

Terrific Tromsø, Norway

A Whale of a Meal, Tromsø, Norway Restaurants

Seeing the Northern Lights

Hotel: Clarion Collection Hotel Aurora, Tromsø, Norway

Hotel: Clarion Collection Hotel With, Tromsø, Norway

Flight: SAS Economy, TOS-OSL

Flight: Norse Atlantic Airways Economy: OSL-JFK (This Article)

December in New York

Lounges at LGA

Flight: Delta Economy, LGA-CHS

Conclusion

Flight Info:

Route: OSL-JFK (Oslo, Norway’s Gardermoen Airport to New York’s John F. Kennedy International Airport)

Date: Tuesday, 12/6/2022

Flight: NO 001 (Norse Atlantic Airways) As an aside, it was fun to fly on an airline’s flight #1. Have you ever flown one of those before?

Plane: Boeing 787-900 (Dreamliner)

Seat: 29D (Main Cabin Aisle)

Est. Departure: 7:40pm local (1:40pm EST)

Taxiing: 7:40pm local (1:40pm EST)

Takeoff: 8:27pm local (2:27pm EST)

Gate: F32 (non-Schengen International Gates)

Est. Arrival: 10:00pm local time (4:00pm EST)

Touchdown: 9:50pm local time (3:50pm EST)

Arrived at Gate: 10:12pm local time (4:12pm EST)

Gate: 3 (Terminal 1)

Pricing:

Flight: I booked the roundtrip flight from New York to Oslo for $261.13. That’s no typo, this is the total amount paid for both these flights. Note that I chose the cheapest options and days to fly and did not purchase any add-ons (carry-on, checked bag, seat selection, meal, etc.). This OSL-JFK return flight was much more expensive that the outbound flight at a whopping $133. 😉

Earnings: 1,306 AmEx Membership Rewards Points. Norse is not a part of any airline alliance and I do not plan to fly with them much at all, so I do not value the small earnings.

Booking:

I booked on Norse’s website. While it is not uncommon to see flights to Europe for $400-$500 round trip from select US airports, under $300 is too good a deal to pass up. I went through the entire month of December to find the best pairing of dates– selecting only the cheapest flights but that would also allow me at least 3-4 days in Norway. I ended up choosing to leave late Thursday, December 1st and return on Tuesday, December 6th.

I passed on all of the opportunities to add additional items. Food, assigned seats, baggage, etc.– nothing else was needed other than the ticket. I used my backpack as a personal item and that was all I brought with me. Stay tuned for an article on how I packed 5 days’ worth of clothes into a backpack!

Norse Airways does not belong to any alliance, nor does it have elite status. As such, there is no need to worry about where to credit your flights. On the flipside, you will get what you pay for– there are no upgrades, no free meals or drinks (including water!), or anything else. All you get is a seat on a flight across the ocean, a pretty good deal!

Lounges:

In contrast to my time in JFK before the outbound flight where I spent nearly 8 hours in various lounges, I did not visit any in OSL. There are 2 lounges in the airport, the SAS Lounge (for Star Alliance premium cabin passengers and Star Alliance Gold Members) and the aptly named OSL Lounge. The latter is available to many non-star alliance premium cabin passengers and AmEx Cardholders (both Platinum and Gold Cards), though not to Priority Pass. While I did not check it out, the pictures look great and reviews are solid.

This lounge is located prior to customs. As such, if you decide to visit and are flying outside of the Schengen zone, make sure you leave plenty of time to clear customs! I arrived at customs just as the flight was boarding and had just enjoyed a terrific 4 course meal so I opted not to visit the lounge and instead head to the gate. There was nobody else in line at customs and the non-Schengen flights zone was eerily dead; however, I’m sure that will change as travel continues to pick up again.

Recap:

As mentioned above, this plane is a Boeing 787-900. The Dreamliner is a common plane used for international flights. Since I did not pay for seat selection, I was assigned a one. This time, I got an aisle seat in the middle of the 3-3-3 row. (this is a ploy to try one last time to make you pay for a seat. Usually, you can ask to switch seats at the desk or pick another one on a non-full flight). Once again, the flight was nowhere near full and empty rows abounded.

The friendly flight attendant on our section allowed anyone who wanted to move to do so. However, about 15 minutes later, the gate agent came onto the plane and had a conniption. She started yelling at the passengers to get back to their assigned seats. Upon hearing that they were permitted to move, she castigated the kind FA– really a bad look for the airline! Sure enough, after the GA left, the more senior FAs comforted the obviously new flight attendant and said she did the right thing. Everyone moved to the seat of their choosing after takeoff anyway! 🙂

Once again, we boarded and took off late. However, we ended up arriving early due to a strong tailwind from heading westward. It seemed like roughly half of the passengers were American and the other half visiting the US. As such, despite the dimmed lights only some people took a nap (or slept, depending on your perspective). The crew was friendly, though did strongly push the in-flight purchases– food, beverages, and some random items for sale. Overall, this crew again seemed inexperienced, but I had no problems with anything.

The 787-900 we flew has a setup of 2-3-2 seats in Premium Economy and 3-3-3 in economy. There is no business class on these flights.

Meals:

Norse is a low cost carrier. As such, the only meal service provided is a la carte food and drink for purchase– water is free of charge, but nothing else is. The food offerings looked pretty good but I did not order anything.

Sleep:

I did not sleep on this flight. I’ve developed a habit for avoiding jet lag– immediately upon boarding a plane, use the time zone of the arrival location. As such, despite departing after 8pm local time, since I did not arrive in NYC until 10pm EST, I fought the urge to sleep. If you need to doze off for 15-30 minutes or so of a power nap, that’s fine, just avoid the 3 hour nap and you’ll be happy when you can actually sleep through the night upon arrival! I’ll write more about this in a future article.

Experience:

The flight was decently long, but I had a great time chatting with my neighbor and the hours flew by. Once again, I encourage you to be friendly on flights, you never know how interesting your seatmate may be!

At roughly 9:35pm EST, we descended into New York. Obviously, the sun had set a long time ago (in fact, the sky was dark for the entire flight due to the lack of sunlight during the wintertime. Fortunately, the flight was very smooth and had little to no turbulence. The bathrooms were kept in a clean condition, as evidenced by the below photo:

Customs:

I was in the back of the plane and as such was one of the last to deplane. I was not looking forward to another excruciatingly long customs line, but thankfully I was one of the only passengers arriving into JFK Terminal 1 with Global Entry. I was in and out of the customs line in less than 5 minutes with no issues. I cannot recommend Global Entry enough for those who travel internationally often! And don’t forget, many credit cards (ex. AmEx Platinum, Capital One Venture or Venture X, Chase Sapphire Reserve, Hilton Aspire, and Marriott Bonvoy Brilliant) offer a credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck.

Recap:

I purchased a roundtrip flight from JFK to Oslo for $261.13. While this is definitely a no-frills fare, it was more than adequate for my purposes. The flight was mostly empty, allowing me plenty of room to stretch out in my row. While fares have increased, it is still incredibly cheap to fly Norse Atlantic Airways. They operate a Dreamliner and while the lowest fares do not include a meal, the flights are smooth and a solid experience. I’d certainly fly Norse Atlantic again (at or near those rates 😉 ). Next up: December in New York, what a happy scene!