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£237 economy flights to the USA are back for the first time since the pandemic

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We have been saying for a few weeks now that there are definite signs of nervousness in the travel industry about forward flight bookings after the summer 2023 peak has passed.

Last month we ran an article with a virtually identical title to this one saying that £275 economy flights to the US were back for the first time since the pandemic.

Norse has now pushed the bar much lower, with October flights from £237 return from Gatwick to the US East Coast.

Norse Atlantic, the low cost carrier operating out of London Gatwick, has launched a short flash sale until Monday.

Remember that Norse flies from London Gatwick to Boston, New York JFK, Washington, Miami, Orlando, San Francisco, Barbados, Los Angeles, Montego Bay and Kingston.

Pay £237 return to Boston

I had no trouble finding Boston at £237 return for September and October.

As well as the US routes, it is also worth looking at the Caribbean. You can easily find Barbados at £329 for next Spring, which isn’t to be scoffed at.

The bad news ….

…. is that Norse is a true low cost carrier, in the Ryanair mould.

£237 gets you a seat and a SMALL underseat bag. That’s it.

You do NOT get:

Here is evidence from my last Norse Atlantic trip that – if you refuse to pay – you are likely to be given the worst seat available even if the cabin is empty:

The lack of luggage allowance is the biggest issue. For a short weekend break in New York or Boston I think most people could actually manage with a small underseat bag, assuming handbags are left at home.

Clearly if you’re heading to Barbados for a week then the costs are going to add up – you’re going to want to eat on the way, you will have a suitcase, you may want to ensure you have decent seats.

You’re probably into British Airways or Virgin Atlantic pricing territory by that point and they may have better flight times or more resilience if your aircraft develops issues.

Why you should fly Premium instead

The real bargain with Norse Atlantic is its Premium cabin. Pound for pound, this is the best value premium product in the air, at least flying from the UK.

Barbados, next spring, is £632 in Premium which I consider very reasonable and includes a full size cabin bag. You need to factor in food and a suitcase though.

Do you know that Norse’s Premium seat has EIGHT extra inches of pitch vs BA and Virgin Atlantic? Here is our comparison of the Norse Atlantic premium seat vs British Airways World Traveller Plus and Virgin Atlantic Premium.

Rhys reviewed Norse Atlantic’s Premium seat to the US here.

You can have a look around the sale fares on the Norse Atlantic website here. The flash sale is running until Monday.

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Comments (104)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Gordon says:
    22 Jul22 July 11:25

    Wow, I love these comments. If someone is so tight that they would only fly with an under-seat bag Just go to Butlins. You can take as much luggage as you like, I could recommend the one at Bognor Regis 😉

    • Chrisasaurus says:
      22 Jul22 July 12:28

      Going to be a hell of a shock getting off the plane and discovering you can’t buy dinner for 5 in Manhattan for £237! Even an Uber across town cost me north of $100 in November

      • yorkieflyer says:
        22 Jul22 July 12:41

        and this is why leisure travel to the USA will probably evaporate over the next year as folk return from their mega expensive trip and share their credit card bills with their friends and family

      • yonasl says:
        22 Jul22 July 13:18

        My company’s HQ is in LA. They now have to publish the “salary range” of new positions in California.

        An executive assistant makes $80-100k and a junior position can fetch $110-180k. And NY is supposed to be more expensive!

        It is just crazy salaries but people there say it is not nearly enough.

        It is normal prices of shops and restaurants follow suit. My last dinner for one in NY (bbq ribs, cornbread and a beer) was $50 plus 20% tip.

      • Gordon says:
        22 Jul22 July 13:24

        Exactly, I was in the US west coast for 3 weeks in April and the prices were eye watering, Without the dreaded tipping!

        • David says:
          22 Jul22 July 13:31

          If you can’t afford it Gordon, go to Butlins.

          • Gordon says:
            22 Jul22 July 13:44

            I can David! And I took 2×32 kg hold luggage with Silver status, Not an under seat bag 😉

          • JP-MCO says:
            22 Jul22 July 13:55

            Is this really the calibre of comment we get on HfP now? How childish.

          • Rob says:
            22 Jul22 July 15:41

            Check the price of Butlins next week, doubt it’s a bargain.

      • Rob says:
        22 Jul22 July 13:46

        And the subway is peanuts. I doubt there is much crossover between the Norse market and the $100 Uber market.

        • Andrew says:
          22 Jul22 July 14:20

          And hotels?

          • Rob says:
            22 Jul22 July 15:40

            Points 🙂

            Or New Jersey …..

            The people flying Norse are probably those who stay out of Manhattan and train it in, as I did at 19/20.

        • dougzz99 says:
          22 Jul22 July 14:22

          Is there much crossover between your core readership and the Norse market?

          • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
            22 Jul22 July 14:55

            Oh I can imagine a couple flying over in club on BA and sending the kids over on Norse!

            It’ll be character building. Can’t get them used to to thinks like lounges and being fed can we?

          • Rob says:
            22 Jul22 July 15:39

            Probably not – the article is more to show the direction of travel (sic) for pricing.

          • Brian says:
            22 Jul22 July 17:52

            “Is there much crossover between your core readership and the Norse market?”

            Yes. flew whizz air to the boston marathon on a seat only ticket back in 2017 ~$500.

            Flew to Australia and New Zealand on points via KL and Qatar, fly points all over the shop (Japan, Antigua, Half-term). Love optmising my avios / Aadvantage miles 🙂

          • Dan says:
            22 Jul22 July 18:41

            Presumably hfp is a generally price-conscious readership? The high fliers are just paying the list price for the things they want, not micromanaging their points balances

          • Rob says:
            22 Jul22 July 18:45

            HfP is a value conscious readership. There is a substantial difference.

            Every airline, hotel or credit card partner we send business to who has and will share the data says that the ‘quality’ of customer they get from HfP is better than any other traffic source. You should see the volume of Four Seasons etc hotels that Emyr books.

          • Chrisasaurus says:
            22 Jul22 July 19:30

            Well I flew Norwegian (albeit premium) to NYC and stayed at the Conrad paying cash so oddballs like us do exist

            And when it existed the day time flight back from JFK was very useful. (AA run one now from
            EWR which is my go-to)

          • jjoohhnn says:
            24 Jul24 July 10:02

            There’s a BA flight out of EWR too around 8am isn’t there? Although thats quite early!

        • Gordon says:
          22 Jul22 July 15:57

          @Rob, People must want to pay a premium see Stephen Mulhern then 😂

        • Gordon says:
          22 Jul22 July 18:11

          @Rob, Maybe Butlins is not a bad call after all, I’m sitting in a bar having a tally up! Me and the wife have come down to London for the weekend to watch a couple of shows (£400) And staying at a lowly premier inn two nights (£300) Not including train fare or food and drinks. So best part of £1k for a weekend in the big smoke!

          • Gordon says:
            22 Jul22 July 18:39

            Actually I have looked and I saved a world hotels spend £250 get £100 back, Expires in 9 days completely forgot about it. Duh

        • Boon says:
          23 Jul23 July 21:55

          Which is why my last business trip to NYC, even though I was perfectly entitled to via my company’s expense policy for a $100+ Uber, given that I had a big suitcase.

          I decided it was way too much given my Londoner’s sense of what money is worth. I took the subway instead to JFK airport.

          • Londonsteve says:
            25 Jul25 July 09:35

            Good man. I never charged a penny to get to London airports; I always rode my motorbike or took public transport and it’s more hassle than it’s worth to claim contactless journeys, not to mention it can look petty. I actually find it a joy to experience public transport abroad while observing the panoply of humanity, it makes the trip more of an experience than the ‘same old’ drone.

    • Blair Waldorf Salad says:
      22 Jul22 July 15:41

      To be fair I have heard of young people at work who have flown low cost options to the US, with minimal luggage and staying 4 to a room at the Comfort Inn and have loved it. Good luck to them if they had a good time; it would absolutely not be for me and baffles me luggage-wise. But then I have trips planned on a rolling 12-months ahead basis so I think I’m very much the opposite end of the spectrum on travel comfort and disruption contingency.

      • NorthernLass says:
        22 Jul22 July 17:57

        You and me both, @BWS. Also, it’s yet another service for the south!

  • Chris W says:
    22 Jul22 July 14:00

    Pass. They are cheap flights to extremely expensive destinations. You would struggle to get a hotel room for £239 in Boston or New York this year

    • Jannis says:
      22 Jul22 July 16:58

      If someone is eyeing for this flight, I think they would be choosing hostels as well

      • CamFlyer says:
        22 Jul22 July 19:31

        I would have no qualms about considering Norse on a like for basis with the other airlines, just as I consider EZ, FR, LS, et al alongside BA and other legacy carriers in Europe. One needs a spreadsheet to manage the array of add-on options, but if the combination of route, pricing and time meet my requirements, then for me it works just fine (and I have travel insurance for IRROPS). Plus, the 1W pricing can be quite convenient. I would not be going if I were staying in hostels (did that once in my 20s–not my way to travel if I have any other option). Currently, Gatwick is currently my last choice London airport, but when I lived in central London it was the easiest airport on public transport; I took the legacy Norwegian a few times when I needed 1W flights, JFK-LGW and SJU-LGW that I recall. It’s not like Y on any airline is particularly premium these days!

  • pigeon says:
    22 Jul22 July 18:37

    Well, if you’re prepared to stay in a hostel and eat McDonalds, then you could do a 3 night trip for £600 all in.

    Obviously not everyone is into bargain holidays, but if you’re a student or work a pretty ordinary job, it’s a great way to see the world.

    • Andrew. says:
      22 Jul22 July 19:46

      Don’t mock McDonald’s, it’s about the only place where you can get a decent cup of tea in New York.

  • Andrew. says:
    22 Jul22 July 20:31

    If BA launched an Exec Club offer for an Avios Small HBO deal with no food or beverage for 29,500 Avios + £1 (circa £237) on the very back centre 4 seats (that don’t recline and are next to the queue for the bogs) on one NYC flight a day then there’d be a dedicated forum on here with people booking them out 355 days ahead and calculating the best value you can get with a meal deal.

    • BA Flyer IHG Stayer says:
      22 Jul22 July 20:48

      But they would pay that because they’d use their gold and silver cards to stock upon lunch in the lounge using a small tuppaware box and fill an empty water bottle with some wine and feel smug about it.

      I think Finnair does a fare with no baggage and no lounge but excluding food gets a little complicated

    • NorthernLass says:
      23 Jul23 July 08:46

      You can get an economy seat on BA for 25k avios plus £50, with luggage and food included!

  • Matthias says:
    22 Jul22 July 22:05

    I flew Norse to NYC and stayed in an Airbnb in Brooklyn because I wasn’t going to pay $500 a night for a place in Manhattan. But going BA Club to Greece this week and to SCL in a bit. So one example of crossover.

    Value conscious’ is exactly the word I’d use.and I for one am delighted about unbundled fares because I never check a bag and can live without the average food, If others want to subsidise me by doing so then fantastic!

    In any case BA economy in the 10-abreast 777s is worse than Norse in my experience.

  • Super Secret Stuff says:
    22 Jul22 July 22:37

    Finally. I might book for a short getaway in early December! Seems like a bargain to do New York at Christmas, got a stack of Melisa and IHG points to use too

  • numpty says:
    23 Jul23 July 09:09

    After my own experience of Manhattan costs I always try and warn friends/colleagues of the costs in the US. They always seem prepared prior to going out, but on their return go on and on about how expensive it is, you have to experience it for yourself to believe it. Tips – even the self service touch screen in McDonalds asks if you want to leave a tip!

  • Joe says:
    23 Jul23 July 22:53

    It is not that the US is expensive – the UK is poor. Wages (and the economy) in the US have consistently grown above those in Europe / the UK since New Labour.

    • Londonsteve says:
      25 Jul25 July 09:43

      This. It actually frightens me to think what the situation might be like 20 years from now in terms of wealth differences. My predecessors used to (seldom) experience western Europe from the back of an eastern bloc car with a boot loaded with food from home and staying in camp sites. They had so little hard currency they had to save it for entry tickets to key attractions, petrol and the ‘highlight’ of the trip (at least for the kids) might have been a single scoop of gelato in Italy. If you’re not very well off in the UK, travelling in the US can already feel like this.

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