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Norse Atlantic launches Bangkok flights from Gatwick – but drops Miami route

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Norse Atlantic has launched a new route from London Gatwick to Bangkok.

Flights will start on 26th October and operate four days per week.

There are only two flights per week for most of the first month, flying outbound on Tuesday and Sunday, with the full service commencing from 30th November.

Norse Atlantic launches Gatwick to Bangkok flights

The outbound flight leaves Gatwick at 4pm, landing at 10.25am.

The return leaves Bangkok at 12.30pm, arriving in Gatwick at 6.30pm.

If you are wondering where Norse is getting the aircraft from, the Miami route is being cancelled from 25th October.

This currently operates three flights per week for the winter season, stepping up to daily from April 2025.

As with all Norse flights, you get a modern Boeing 787 aircraft and a two class cabin – economy and premium economy. The airline inherited Norwegian’s long haul fleet when the latter moved to being a purely short haul airline.

We rate Norse Premium highly. It has, by a huge margin, the most personal space of any competing premium economy seat. You can see how Norse Atlantic’s premium economy compares to British Airways and Virgin Atlantic here.

Economy is, well, economy, but is better than it was.

Norse has pulled back from its ‘nothing included’ stance.

You still won’t get any food included with the cheapest economy tickets. However, it DOES now include a 10kg carry-on bag for free. IFE is also now free.

You will need to pay for seat assignments or checked baggage, but as long as you bring your own meals and can stick to 10kg of hand baggage, you can realistically now fly for the lowest quoted price.

It isn’t clear if this is Norse getting generous or if an advertising standards person has had a word. All ‘compulsory’ charges must be shown as part of the advertised price and realistically 99.9% of people would find it ‘compulsory’ to take some item of luggage (apart from a handbag / small laptop bag) on a long haul flight.

You can read our review of flying Premium on Norse Atlantic from Gatwick to New York here.

The new Bangkok route is bookable now.

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Comments (71)

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

  • TimM says:
    22 Feb22 February 05:10

    “realistically 99.9% of people would find it ‘compulsory’ to take some item of luggage (apart from a handbag / small laptop bag) on a long haul flight.”

    Well, I must be that 0.01%.

    10Kg cabin baggage is enough for ‘forever’ luggage. Travel in the heavy things, including smart shoes and blazer loaded with things required for the journey, pack a universal sink plug so one can wash one’s smalls and locate a local laundry to keep everything else perfect, forever.

    I am often away for at least a month and would not dream of taking hold luggage – it is an inconvenience, a worry and delay when travelling and unnecessary!

    • Lumma says:
      22 Feb22 February 05:20

      That’s not what he’s talking about. He means going with a small underseat bag only, not 10kg cabin luggage

      • TimM says:
        22 Feb22 February 05:40

        Lumma, Rob is writing about the fare. The last paragraph implies that 99.9% of travellers would need to pay extra to take luggage.

        • tontoro says:
          22 Feb22 February 06:30

          No, Lumma is correct. He is saying most people would need at least a 10kg bag, and can’t just make do with a handbag.

    • mkcol says:
      22 Feb22 February 08:07

      @TimM You’ve misunderstood.

    • SammyJ says:
      22 Feb22 February 08:57

      We’re actually in that 0.01% that can manage without even the cabin suitcase. We’ve been to Florida before with only the underseat bags – wearing the big stuff like hoodies and trainers, a few changes of summer clothes, flip flops and basic toiletries in backpacks. It’s incredibly liberating when you get home again and don’t have 4 massive bags full of crap to unpack!

  • MsChanel says:
    22 Feb22 February 05:39

    Gutted they are dropping Miami. Just flew with them and had a fantastic experience

  • Paul says:
    22 Feb22 February 06:17

    293 pounds for a direct flight to thailand amazing value.

    I easily make 10kg carry on work when i goto tenerife with ryanair for a week. So why not thailand?

    • Dubious says:
      22 Feb22 February 06:43

      Depends if you want to use some of that 10kg for sandwiches and scones…

    • Cephid says:
      22 Feb22 February 06:55

      I don’t think many people go to Thailand for only one week!

      • Bagoly says:
        22 Feb22 February 10:32

        I get that many people go for longer, but for most people in senior jobs, more than one week holiday is a challenge .
        How common is is to add on a few days each end of working from home/hotel?

        • Rob says:
          22 Feb22 February 12:58

          For junior people more than one week is a challenge. If you’re senior you can do what you like 🙂

          The CEO of my old private equity firm took 2 months off in the summer to go sailing.

          • TimM says:
            22 Feb22 February 16:46

            If you go sailing, you cannot take much anyway. There is very limited storage aboard. One roll-up holdall is pretty much the limit.

        • Throwawayname says:
          22 Feb22 February 15:15

          There’s also leveraging remote working arrangements. When I did the SAS challenge, I was away for over a month but did a few days in between to ensure emails are kept in check etc.

  • BJ says:
    22 Feb22 February 07:00

    Thailand must be one of the simplest places in the world to fly with cabin bags only, only light summer clothing is needed year round, there are laundries everywhere with inexpensive and excellent same day service, 7-11 has a huge range if travel-sized toiletries so no need to carry them, and you can pass on spare shoes in favour of cheap sandals to be ditched before returning home.

    The major problem here is that Norse route network is as shaky as that of Virgin, nook at your peril.

  • Graham says:
    22 Feb22 February 07:33

    I think what’s also really interesting about this is that from Bangkok you then get access to low-cost Asian carriers to go elsewhere, including Australia, so with some self-transfer risk you can get to most of Australasia quite cheaply with this new route.

    I flew Norse premium economy out to the US recently and BA premium back. Between the two, I’d choose Norse. The premium economy seat on Norse is more similar to an old business class setup, much more leg room than BA premium. IFE didn’t have as many movies as BA but the ones that were there were well chosen. Food on BA was definitely better though.

  • Matthias says:
    22 Feb22 February 08:23

    Asia is notoriously hard to make work as a low cost carrier because of the tricky flight times (can’t send a plane there and back in a day). And Norse is already struggling financially.

    So while I also rate Norse highly (having flown them to NYC) I recommend taking out good travel insurance or better, buying through a third party, to make sure you’re covered if they either pull the route or fully go under.

    • Throwawayname says:
      22 Feb22 February 10:14

      Buying with a credit card will trigger s.75 protection so there shouldn’t be any material financial risk.

  • Richie says:
    22 Feb22 February 08:24

    Here are the flight times

    Z0791 LGW 1600-1025+1 BKK (Tue & Sun)

    Z0792 BKK 1230-1830 LGW (Mon & Wed)

    which aren’t as good as BA’s.

    • Chris W says:
      22 Feb22 February 08:28

      I’d argue that without a flatbed, Norses timetable is pretty ideal

    • Dubious says:
      22 Feb22 February 08:40

      It’s quite helpful for onward same day connections at BKK, and likewise train services at LGW.

    • Lewis says:
      22 Feb22 February 09:05

      BA’s misses the last flight up to Chiang Mai. These Norse ones are much better.

      • Richie says:
        22 Feb22 February 09:23

        Etihad’s AUH-CNX flight starting 3rd November looks good.

        • Lewis says:
          22 Feb22 February 09:28

          Yes that’ll be good but prices are a bit crazy at the moment that I’m seeing. Wish Qatar would return to CNX though!

  • Lewis says:
    22 Feb22 February 09:04

    Thanks for the heads up on the Bangkok flights – just got my parents out to visit me in Thailand twice in the next year 😀

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