Flying over the Atlantic? Make it 'weird': the complete guide to not traveling with the 'usual notes'. And spend less
If you are planning a Christmas vacation or, even, 2025 summer vacation across the Atlantic Ocean, you can fly by spending [...]
Norse Atlantic Airways
Neos Air
Discover Airlines
Air Transat
YVR
United States of America
Canada
If you are planning A Christmas vacation or, even, the 2025 summer vacation across the Atlantic Ocean., you can fly spending very little in Economy or, with fares just slightly higher than the Economy fares of traditional airlines, booking a seat in Premium Economy. How? Aboard one of six European and North American long-haul low-cost or 'leisure' airlines.
In this article:
The long-haul low-cost phenomenon initially took hold in the Far East Asiano some 20 years ago, when Air Asia launched its spinoff Air Asia X. And that then, again in that region, saw Cebu Pacific, among others, appear on the scene, Scoot, Zipair, Air Premia.
In Europe, the concept was 'imported' by Norwegian which, after years of beating the skies over Europe and the Mediterranean with a fleet of Boeing 737s and a business model very similar to Ryanair's, has thrown its heart across ... the Ocean creating Norwegian Long Haul, equipped with a fleet of two-class Boeing 787s. with an Economy configured with a very high seat density.
After a few years, victim of 'gigantism', Norwegian Long Haul has gone belly up, but part of its management, many of its employees, and its aircraft have given birth in June 2022 to Norse Atlantic. Aware of the reasons for Norwegian's collapse, its successor has taken a much more prudent path in terms of fleet size, hubs, and destinations.
Today, the company, which is based in Oslo. contends for the market on the Atlantic for low-budget travelers With five other carriers: Germany's Discover, Spain's Level, Italy's Neos, France's French bee and Canada's Air Transat. Discover only, as part of the Lufthansa Group, is a partner in an international alliance (Star Alliance). and allows its passengers to access the Miles & More loyalty program.
Discover, Level, and French bee are respectively, lee spin-offs of Lufthansa Group, Iberia, and Air Caraibes, while the others are independent.
They do not all fly the same aircraft models: Discover and Level use Airbus A330s, Norse and Neos the Boeing 787s, French bee the Airbus A350s, and Air Transat a mix of Airbus A330s and A321-LRs. But all of them are united by the fact of. offer their passengers the choice of traveling in multiple classes, thus breaking the single-class model of traditional low-cost airlines operating on short- and medium-haul routes.
Discover - It's Lufthansa's latest creature., the result of the Separation made in 2023 between the short- to medium-haul and long-haul 'arm' of Eurowings (although Discover was left with the 'leisure' part of Eurowings' short-to-medium haul). It operates long-haul with A fleet of 10 Airbus A330-300s and 3 Airbus A330-200s.
It is the only one that offers Three classes of service: business, premium economy and economy. On the -200 there are 22 (or 32) seats in Business in a 2-2-2 configuration per row, 17 in Premium Economy 2-3-2 and 195 (or 231) in Economy 2-4-2. On the -300, however, there are 30 seats in Business (2-2-2), 28 in Premium Economy (2-3-2) and 225 in Economy (2-4-2). As on some Lufthansa aircraft, Premium Economy does not have a dedicated cabin, but occupies the front of the Economy cabin with wider seats and more legroom. The system of wifi connection is available on 11 of the 13 aircraft long range.
It flies from its Munich and Frankfurt hubs to several 'leisure' destinations in Africa, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean. In North America we go to Las Vegas, Philadelphia, and in Florida: Orlando, Tampa and Fort Myers. To Anchorage in Alaska only during the Summer. In Canada in Calgary and during the Summer in Halifax..
The website, when booking, 'bounces' customers to Lufthansa's website and the amenities available to passengers in the three classes are the same as those enjoyed by those in the 'parent company'. Prices are medium to high and in this Discover Is definitely the least low-cost of the 'alternative' airlines to fly to North America.
Level - The Spanish company has been Iberia's long-haul arm at Barcelona Airport since June 2017. It has a fleet of 6 Airbus A330-200s and 1 A330-300 offering two classes of service: Economy and Premium Economy, although the latter on two of the six A330-200 is in a 1-2-1 configuration with the lie-flat seats making it more of a business, at least on the level of the 'hard' product. In the US it flies to Boston, Miami, New York JFK, and Los Angeles.
In Economy offers three fares; a Light which entitles you to a 10kg carry-on bag, a Comfort which adds a checked baggage, meals and drinks, and a Extra which adds us the possibility of ticket exchange and free choice of seat on board.
In Premium Economy one Comfort with carry-on luggage, checked luggage, food and drink, priority at check-in and boarding as well as pillow, blanket and amenity kit or a Extra which doubles your checked baggage and allows you to change your departure date and choose your seat on board for free. It goes without saying that 'nabbing' the two aircraft with Premium Economy in 1-2-1 configuration makes the big deal. It offers wifi connection with navigation packages available for a fee.
Neos - Long committed to traditional 'leisure' destinations in the Caribbean in Africa and the Indian Ocean, Italian carrier began flying over the North Atlantic from Milan first to New York (JFK) in April 2021, then On Toronto from April 2023, e in the last Summer also added the Palermo-New York.
It operates long-haul with a fleet of 6 Boeing 787-9s outfitted in two classes: Economy and Premium Economy with 28 seats in Premium (2-3-2) and 327 or 331 in Economy (3-3-3).
In Economy offers three fares: a Promo with free choice of seat, 8kg hand luggage, food and drink, a Relax which adds a 23kg hold luggage and a Freedom which allows free change of date and route and is redeemable at 100%.
In Premium there is a Relax and a Freedom which allow 2 checked bags of 23kg each, change of destination and date free of charge and give lounge access, fast track at security checkpoints (the two fares differ only in that they guarantee a refund of 80 or 100% in case of cancellation of the trip). Neos is thus one of the few airlines in the world to guarantee its Premium Economy passengers lounge access before departure.
Also note that, in Economy, the first four rows are named Economy Extra Plus, which in addition to more legroom entitles you to access to dedicated check-in desks and fast track at security checkpoints.
Wifi connection is available for a fee.
Norse - He has today A fleet of 12 two-class Boeing 787-9s.: in premium economy offers 35 or 56 seats in 2-3-2 rows while in economy 282 or 309 seats in the classic 3-3-3 rows of Dreamliners.
The European hubs are Oslo, London Gatwick, Paris Charles de Gaulle, Berlin and Rome, while in North America we fly to New York (JFK), Miami, Orlando, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Los Angeles.
In Economy, you can choose from three fares: Light which allows a personal effect and a carry-on baggage of up to 10kg to be carried on board, Classic which includes a 23kg checked baggage allowance, a meal and Flextra, which also includes free seat choice, priority boarding and is changeable and refundable.
Three also fares in premium economy: Light which entitles one personal effect and one carry-on baggage up to 15kg in the cabin, two meals, check-in at dedicated counters and priority boarding; Classic That adds a 23kg checked baggage and Flextra which also entitles you to a checked baggage up to 33kg and is changeable and refundable.
No wifi is available on Norse aircraft.
French bee - Born as French Blue In 2016 at the initiative of the same group that owns Air Caraibes. and became French bee after it began flying to the U.S. following a legal dispute with JetBlue, the French long-haul low-cost has a fleet consisting of four Airbus A350-900s. With 35 seats in premium economy (2-3-2) and 376 in economy (3-4-3) and by 2 Airbus A350-1000 with 40 seats in Premium Economy and 440 in Economy.
It has its base of operations at Paris' second busiest airport, Orly, and in the U.S. flies to New York (EWR), Miami, Los Angeles and San Francisco.
In Economy has three fares: Bee Light That allows you to take only one personal effect with you, Bee Smart which adds a 12kg hand luggage and a checked luggage up to 23kg, a meal and Bee Flex which to all this adds free seat selection on board and is changeable and cancellable without penalty.
In Premium Economy, however, the fares are the Smart with which you can take on board one personal effect and one 12kg hand luggage, you are entitled to two meals also accompanied by champagne, you have free seat selection, dedicated check-in desks and priority boarding, while with the Flex the ability to cancel or change the trip without penalty is added.
It should be emphasized that in Economy French bee has rows of ten seats (3-4-3) instead of the 9 usually installed on A350s, which makes the seats especially narrow, even on routes such as Los Angeles or Reunion that are 11 and 12 hours respectively. Wifi service is available for a fee.
Across the ocean they also have their own long-haul low-cost and it is the 'oldest' of the group, having started operations in 1987.
Air Transat - It has its main hub in Montreal, with bases in Toronto and Vancouver, and flies a fleet of 14 Airbus A330-200s over Europe with 12 seats in Premium Economy (2-2-2) and 320 in Economy (with rows 3-3-3 of 9 seats instead of the usual 8 seats in 2-4-2), 2 A330-300 With 12 seats in premium economy (2-2-2) and 334 in economy (here in the usual 2-4-2 for 8 row seats) and 20 Airbus A321LR with 12 seats in Premium Economy (2-2) and 187 in Economy (3-3).
Among the 12 countries served (mostly during Summer) in Europe is Italy, where Air Transat lands in Rome, Venice and Lamezia Terme.
In Economy, there are three fares: Budget which allows one personal effect and one carry-on baggage to be checked in, Standard which adds a checked baggage and EcoFlex which allows free choice of a standard place and changes without penalty.
In Premium Economy (called Club by Air Transat) you can choose you can choose between Standard Club which entitles you to 2 checked bags, a meal and is refundable or changeable with fees and Club Flex which also allows free seat selection and is changeable and refundable without penalty.
Wifi service is not available, which works only to provide inflight entertainment, but not Internet browsing.
