I’m a reasonable man and I rarely bring my petty problems to the forefront but this could help you and yours have a more enjoyable trip through the frigid wastes of the North Country. This is a story about Norwegian Airlines.
Norwegian Airlines, as we see here, offers a system to change your flights. This is similar to other lower-cost carriers who know that they keep customers who feel safe in the knowledge that no matter how badly they screw up they can always make a call to change a reservation. Jet Blue does this quite admirably.
In this case I wanted to change a flight from Umea, up north, to a flight to Geneva in Switzerland for my book research. I ended up booking the flight to Umea and then tried to change the flight so I could head to Geneva instead. On the ticket, it says:
Thank you for flying Norwegian
Now you can change your reservation at norwegian.no / norwegian.se
You can change the name, date and destination of a ticket by calling 815 21 815 (+ 47 21 49 00 15 when calling from abroad) or online at www.norwegian.no.
A service charge will apply. All changes must be completed a minimum of 30 minutes before scheduled departure time. (Mon-Fri 06:00-22:00, Sat 08:30-19:30,
Sun 08:30-19:30. Local time). Sweden: 0770-45 77 00 (+46 770 45 77 00 when calling from abroad). Mon-Fri 06.30-20.00, Sat 10.00-16.00, Sun 12.00-20.00.
Please note: Tickets booked as part of a hotel/flight package and/or through travel agencies can have different rules.
Not a problem, right? Give them a call, take care of it. Unfortunately, this is only applicable for domestic flights, according to the phone bank ladies. Want to fly from Stockholm to Uppsala instead of Umea? Do it up. Want to make a real, logical change that a normal business person might want to make? Nope, sorry. This information appears right on the ticket… oh, wait. No it doesn’t. It doesn’t appear anywhere. In fact, there’s a big red sign that says “All tickets can be changed.”
I’m going to be pulling the old executive carpet bomb that the Consumerist always suggests, but keep your wits about you when dealing with this frosty Northern airline.