TRIED AND TESTED FLIGHT
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NOVEMBER 2018BACKGROUNDNorwegian
is now the second largest long-
haul airline at Gatwick, with 13
direct long-haul destinations,
including Singapore. It serves
11 routes to the US and has
added a third daily frequency
on this New York JFK route from
October 29, 2018.CHECK-INI arrived at London
Gatwick at 1405 for my 1705
departure on DI7015 to New
York JFK Terminal 1, a flight of
nearly eight hours. Norwegian
aircraft depart from the South
Terminal. Check-in was very
slow, as the agent encountered
a problem with two passengers
in front of me, and so left the
desks to try to sort this out,
causing a 15-minute delay.
Eventually, the check-in agent
reappeared and I then used the
fast-track security; I had only
hand luggage, but Premium
passengers can book in two
20kg cases each. Once through
the large duty-free shop, I went
up the escalator and into the No
1 Lounge, which was included in
the price of the Premium ticket.BOARDINGThe flight
boarded at 1630 from Gate- The flight attendants were
dressed distinctively, the men
wearing chequered jackets and
women wearing smart navy-
blue uniforms with red-and-
white details.
As you’d expect with
a Dreamliner B787-9, the
windows were lovely and
large. There was also lots of
headroom and good-sized
overhead lockers.
THE SEATThe seats look the
same as the ones on the B787-8
aircraft and the previously
delivered B787-9 aircraft, but
there are more of them in the
Premium cabin and they have
less legroom. The number
of Premium seats has been
increased from 35 to 56 (and
Economy seats reduced to 282),
giving a total of 338 seats. This
new configuration reduces seat
pitch (legroom) from 46 inches
to 43 inches.
The Premium seats are larger
than other airlines’ premium
economy seats, but aren’tNorwegian B787-9
Premium
LONDON–NEW YORK
business class seats. The leg
rests rise and the seat reclines
old style, so that it moves into
the space of the passenger
behind (and the seat in front
reclines into your space).
The seats are comfortable
to both sit and sleep in. The
IFE screen comes out of the
arm of the seat – which means
you can’t watch it for take-of
and landing, as you can in
the Economy seats. The IFE
uses a touchscreen, but there’s
also a small controller in the side
of the seat. This controller isn’t
in a very good position, and is
fixed, so if you have the table
down, it will be obscured.
There’s in-seat AC power
for devices, and also a USBport next to the IFE screen.
Long-haul wifi is planned for
the Dreamliner fleet, perhaps as
early as the end of this year.BEST SEATS The middle
seats are the ones to avoid,
since they can be very dificult
to get into and out of when all
the seats are reclined. That said,
they also have the most room
under the seat in front – useful if
you want to put your belongings
there. The aisle seats, such as
those at 1D and 1F, 2D and 2F
and so on, don’t have much
room, but you can just stand up
to access the overhead lockers.
So the best ones are probably
the aisle seats, around the
middle of the cabin.