Someone asked me recently about why sometimes fuel dumping worked and sometimes it didn’t. My answer was simple: It is airlines both writing and processing the rules. There are lots of places for things to go wrong along that path and figuring out who screwed up and how to fix it can often be a challenge. Well, in this case, one OTA (operated by an airline) is simply not including the YQ surcharge on any flights booked on a UA code between the USA and Europe, Middle East or Australia. There’s a LOT of room for great deals to be had.
I booked a Spring Break trip for me and my wife on EWR-OSL//BGO-OSL-EWR for <$400 each, a savings of ~$500 each off the published fare.
Looking at other routings/destinations it would seem that LGA-DXB can be had ~$300 and EWR-MXP can be had for $130. LAX-SYD is <$800. Keep in mind that these are booking in to the very cheapest fare buckets so no GPU usage and possibly only partial credit in partner FF programs or if on partner metal. Be careful with that.
How to book it? Easy. Just go to www.wideroe.no/en and put in your city pair and dates. Use the advanced search if you want an open jaw. And have fun with the destination options. Africa, Europe and the Middle East all seem to work. Oh, and originations at either end work. Lots of possibilities.
It is taking more than an hour for tickets to be issued right now and there is always the chance that they don’t honor it anyways. Plus there is a 24 hour cancel window if you change your mind. Certainly worth having a bit of fun this afternoon.
UPDATE: If you’re struggling with the very slow site try this: Search on ITA (forcing UA flights) to find what you want. Figure that the booking will drop ~$450-500 off the fare so if you are seeing $690 on ITA assume that’s ~$190 when you push the booking through. That should save you some time/energy in getting the right routes/dates to search for. Also, try using https://www.wideroe.no/book/?l=en&adv=no to get stared in the search. That seems to be loading faster than the main front page.
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The website is not loading.. Is this deal dead?
Deal is still live; site is under heavy stress at this point. Good luck.
Awesome find! Thanks for sharing – just trying to figure out what will work best! Too many options are not always good. 🙂
Yeah, it’s a pretty sweet deal. Saw it from early this morning. Decided not to go for it. Just got back from Europe last month and don’t have any plans to go again early next year. But it is a sweet deal for those who are thinking about flying there anyway.
Seems like site might be down… or overloaded… 3:40pm CT 11/23
Definitely still alive, but also definitely slow. I’ve got tickets to Germany to see some Christmas markets.
UPDATE: If you’re struggling with the very slow site try this: Search on ITA (forcing UA flights) to find what you want. Figure that the booking will drop ~$450-500 off the fare so if you are seeing $690 on ITA assume that’s ~$190 when you push the booking through. That should save you some time/energy in getting the right routes/dates to search for. Also, try using https://www.wideroe.no/book/?l=en&adv=no to get stared in the search. That seems to be loading faster than the main front page.
“There’s always the chance they won’t honor it.” Prediction: They won’t honor it.
Poor WF is getting hammered… I hope the bilateral with UA doesn’t require them to pass on YQ 😮
They found it out. The website is shutdown.
wideroe.no er stengt noen timer i natt av tekniske årsaker
wideroe.no is closed some hours due to technical reasons
Seth’s second link still works, but prices seem normal. Maybe the YQ is being added back in?
Scratch that. Still working. Just that prices out in the summer are high! YQ pretty much stays the same so your savings on a percentage basis are MUCH higher for trips in say March.
Mine still hasn’t been ticketed. Been 5 hours. Thoughts?
My second purchase – made at 5:25pm EST – didn’t ticket until 10 hours later. Hopefully yours did eventually. If not, bummer.
Seth, Once my United account shows it ticket and confirmed what is the chance of this being cancelled? I also recieved PDF ticketing information from Windroe.
At this point I believe that the chances of a ticketed itinerary not being honored are very, very, very low. I’d still hold off a couple days on any non-refundable plans associated with the trips, but I think it will likely be honored if ticketed.
@Seth Thanks, was going to hold off till next week to plan hotels, and transit flight to EWR but feeling better now.
Hmm, must have missed this, sucks for me. Guess have to wait for the next one (hopefully). Hope you all have fun!
Wideroe is a tiny airline that was almost bankrupt and was recently bought from SAS by a small group of Norwegian businessmen, I strongly believe all tickets will be cancelled Monday, there is no way they can afford this loss.
Wideroe isn’t on the hook for this mistake as it wasn’t their error. Amadeus and/or United will eat the cost of this one. Wideroe made money on the deal.
http://www.aftenposten.no/okonomi/Rabillige-flybilletter-verden-rundt-sender-utlendinger-til-Wideroe-7384370.html
@Seth you may have seen this but looks like Wideroe may have intentionally leaked the mistake. Could that be true? If so, v odd.
http://www.autoslash.com/blog-and-tips/posts/norwegians-take-united-for-a-ride