Wamos Air A330-200 at JFK – Photo: Creative Commons | Adam Moreira (AEMoreira042281)
Last year, I wrote about my experience flying with Norwegian Air on the 787-9 Dreamliner from London Gatwick (LGW) nonstop to Denver (DEN). On that flight, we were in their “Premium” cabin, but I peeked back at economy and thought it looked pretty good. It had a standard 3-3-3 Dreamliner configuration, reasonable pitch, and AVOD screens at each seat. The crew was friendly as well.
This year, my family was heading to Paris for the new year, and I had booked our outbound flight with miles (my kids were very excited to be flying business class for the first time, and on the upper deck of a Lufthansa 747-400, to boot!) Given that I needed a one-way flight back from Europe (which are usually obscenely priced on legacy carriers), I figured we’d fly Norwegian again, this time in economy. Norwegian prices their fare based upon the one-way journey, which is what you’re used to for U.S. domestic flights. For a very reasonable $511 each, we were booked nonstop from LGW to DEN. Our fare included advanced seat assignments, checked and carry-on baggage, and meals. Everything was going to be just fine. Then I got this text.
Seating map for my Wamos Air A330-200, a rare nine-abreast A330. The seats I picked are circled. – Image: Wamos Air
Look, I’m an #avgeek and editor for a site called AirlineReporter, and I’d never even heard of Wamos. I did know, however, that Norwegian had been in a tough spot, given their reliance on a fleet of Rolls Royce-powered 787s, which had been experiencing significant engine issues. Norwegian was calling in lots of charter carriers to replace the Dreamliners.
An excerpt of a conversation with @airlineflyer
I jumped in to a Twitter DM with someone who would know who Wamos is, my friend and occasional AirlineReporter contributor Jason Rabinowitz (@airlineflyer). You can see a snippet of our conversation above. Jason was enjoying this far too much.
Here’s what I learned. I’d be flying an old A330-200 (ex-Monarch) with 3-3-3 seating in economy. While that is a bit of a squeeze in the Dreamliner (which was originally pitched as a 2-4-2 plane), nine-abreast on a narrower A330 is downright torture. Very few carriers have opted for it, and they’re usually leisure/charter airlines.
My view of a very tight cabin – Photo: Blaine Nickeson | AirlineReporter
Once I got the notification text, I jumped online and did as much research as I could, as quickly as I could. I figured there had to be seats that were the least-bad option, and I wanted to select them before someone else did. I subscribe to ExpertFlyer so I can see seating charts and inventory on flights. I also searched google for “Wamos A330” while checking the carrier’s (limited) website as well. I totally Blues Clues’d it as quickly as I could.
As you can see in the seating chart above, I selected two sets of two seats where the fuselage begins to narrow. My wife and I were traveling with our two young kids, so I figured this wouldn’t be too bad as they’re tiny.
Ahead of my flight, I also received a text message that I needed to download the Wamos Air app in order to play their streaming entertainment content. That’s great, but they don’t offer any power ports, which makes streaming content, or entertaining my kids on their iPads, pretty tough for a ten-hour flight.
I was dreading this flight, mainly because there was so little information available about Wamos or the experience folks were having with them. So, how was the flight? 
That’s right, folks. It was a pretty good flight.
-
- Old-school seatback
-
- My legroom was AWESOME – Photos: Blaine Nickeson | AirlineReporter
-
- IFE
I chose wisely on the seat selection. I had miles of legroom (I’m 6’1″) and was protected from the aisle by the three-seat set ahead of me. One guy came back near my seats, down the incredibly narrow aisles, and said to me, “man, you really hit the jackpot, didn’t you?” Yup. Do your homework, folks! There were a couple of other positives about being on an old plane – we had operating air nozzles at each seat, and the seats were overstuffed and comfy. None of that slimline crap for this flight.
It was crazy being in a 300-person economy cabin that had no bulkheads at all. It was just a sea of seats. The flight was completely full, including a couple of uniformed Norwegian flight attendants seated in economy. I thought they might be there to help the Wamos crew deliver the Norwegian-style service, but they apparently were just along for the ride.
-
- The app had a flight tracking feature that was nice
-
- No, this didn’t work nor did it control anything – Photos: Blaine Nickeson | AirlineReporter
-
- 10 whole movies…
The in-flight entertainment was very much a BYOD situation. There was no wifi. While there was a Wamos app where you could view streaming content, it was severely lacking in said content. There were only 10 movies, and three TV shows. That’s it. I was glad I planned ahead for my kids, with extra power packs, so that they could continue to view content on their iPads for this very long daytime flight. One really strange thing to note; 30 minutes before the flight landed in Denver, we were all required to turn off and stow ALL electronics. Even phones and iPads. The enforcement was firm. Is this something to do with Wamos being a Spanish airline?
One extremely positive aspect of this flight was that the cabin crew could not have been better. They were sharply dressed, extremely warm and friendly, and they worked their tails off (more on that coming up). The crew also looked as though they were all fashion models. Even the worst flight is made better by a great crew.
-
- Child’s meal
-
- Noodles and sauce for the kids, along with a brownie – Photos: Blaine Nickeson | AirlineReporter
-
- Dad’s meal
A very strange aspect of the flight was the first meal service. From beginning to end, it took almost three (3!) hours. First off, the crew went around distributing the special meals, like the child meals that I had pre-ordered for my kids. Then they made a run through the cabin by cart for all the people who, like us, had pre-paid for the “Nice n Tasty” hot meal. This included your choice of drink (including beer and wine, which wouldn’t have been complementary on a Norwegian-operated flight). After that, they passed through with a coffee/tea service and trash collection.
-
- Norwegian menu
-
- Lots of buy-on-board options – Photos: Blaine Nickeson | AirlineReporter
-
- Drink selection
Once all of that had been completed, they passed out actual Norwegian menu cards, with food and drink for purchase using a credit card. Carts came down the aisles for anyone who wanted to make a purchase (and a lot of folks did).
There was also a similar meal service (although not as drawn out) prior to landing. I didn’t get a picture of it, but it was a small chicken salad sandwich and a brownie.
A pic that my nine-year-old son snapped
It was soon time to prepare for landing. We were on time, and I reflected on how much I had been dreading this flight, now for no good reason. Sure, if you hadn’t done your homework, you may have showed up unprepared for the lack of in-flight entertainment content. It would have been a long flight reading the safety card. And I don’t envy the folks that were crammed in to those 16-ish” wide seats. But for us, it turned out to be an unremarkable, comfortable flight. I’d fly them again.
When did you do this flight? Will Norwegian be doing this a lot? We have some BOS-MAD trips coming up.
What seats exactly did you pick?
Thanks in advance,
Norwegian wet leased to Neos for one of our flights from OSL-CPH. Never heard of them before that day. Service was also amazing and included bonus snacks for everyone!
Hi Justin – this was January 5th. The plane has rotated out of Norwegian wet lease service (for now). We sat in 38/39 J/K. Thanks for reading!
Heh… I first read that as “we sat in seats 38/39…. just joking…” 🙂 But now I get it… Seats 38J 38K and 39J and 39K.
David
Hi there Blaine, thank you for this information. I too live in Denver and Norwegian just switched us to Wamos from Denver to Gatwick in 2 weeks. I”m a nervous traveler to begin with and getting anxious. We do have premium seats, although due to the switch my husband and I aren”t sitting together. Not sure how we can fix that. But Can you please describe the premium seats you saw and what the inflight entertainment is handled and is there Wi-Fi? I really appreciate your review above. Thanks Kara S.
Hey Kara! So, the premium product on this plane will likely be BETTER than the premium product on Norwegian’s 787s. It will be an old-school business class seat, probably angled-lie-flat. There is no wifi. I also wouldn’t count on any in-flight entertainment (there was none in economy, but I think there were screens in business). I’d plan on BYOD. Wamos does have a streaming app (make sure you download the app ahead of time) but it was really thin on content. Also make sure you have a power pack or two – I know there was no in-seat power in economy (although I’m not sure about business).
The challenge with you and your husband being separated is because of how much smaller the premium cabin is on the Wamos A330. Norwegian’s normal 787s have 35 premium seats. This A330 only has 20. So they’re completely booked full. Your best option will be to beg others to switch seats with you (they may be in a similar situation). And, of course, keep an eye on Norwegian’s seating chart every day to see if something opens up.
To wrap up, if it is like my experience, you’ll have an extremely friendly, hard-working crew. You’ll also have a great seat (compared to what you booked). Enjoy the ride to London!
Thank you. Your information and insight is greatly appreciated. I just hope there is one kind sole on board that will switch with me, otherwise getting panicky. Take care Kara
Blaine, your post is giving me hope! I received nearly the same text from Norwegian today, and idiotically, starting reading review after review after review. I have flown all sorts of carriers, yet it frightens me to fly an airline over the Atlantic that I am completely unfamiliar. I do find it to be frustrating not to have in-flight entertainment, and as we too are flying with toddlers, we will get the suggested battery packs. We also had to book one way tickets back to DEN so this was our best bet. I was hoping for the 787, but I pray that your experience will be how mine goes next week to get home! As long as the flight crew is kind, I can handle the ten hour jaunt home. Thanks!
Ok – I was about to bail and ask for a refund for premium seats from Chicago to London – 3 of us traveling together and I had selected seas when I booke but now they are nowhere to fund in the reservation on Norwegian Air’s site. I received that WAMOS air text last week and didn’t know what to make of it. I can handle no entertainment but was the cabin as smelly as other reviewers have said? I don’t think I could stomach that for 8 hours. Would you bail or keep the flight if you had paid for premium seats? They were around $1,250 each – any advice is greatly appreciated.
The crew was awesome on our flight. I hope you’ll have the same experience!
$1250 round-trip, or oneway? It’ll be hard to find anything one-way at that price point to Europe.
The cabin on my flight was clean, and definitely not smelly. The plane was in good condition, no different than the condition of any other trans-Atlantic carrier.
Hi Blaine! Thanks for the info. We are now on Wamos DEN/LGW on our way to Malaga . When you say check the seating chart daily how is that done? I can click change my seat in my reservation but I don”t know if that shows live options. I don”t want to lose what I have. The res agent got us aisles across 8C and D on the outbound saying it had more legroom (maybe right by the bathrooms?) and 37 A and C on the return. Said there is no B. Maybe those are the 2 seats instead of 3 across. I can”t find an accurate seating map on Wamos or anywhere else for the A330-200. Appreciate your help relieving some of my anxiety. Susan
You should be able to view the current seating chart while managing your booking on Norwegian’s website.
I’m having a similar issue as Susan – I’m on the same flight but in July. The Norwegian online seat chart doesn’t match the Vamos seat chart. For now I’ve requested 38H, 38K, 39H, 39K in the hopes that will translate to 38J, 38K, 39J, 39K. Any thoughts on why it’s mismatched or how to navigate?
I spoke to an agent at Norwegian that helped me select the best seats.They gave me extra legroom seats at no extra charge. The seat map on my return flight is different than the configuration in this post. That is when you can view it. They open it up and close it down periodically. I have a return flight with a seat map that doesn’t resemble anything I’ve seen posted by Wamos either. So I’m concerned. I have friends who paid for Premium and because of my giving them a heads up (they have not received a text) were able to get seats (not together) on their outbound flight on May 30 but Norwegian won’t assign them any seats (premium or economy) on their return June 13. I don’t think Norwegian knows what planes they are flying on all their scheduled dates. FYI they were willing to let me change my route to DEN/CDG for no extra charge. They still have Dreamliners on flights in and out of Paris. But I would be at my own expense to get to Malaga (my final destination). So I recommend expecting at least a 1/2 hour to be on hold and calling them to try and determine if your seats are where you want them to be.
Thanks, Susan! I’ll try to give them a call. Appreciate your comment!
I’m flying a one-way flight from London Gatwick to Denver in July and I noticed online that my flight changed to Wamos and they put us in totally different rows. No text or e-mail notification at all.
I called them and they put our seats together, of course like 10 rows back farther than where I was supposed to be. Pretty crappy service, I bet most people will just be showing up completely unknown to the change and will have totally random seats.
They said the plane was 2 – 4 – 2 and we’re in row 31 with the 2 seat portion. Not sure if those are any good or not
I received the email 1 week ago about the flight change to Wamos A330-200 and was happy to see I was still in my bulk head premium seat (although changed from window to aisle). I found your blog post and subscribed to Expert Flyer to see if my original window seat in premium would come up. I was notified of two seats that opened in premium a few days later and double checked on Norwegians website but decided I would stick with my premium aisle seat. Today, I received the text that I was down graded to economy. After a 27 minute wait on the phone, i spoke to a Norwegian representative and explained the situation and asked how they could bump me now? Long story short, there”s no resolution and their system can”t even put me back in the que for a premium economy seat. Would love any pointers on how to get my premium class seat back as it appears they sold my premium seat after the plane change. Thanks!
Sorry that happened to you Kristen. I seems you did everything to try and prevent it but they bumped you back anyway. I’m curious what did Norwegian decide to charge you for Economy (Low Fare or Low Fare Plus)? I’m sure the fare now is more than what is would have been when you originally booked your ticket. We have friends who are flying to visit us in Spain and because of my heads up they got two Premium seats (not together) on the outbound May 30 but Norwegian won’t assign them any seats on their return June 13. If they do get downgraded the fare now is very expensive if you were to buy it today. Can they tell what it was at the time of booking and charging you that amount? I appreciate you letting me know how they handed that part. As poorly as the downgrade?
Hi Susan,
Yes, they put me in low fare not low fare plus. Before I called them, I was able to change seats in economy with no charge and they did keep the 2 bags (without charge) on my ticket, however, I had to call to have the meal added otherwise it would have been $45 (hilarious price for an airline me, IMO). With all this said, they are refunding me 75% of my flight cost. I”ll add to this post for my return flight and let you know if I was down graded again.
Thanks for the info. I’ll pass it along. Good on you to make them pay for your meal. I was hoping to get them to mule some souvenirs back for me so glad to hear you still got the 2 bags. Me… I’m in Low Fare Plus and I hope my seats resemble the current seat map. I don’t think they know what they are doing with these leased planes.
2 of us are on Norwegian Flight August 13 from Denver to Gatwick. We are in Business and got the change message today. They changed our seats but we remained next to each other in Business. Does anyone know what the Business Class seats are like on this flight? We’re not lucky enough for flat beds, but….
Hi Don, quick question… as we are also flying from Denver: did you get a seat assignment for the return flight also? We have so far both seat assignments outbound, but, strangely, only one of us has a seat assignment on the return to Denver. An hour wait on the phone only led to the answer that the assignment will (magically) show up at some point prior to the flight. Not sure if I believe this.
Miriam, ”My Travels” on the Norwegian site shows us with with new seat assignments, but still in Premium. When I try to check available seats, or ”change seats”, I get the response that seat selection is not available on this flight. I tried to call today also, but no luck. Maybe one of you got booted back to economy. I would stay on it until you get a straight answer. Good luck.
Hi All, I flew from Denver to Gatwick on May 9th. The plane swap was announced 9 days before my departure and then I received a text saying I was downgraded 3 days prior to my departure. I spoke to Norwegian representatives 5 times spending a minimum of 25 minutes on hold for each call. To make a long story short, the representatives don”t have answers. The plane swap is a ”wet lease” meaning that not only is the plane a Wamos plane (A330-200) it is flown and operated by Wamos employees. Hence, the apparent reason Norwegian customer service was clueless. I can only tell you from my experience that if one person doesn”t have a new seat assignment in biz class, then most likely that person has been downgraded. I also would like to mention that I am returning on Norwegian with a premium ticket, but Norwegian cannot tell me if I will be downgraded or not. I asked why considering they already know who has purchased seats and I received the answer that they do not know, etc, etc. I can tell you that the seats on Wamos in biz/premium class have more of a recline to an almost lie flat position. Hope this helps.
Yes, thanks Kristen.
We just got the email for our Chicago Gatwick Copenhagen flight putting us in Wamos. No seat assignments even with the Premium tickets. They told me we have to get assigned at check in 3 hours early. My wife is worse than a fearful flier so it”s nor going to be a good time.
Got more info on our August Norwegian flights from DEN-LGW and return. We got assigned different seats, but still in Premium Class and close to original seats. Wamos Premium Class seats have 57″ pitch and 170 degree recline (virtually flat). For me that is much better than Norwegian, as long as the plane actually takes off & lands somewhere near on time.
Norwegian is at it again. Our flight leaves on June 6th 2019 from Denver with premium tickets and we just got the WAMOS notification. After hours waiting on hold we were told all of the premium seats are filled on the WAMOS plane and we don’t have them. But we are not considered downgraded right now and we cannot get a refund to book with another airline until we are. Not sure how we are not downgraded if all of the premium seats are already full. I’m 6’5″ and my son is 6’2″ and we are not looking forward to a 10 hour flight in the ridiculous economy seats on these WAMOS planes. The customer service was less than helpful and combative with every question we asked.
Jason-will the website allow you to pick your seats in economy? If so, 37A and 37B are your best options. As the article describes, it”s where the plane narrows so it goes down to two seat behind a three seat row. I had more leg room and sat sideways almost the whole time. You basically have the space of a third seat to stretch out as well as extra room between the seats.
Just checked our return flight back to Denver in July 2019 and it is listed as WAMOS now. We haven’t received any info from Norwegian that this flight was changed.
I didn’t either on my July flight from London to Denver. I had to go check and proactively call them to even get seats together again.
It will not let us pick our seats and customer service stated we can only do that three hours prior to departure. We appear to be on WAMOS EC-MTT which is a 2-4-2 layout not the 3-3-3. Thank You for the advise. I’ll continue to try and get seat assignments.
@ Jason – Mine is also showing 2-4-2. I can’t decide what rows are best…37, 38, 47? I’ve read 37 and 38 above, but when I look at the map that I’m able to pull up for my flight it looks like 47 is where the plane starts to narrow. Curious what you learn!
To everyone flying on wamos A330-200,they have 5 planes with different configurations, some are 333 and some are 242 narrowing nest the end, its abit of a nightmare buy if you cross reference your current flight on Flight Radar you can then check against Wamos website to see which aircraft number you have and good luck!
Hi, I too have had an email to say my carrier has been changed from Norwegian to Wamos. No details of aircraft. I went on live chat with Norwegian to see if the seats I’d pre booked would remain the same as my husband is over 6 foot & I had booked an extra legroom. The person told me the plane configuration was 2 4 2. However he wasn’t sure what was extra legroom, but offered seats 36G & 36H as they were classed as exit row. Any one have any idea if one of them will give my husband the legroom he needs?
I can’t help on the seats as it seems if you have premium tickets they do not let you choose seats on the WAMOS plane. They have to offer a refund if you are downgraded from premium (We wanted to switch to United for more money) so they leave you in premium status until three hours before the flight so you are stuck with them. Their customer service is not helpful as disconnect the chat last time I talked with them trying to figure out if you keep the premium meal when you are downgraded. All they would say is we are in premium even though they told us all premium seats are taken and our seat assignments are now empty on our itineraries. I also read an article that this latest round of Wet-leases started at the end of April 2019 for flights to Gatwick from Denver, Chicago, Orlando, Miami, and JFK. They also quietly changed their policy for the Airport lounges to require Premium-flex tickets.
I am a little confused. I booked on Norwegian, my first time, and notice I am on Wamos but was never notified to give me an option of changing. So what is the deal????? I have a PremiumFlex seat that does not allow me to reserve a seat. I totally do not understand. What are my options? This is from Denver to Gatwick on 27 June. Am I SOL?????
Any comments appreciated!
Thank you!
Eileen, Please post some photos of Wamos Premium Class seats on your June 27 flight!
We are in Premium Class with assigned seats 2G & 2H from Denver to Gatwick in August and seats 1E & 1F on the return. We have been assured by Norwegian customer service that we have those seats, but I’m still nervous.
Wamos responded to my email describing the seats as 170-degree recline. If this turns out to be correct, we should able to sleep even better than on Norwegian’s 787.
So good luck and we’ll be looking forward to your report.
Eileen,
We just got back from our trip on WAMOS. If you have the option to get a refund and book another airline I would recommend doing that, we unfortunately was not given that option. We were also not notified of the change until a week or so before our flight, called customer service repeatedly about getting a premium seat assigned and put in 2 claims but never got any resolution to the same problem you are experiencing. We wanted to get a refund but they said their policies didn’t allow that unless we were officially downgraded which did not happen until we were already at the airport. We were told to arrive 3 hours before the flight to ensure getting a seat assigned but upon arriving to DIA the agent told us we could not receive a seat until everyone else checked in and were put on Stand By. We again had to stand in line at the gate until the agents decided to show up about 30 minutes before the flight and finally assigned us 1 Premium seat and 3 middle seats in economy. We were told that all the economy passengers where able to select their seat but because we were ‘Premium’ we had to wait until everyone checked in.
They purposefully left us in a Premium status so that we could not cancel and then ended up giving us middle seats in the back of the plane. This is how they treat their Premium passengers.
On the way home we were downgraded to Economy 2 days before the flight but until that we had 2 Premium seats already assigned to us but that was taken away and when we were downgraded we were able to pick our seats so at least we got to sit together on the way home.
The whole Norwegian experience was a joke and the airline does not know how to run their company as they are scrabbling to stay afloat contracting with inferior aircraft to their Dreamliners which was what we booked 9 months ago. I can go on and on about how we were treated and have contacted with a Lawyer about putting together a class action lawsuit about their bait and switch advertising.
All I can say to you is to get to the airport early if you can’t cancel and see if you can get an assigned seat but overall their customer service dept was not helpful and told us misinformation so not sure it’s worth trying that route.
Good Luck
Thank you, Jason!!
I can hardly wait until Thursday night when I go & get to experience all this first hand.
Eileen
We went through this exact situation as I had posted previously. Same responses from Norwegian. I was just glad that we purchased the premium flex tickets because they were fully refundable. I contacted their customer service immediately after receiving the email. I wasn”t happy with their response of waiting until check in to see if we had seats. I canceled and booked with Icelandair, same thing, premium flex. We just returned from two weeks in Denmark and our flights were great. Of course I had to pay more for the last minute booking but at least we had seats in premium like we started with. If we would have booked with Icelandair right away instead of Norwegian it would have been the same price. But who knew then……
Thanks, Bob!!
Will keep my fingers crossed!!
Eileen
Eileen,
Please post some photos of Wamos Premium Class seats on your June 27 flight!
We are in Premium Class with assigned seats 2G & 2H from Denver to Gatwick in August and seats 1E & 1F on the return. We have been assured by Norwegian customer service that we have those seats, but I’m still nervous. Wamos responded to my email describing the seats as 170-degree recline. If this turns out to be correct, we should able to sleep even better than on Norwegian’s 787.
So good luck and we’ll be looking forward to your report.
Will do
Don,
We were also assigned seats both going out of Denver to Gatwick and coming home but on the way out I had to fight for the premium seat and ended up with only 1 (we had 4 total tickets) and on the way home we lost the 2 seats that were assigned to us 2 days before the flight so unfortunately you are not guaranteed those seats even though they are currently assigned to you. Hopefully that won’t happen to you but that is what happened to us.
Norwegian’s customer service is horrible and will tell you anything at this point but nothing was true for us so far. However, the premium seats on the WAMOS are better than those on the Dreamliner, so they are correct that the seat recline to lay flat.
Good luck
Jason & others- Sorry I bailed out of Norwegian & flew UALgot a buddy pass & Nor- Refunded my full ticket as I was Premium-/ Good luck!
Eileen
Oh man! Thanks, Jason. I’ll try again to get Norwegian to email me some kind of guarantee, but I guess it doesn’t look promising. I’m anxious to hear from Eileen who I hope has better luck.
Hi, I pretty much got same emails like all of you. I am flying from London Gatwick to Chicago in 2 weeks :/ , I chose Norwegian because “Norwegian has one of the youngest and greenest fleets in the world” and it was a bit cheaper I must admit than other airlines. I also just found out about no entertainment as well which is a bit disappointing as I am flying with my 2 kids age 2 and 7 year old.
If all those reviews are really that bad I rather try and get a refund or get some late minutes deals. if not I might even consider cancelling our trip as I am not very convinced. Since getting the emails about WAMOS AIR that I have never heard in my life, to have the courage to flight a transatlantic flight with, no thanks plus I have a funny feeling. I appreciate your reviews it helped me take a quick decision, thanks
I forgot the reply with a trip report. It”s late here so I will leave more details later but our Wamos (den to lgw) on 7/4/19 red eye was totally fine! Not smelly, every seat had a screen, and the food was good for airplane food. We were served 2 generous portioned meals. Kids loved it (screens). Not roomy or luxurious but far from a nightmare.
I recently flew on den to lgw originally booked with Norwegian operated by Wamos. Same as previous comments got a text a month before the flight notifying me that wamos would be operating the flight and that refunds weren’t an option. I must say I was worried about the flight as it was for my honeymoon and really wanted everything to be perfect. I had never heard of Wamos air and as I researched them I found mostly bad reviews. I really considered cancelling the trip!! However, the fact that I already had a lot of money tied up in hotels and activities and the fact that there were some positive reviews gave me hope that the trip could still be salvaged. I am really glad I reconsidered as the flight couldn’t have been better. The in-flight entertainment was good, the legroom was better that I usually have when I fly. The crew did a nice job. Although the crews first language wasn’t English, neither is my Wife’s. So bonus points with my wife that she could communicate in her most comfortable language and I didn’t have any trouble communicating in English either. I am really glad I didn’t cancel now! Thanks for giving such a fair an honest review!!
Hi just wanted to say I too was impressed with my Wamos flight. We flew LGW – Chicago on the 9th August & I was a little apprehensive after reading reviews. However couldn’t fault the flight at all (apart from the delay!) My husband had the extra leg room he wanted, meals were fine & there was entertainment. Staff were friendly too. Well done Wamos!
DEN to LGW. Great flight. Huge amount of space in premium. Slept 7 hours on flat bed.
Qell, just now got a txt that our flight will be operatec by WAMOS, never heard. I’m nervous. So i searched, all bad reviews. I hope that this site is real because it’s comforting @ least. First w/ Norwegian, now what a mess. I always like Lufthansa but tried to save this time. Oh my, please God , be in our flight. Our 25th wedding anniversary, i hope everything will turn out right.
Hi, I also flight from London Gatwick to Chicago and back and both flights were operated by Wamos that we found out 1 week before. All family of 4, me husband and 2 kids but we had a good experience and plenty of space in the economy and also entertainment (not a huge range). I read about the bad reviews and like yourself I felt a bit funny and tried to cancel but no refunds. We had no problems and the staff were very nice. Hope you enjoy it and please come back and let us know your experience. Also Happy anniversary!!!
on Aug 13 & 31 I flew round trip from DEN to LGW. Both flights were better for me because they had flat beds in premium. That makes all the difference. Everything else was just fine.
We are flying to Den from Gatwick in Sept really concerned and scared of flying with Wamos – we booked our flights last January with Norwegians it was a Dreamliner. We could have booked with other airlines for the same price but chose Norwegian as we have had really good experience with them in the past. Back in May we received an email to say that we are now going to be flying with Wamos and I am terrified- old planes, poor service, dirty, no inflight service, old seating, Smells of ashtrays and more!
We were told we couldn”t get a refund or change dates back then – which is terrible.
I am sitting here now after not seeing my family in the US for 8years… thinking of not going
Why are they saying no Dreamliner when they have been advertising the Dreamliner since the day they sent me the email?
I am worried about the age of the plane, does our aviation people check there planes.
Sounds extreme but I am scared of flying and takes a lot of convincing to get me to book a long haul flight
Hi Gina, we flew Gatwick to Chicago in August with Wamos it really was fine. Staff were friendly, plane was fine there really was nothing wrong with it. Yes the plane was an older model but I’ve flown with BA on what to me have been older models
Please don’t worry
Looks like I’m on this same plane from CDG to JFK. There are exit row seats still available, both in row 8 (side section) right behind premium and in row 30 (both center and sides available) – do you think those would be better than the seats you chose (for 2 passengers)?
I am booked on Norwegian premium JFK-CDG-JFK in 2 weeks. Am now informed flight will be on Wamos. None of these commentators say what aircraft you took! Wamos has 747’s with a biz cabin and Airbus 330-200 which Wamos shows as all economy!! Got Norwegian on the phone – one person says there is a premium cabin, the other says there is none. Can any of you check if you flew on their Airbus 300 and if so, do they have a premium cabin??
Laurence, check on Flight Radar to see what aircraft is flying your route then look it up on the Wamos website. The plane type will be ECC-…The Wamos website will tell you the plane and seat layout. However it’s not that simple. My seat plan on Norwegian website shows a 3 3 3 layout but when I check on flight radar all the flights for my route show a 2 4 2 configuration so not sure what to expect but I booked the exit row seats on the 3 3 3 layout on their website and just hope I get them. Good luck.
Just did this flight LON-DEN return. On the way back had the plan from the article. Overall I would have been happier on another airline it wasn’t as bad as I had anticipated. I would definitely recommend sorting your own entertainment out – I had an iPad and Laptop – as they only play music during take off and landing.
On the flight out we had the 2-4-2, but flight back was 3-3-3 as per the article.
Laurence there was premium on both flights I was on, A330-223 and A330-243. Having said that “premium” might be a bit of a stretch if you’re used to other airlines.
Also the food was garbage, definitely bring your own.
I commented earlier this summer when our flight was changed to Wamos. My contention with the whole affair was that we had booked early for premier seats. When we finally got the notice we were less than two weeks out and not only did we not get premium on Wamos but I didn”t even get any seat on that flight. Luckily we bought the refundable tickets so we bailed and booked on Icelandair. Unfortunately with two weeks out our price was double what it would have been if we would have booked with them first. In a recent article in Travel and Leisure, Norwegian just got help keeping them from bankruptcy for at least another year.
Great info here, thanks so much for sharing. Just had a RT non-stop Chicago-London and wound up on the Norwegian/Wamos A330. We had an obscenely low fare, about $400 RT. On the way out, we paid the $48 dollars each for assigned seats and sure enough, looked for where the plane goes from 3-3-3 to 2-3-2 and got the 2 on the side. Legroom was so great – this appeared true in every row though. On the way back we were just tired and decided to throw caution to the wind and sit where they put us. Hubby and I were together in a row of 3 but fate smiled upon us as there was nobody else in our row, in an otherwise crowded plane. The flights were on-time and very smooth, certainly the most important thing for us anyway. I just want to comment on the “service” on the return flight. It was so bad it was actually comical. This appears to be a convoluted and highly inefficient process as others have mentioned. But when they were ready to serve the rank-and-file like ourselves (after passing out menus to taunt us!), the service cart zipped down the aisle with speed I’ve never seen before. There was NO chance at flagging it unless you saw it coming and put your leg out. I thought perhaps they were starting at the back and moving their way up. But no, there was no service for us. If you wanted anything you had to go and get it yourself (which I did). For the rest of the flight, the crew was all but invisible. Our outbound flight was overnight, so when there was no service on that one I chalked it up to the overnight aspect.
I’d fly them again, in light of the low fares and on-time service.
This post was a great savior (I think) Today I got the same message for a JFK-Gatwick trip. Went to the Norwg site but my flight was still listed there as run by Norweg. About 6 hours later I rechecked the Norweg site and it had changed to the Wamos flight, complete with updated seating chart. We *had* paid extra for front row seats but we were merely assigned the same numbered seats on the A330 which were *not* front row seats. Happily, the ones pictured in this post *were* available and I was able to seemingly change our seats to those seats. btw – those seats – the first row with 2 seats on the side – are row 37, seats J & K. That’s on the right. The front 2 seaters on the left or Row 37 A & B. Hopefully this change will actually be true. Thanks to the author!