Will Norwegian Airlines troubles affect our flight?

Q My family are booked to fly from Gatwick on in July with Norwegian Airlines to Seattle. For six of us we have paid nearly £4,000. We are concerned that the airline is in difficulties and may go bust. We paid our fares by credit card. We need to book our flights from Edinburgh to Gatwick and stay in a hotel overnight due to flight time to Seattle. If we book using Booking.com, would we get our money back if we couldn’t fly with Norwegian? Also would we get our money back if Norwegian went bust through our credit-card company?

Bob T

A Norwegian has expanded rapidly. Its chief executive, Bjorn Kjos, says: “We have been a disruptive force on the side of consumers from the day we started with affordable fares for all as our main goal. What has also singled Norwegian out for attention from our rivals is our ability to make this model work across longer distances.”

Competitors might say that the airline hasn’t exactly made the model work – pointing to the recent announcement of closures to routes and bases, and a £270m rights issue to pump cash into the airline.

I would have no hesitation in booking flights with Norwegian – knowing that were the worst to happen, I would get a full refund from my credit-card firm. In addition, if it happened while I was abroad, other airlines would step in with “rescue fares”.

But I would hesitate to commit additional and non-recoverable spending.

However, in your case that looks inescapable. If you are to get reasonable fares from Edinburgh to Gatwick and back to connect it will be good to book soon. You can book a hotel on a pay-on-arrival basis (usually for significantly more than for an advance, non-refundable rate), but it would be more straightforward to do this without an intermediary such as Booking.com.

Had you asked my advice ahead of this trip, I would have advised a different approach: using one of the North American airlines flying from Edinburgh to a range of cities, from which you could make a same-day connection. Perhaps you might consider that on your next trip.

Every day our travel correspondent Simon Calder tackles a reader’s question. Just email yours to s@hols.tv or tweet @simoncalder