Tomatico woke up on Thursday morning feeling much better that he had earlier in the week. While he was still tired and unable to go to school because his fever broke less than 24 hours before, he was finally hungry again. He rested throughout the day regaining his strength.

My dad, who had gotten in two days before, was reading and passing the time watching TV. The previous night we had watched the movie “The Darkest Hour” about Churchill and World War II. Much of that story was set in bunkers that are now a museum that we would definitely be visiting so we had lots of reasons to pay attention to those details and get excited about the trip.

Since we were leaving on an evening overnight flight, my wife and I both had work to do, but it was actually one of the less stressful pre-trip days we’ve had. We were already packed and ready to go by the time I finished work and we had a quick bite to eat at home.

Online Checkin

During the day I had checked in online with Norwegian to make sure everything was in order. The two checked suitcases I had paid for were there as expected, but I realized our seat assignment was not the same as I had originally booked.

I checked the original email confirmation email when I booked the reservation to confirm the seats had actually changed. While the seats were together, we didn’t have a window like in the original reservation and we were several rows further back.

I decided to call the customer support line to get details about the change. The agent picked right up and was very friendly and understanding of the situation. Apparently the type of plane servicing the route had changed from a 787-8 to a 787-9. The 787-9 is a larger aircraft and had more rows of seats overall. It had more rows of the premium seats but as it turns out the row we selected originally didn’t even exist in the new plane which is why we were reassigned to the best available at the time. The phone agent couldn’t update our seats for us, but she gave me an email address to send a complaint to and said we should be able to get a refund on our seat assignment fees, though it could take a few weeks.

I thanked the agent as she was very helpful, though restricted in what she could do to help. I definitely appreciated the advice to send the email to make my case to get my seat assignment fee refunded. I didn’t have a lot of confidence I’d get much of it back but figured I’d try sending an email. Luckily the seats we had were still near the front and were all together so it wasn’t like we all got middle seats in different parts of the plane. In the end, I did get all the seat assignment fees refunded about a month after we flew so I’m glad I sent the email.

Airport Checkin and Security

We hit the tail end of rush hour traffic getting to the airport. We had gotten a Lyft XL to carry all five of us plus our luggage. Even though it was more expensive than a regular Lyft, it was significantly cheaper than paying for parking for the duration of our trip.

The checkin line for Norwegian was pretty short since it was 3 hours before departure. We quickly checked our bags and got our boarding passes printed out. We headed over to security expecting it to be a zoo just like our trip to Rome a few months prior. It was definitely less chaotic but still far from zen. There wasn’t a TSA/PreCheck line at the time, though there is now as we learned during our recent trip to Dubai. Luckily we all made it through without much delay. I had cleaned a lot of the extra cables and adapters from my laptop bag and I wasn’t flagged this time.

Air France Lounge

During our Rome trip we had tried one the Priority Pass lounges and while it was okay, we wanted to try out the other one available in Terminal E in Boston. We followed signs to the Air France lounge which also happened to be close to the gate we would fly out of.

We checked everyone in using my Priority Pass card, which at the time allowed unlimited guests. It now allows only 2 guests, but my wife also has the same membership so we can each check in one of the kids as a guest when traveling as a family now.

The lounge was fairly crowded but we found a corner with some empty seats where we could leave our backpacks and carry on and get some food. Tomatico was VERY excited about this lounge. As we found, his appetite had fully recovered and he was making up for lost time. They had several warm and cold food options including pasta. He had several servings. They also had a few choices of soups and some salad options to go along with the less healthy desert options. There were a number of drink options as well including wine and champagne.

Boarding and Departure

A few minutes before the stated boarding time we headed up to the gate and found they were already calling to allow family’s with small children to board. The gate agent waved all of us through without question so we didn’t end up waiting at all.

We found our seats which ended up being the three in the middle as well as the aisle and middle in the same row of the side section. I sat with my dad and Tomatico in the middle section with Tomatico in the middle. He was super excited to check out what the in flight entertainment system had to offer.

Since we were one of the first to board we had no problem finding overhead space for my dad’s carry on. The plane itself was practically brand new and everything was in excellent shape and full working condition. The seats had a decent amount of leg room so my knees weren’t crunched up against the seat in front of me, even when they reclined. The seats also had a decent amount of padding.

We ended up taking off on time and had a relatively turbulence free flight the whole night. We found the entertainment system had an okay selection of movies and TV shows, but if the flight was longer or if we traveled the airline more frequently we’d quickly run out of things to watch.

With our fare we didn’t have any meals included. We had an offer in an email the week before the flight allowing us to buy them at a “discounted” rate but it came out to be about $70 for a dinner and breakfast per person and we definitely wouldn’t pay that much for airplane food. If you wanted to buy a snack or a bottle of water (none were included in the fare) you could order it on the touchscreen on the back of the seat in front of you, paying with your credit card. The prices weren’t that bad. I believe it was $3.00 for a bottle of water. After ordering the attendant would bring it to your seat within a few minutes. It was less disruptive than having the attendants going through with the cart.

After watching a couple movies, I forced Tomatico to try to get some sleep and tried napping myself. We both got a couple hours of not-quite-sleep-but-better-than-nothing before we started our final descent into Gatwick.