Norwegian no longer flies transatlantic, so a US traveler meets it inside Europe. That changes which parts of Norwegian baggage rules actually matter to you.
The relevant fares are short haul European ones. The old long haul allowances are gone with the routes.
The cheapest fare has no overhead bag
LowFare includes only the small underseat item, 40 by 30 by 20 centimeters. There is no full size cabin bag.
LowFare Plus and Flex include the overhead cabin bag at 55 by 40 by 23 centimeters. It can also be bought as an add-on.
So the fare name, not the airline, decides whether you have overhead space.
Weight is counted across both bags
On LowFare Plus the combined hand baggage limit is 10 kilograms, about 22 pounds. On Flex it rises to 15 kilograms.
The underseat item counts toward that total. It is not weighed separately.
Fifteen kilograms on Flex is genuinely generous for a European short haul carrier. Ten kilograms on LowFare Plus is about average.
The overweight charge is the one to fear
Norwegian charges 15 EUR per kilogram per leg above 23 kilograms. That is per kilo and per flight, not per booking.
A bag 5 kilograms over on a round trip costs 150 EUR. The bag itself would have cost a fraction of that to add properly.
This is the sharpest edge in Norwegian baggage rules. Weigh checked bags at home without exception.
Checked bag prices
The first checked bag is 20 EUR on domestic routes and 19 to 45 EUR internationally. The second is 29.90 EUR domestic and 28 to 46 EUR internationally.
A standard piece is 23 kilograms, with 32 kilograms as the absolute maximum per bag.
LowFare includes no checked bag. LowFare Plus adds one 23 kilogram bag and Flex adds two.
How Norwegian baggage rules compare
The cabin size matches most of Europe, including SAS and Lufthansa. Nothing unusual in the frame.
The combined weight approach is closer to Finnair than to SAS, which weighs the cabin bag alone. Finnair is stricter still at 8 kilograms combined.
Our European carry-on size guide compares the region.
Booking sensibly on a European leg
Work out whether you need overhead space before comparing fares. LowFare is a real saving if an underseat bag covers the trip.
If you need a checked bag, buy it at booking rather than later. The per kilo overweight rate makes guessing expensive.
Run the comparison in the baggage cost tool before you commit.
What the underseat bag has to do
On LowFare the 40 by 30 by 20 centimeter bag is your entire allowance. Twenty centimeters of depth is more than most European underseat limits.
That extra depth suits a compact backpack rather than a flat tote. Packed well it covers two or three days.
Remember the weight still counts. On LowFare Plus it comes out of the same 10 kilogram total as the cabin bag.
The bottom line
Norwegian baggage rules reward planning and punish improvisation. The fare decides your cabin bag, and the scale decides everything else.
Confirm the dimensions in the size checker, and see how we verify these figures.