MAXjet a Boon to the Business Class

I chatted with a chap in the roomy MAXjet Airways lounge at London's small Stansted airport. We covered lots of topics - work, career, family - but the most interesting to me was why he had chosen to fly this relatively new, all-business-class airline.

"My boss suggested it," he told me.

We should all have such in-the-know bosses.

It seems that this software engineer was stuck with a last- minute assignment in Silicon Valley and had less than a week to plan it. Sadly, Zach's Internet search turned up some pretty hefty fares in coach that would not meet his budget.

But MAXjet did the trick.

With new service into Las Vegas from London that began in early November, this young executive was able to take a Southwest flight from there to San Jose for hundreds of dollars less than being stuck in the back of a plane straight to the San Francisco Bay area on a more-established airline.

MAXjet has only been around for about a year (operating out of New York's JFK, Washington Dulles and Las Vegas McCarran). Still, I found the service very mature with comfortable, ergonomic seats that lie nearly flat, a generous amount of personal space at each seat (the fleet includes three Boeing 767-200s that normally seat 200 but MAXjet has configured each craft for only 102 seats) and a staff that would immediately scurry to my rescue whenever I snapped on the flight attendant call light.

Sleep was on my mind as I boarded following a fast-paced, four- day business trip to England. Then I saw the dinner menu and decided to partake - even though if I chose to sleep instead I would have been able to eat whenever I wanted during the nearly 12- hour journey since a pantry on board is open throughout the flight. From that outpost, hungry passengers can ask for an array of fulfilling foods, from chicken and roasted tomato sandwiches on olive bread to plates of fresh fruit to gourmet potato chips and sweets.

The formal meal turned out to be lovely, especially the starter - a watercress and Boston lettuce salad embellished with large chunks of artichoke hearts and plump Kalamata olives. My main course was a Thai chicken curry (though I almost ordered the teriyaki salmon as both dishes piqued my interest). Dessert was called chocolate and banana delice and was, indeed, delicious.

Satiated, I opened the portable DVD player in my seat back to see what was on offer. Every passenger on MAXjet is given one of these handy machines, a big boon to me since I am techno-slow and hate having to figure out how to turn my armrest into a seat entertainment system. The MAXjet method meant simply plugging in some headphones and punching up the menu button.

After watching a delightful, calming film, I stretched out, snuggled up and didn't wake until hours later when I smelled fresh roasted coffee.

The cart came by and I ordered Earl Grey instead as I wanted to have my last proper high tea before setting down in the States. The MAXjet staff delivered it with fresh fruit scones accompanied by the requisite strawberry preserves and clotted cream, but the piece de resistance was a hot smoked salmon tart served with a creamy hollandaise sauce on the side. Divine!

We arrived at Las Vegas McCarran International Airport about 20 minutes early and were whisked through Customs so quickly that I didn't even get a chance to say good-bye to my British friend from the lounge in Stansted. He was probably already on his way to San Jose while I went further south to Los Angeles. No worries. I'm sure we'll both meet again on another MAXjet flight some time in the near future.

News stories provided by third parties are not edited by "Site Publication" staff. For suggestions and comments, please click the Contact link at the bottom of this page.