My first experience of one of the new all business class airlines. Initial impressions were good and the outward flight exceeded my expectations. Criticisms were minor. The MaxJet Lounge at Stansted offers a wide range of refreshments and food, but was rather crowded with a full flight (plus some passengers for the Las Vegas flight which was due to depart slightly later). Cabin service in-flight was excellent and food of a high standard served individually by course. Seats were very comfortable with lots of space in front. The portable DVD players were a bit irritating as to what to do with them while eating as they needed to sit on your table. Passengers seemed to put them on the floor and I would imagine they would be easily damaged. My wife had to have her first 2 DVD players replaced as they did not work. They seemed to carry a good stock of spares. Perhaps they will review this in future. Flight was slightly late in arriving due to strong headwinds. I had paid a promotional fare only slightly above other airline's economy fares and so was well pleased with the value.

The return journey was the big disappointment. Arrived in good time at JFK to see on the departure monitors that the my MaxJet flight was listed as cancelled. Went quickly to the MaxJet counters to be told that the flight was not operating due to "unscheduled maintenance". To be fair, MaxJet had tried to contact me earlier in the day, but for various reasons (not MaxJet's fault) they could not get hold of me. There were 4 of us travelling and it was difficult to get a suitable alternative. We opted for flights to Heathrow with Virgin, but our family had to be split which was rather unsatisfactory with 2 seats in Premium Economy and 2 in Upper Class (see separate review). However I appreciate that maintenance issues do arise unexpectedly and at least we were not left stranded. MaxJet arranged a taxi to take us from Heathrow back to Stansted.

Would I use them again? Possibly! MaxJet is growing and with a larger fleet they may be better equipped to cope with unserviceability problems. I am sold on using Business Class for long-haul flights and MaxJet are very good value, but reliability is important too.