Jet Airways

I wish I had discovered this forum before booking with Maxjet then I might not have had such high expectations on my first business class flight to NY. We were booked on their flight to JFK on Friday 15th June (so that was probably our plane which was still on the tarmac - see previous comments). At check-in we were advised there would be a delay as a replacement plane had to be flown in from LAS as there was a problem with ours and as would seem to be the norm we were sent off to the Radisson for breakfast. After a couple more 'time changes' plus some considerable period sitting on the plane whilst supposedly waiting for a second signature on some paperwork (I'm surprised there wasn't a riot!) we eventually departed 12 hrs late. Trying to give Maxjet the benefit of the doubt - these things happen and the plane has to be safe etc. after all - I hoped they would redeem themselves on return journey. Unfortunately that wasn't to be the case. Again we encountered a 3 hr delay this time sitting on the runway whilst air traffic control found us a 'slot'. As has been said previously you do get the feeling of being fobbed-off with what seem feeble excuses but I do feel sorry for the crew who really do try their best and I have to agree that the inflight service etc. is very good. Unfortunately however this is vastly overshadowed by their unreliability. We were not offered any compensation at all but having now read other comments I can probably understand this as it would appear they'd have to compensate almost every passenger. I'm afraid I have to agree with a previous comment that if they don't get their act together pretty quickly they're not going to survive. Word seems to be spreading.

Booked with MaxJet STN-IAD last Nov. for July 24 as the airport is so close. Cancelled Tuesdays' flights way back but didn't tell me till about March so had to change some holiday reservations. Since then I have been keeping a close eye on things. The recent flush of IAD cancellations has meant that I have got my money back and taken the BA Club offer instead before it's too late. I phoned first and was told "in the event of our flight being cancelled next month they would only offer another date or refund". Like other comments here it's a pity not to support them both for the competition they could give and for the convenience of not using LHR but if you can't trust them to fly it's not going anywhere.

I was scheduled to fly STN-LAS on Saturday 16th June. Arriving from Belfast the night before I noticed a Maxjet still on the ground. On enquiring at their desk was told it was the delayed NY and that it was to fly LAS the next morning - when leaving STN at 23.00! Simple flying maths told me that we must be 7 or 8 hours late. The desk girl said she could not say! Website said flight was on time as it still said on Saturday. Yes the flight was over 8 hours delayed - pax were put up in Radisson SAS for day and allowed £15 for meals. When the NY flight landed that evening the waiting pax cheered in the Maxjet lounge. One surprise was being told by the Captain that we were going via Iceland to refuel - the LR a/c was presumably u/s but we were never told this. Arrival in Vegas was 12.30am and then find a taxi! The stay there was enlivened by trying to find out if the flights were back on time - website page eventually taken down and call centre only - staff there knew of no problems!! Flight back was on time almost. Service was OK seats as expected and price good. Is it sensible to fly an airline with 3 tired aircraft? Maybe.

Maxjet makes it hard to love them. They just canceled tomorrow's Stansted to DC flight which was sold out. They have booked us Upper Class on a Virgin flight (and offered a full refund or change of date) but we were trying to avoid the inconvenience of Heathrow as we live in Cambridge. They cancelled the one other time we tried them - when they cancelled the DC route for the whole winter! I wonder if we will be flying Maxjet back on Monday or Virgin! If they can't get their planes to be more dependable Maxjet won't survive - and shouldn't.

STN-LAS-STN. We are Premium Economy upgraders rather than business travellers so our experience of high quality air travel is limited. However thanks to correspondents on this forum we thought we knew what the Maxjet experience would be like. Correct. Stansted is great Fast- Track excellent and the dedicated lounge high quality. OK the planes are a bit old but for us the outward journey was heaven: masses of legroom; attentive friendly high-calibre service; good food and entertainment; and clean toilets. In fact it was close to perfect. We have travelled to Vegas often and never arrived as sprightly and rested as this. To compare it with Virgin Premium Economy is farcical. It was superb. Unfortunately here comes the sting. After booking our flights in February (in the sale at £600 return) we monitored the flights on Maxjet's website to check reliability. Every flight (yes we should get out more). It was excellent for a couple of months but nearing our departure date things started to slip. This coincided with the reinstatement of the Washington service. We are not experts and have no knowledge of the airline business but it seems that Maxjet have barely enough planes to go round. While the Washington route was suspended things were fine now they are flying by the seat of their pants (apologies). Our return plane from Vegas arrived from London 2 hours late. We were told because of a combination of 'abnormal heat in Vegas a full load and a shorter runway because of prevailing winds' we would have to stop in JFK to refuel as we couldn't take off with a full fuel load. 38 degrees in Vegas abnormal? They've not been there often in August then. Total rubbish. We don't know what the problem was - perhaps they borrowed the plane from the Washington route (see comment below from T Williams) and it didn't have as large a fuel tank. Or perhaps it leaked?! Who knows? But it wasn't because it was hot in Vegas. We arrived at Stansted 6 hours late. I personally felt pretty ill when we had to land an hour after going to sleep and then had to sit on the tarmac for an hour. Worse than travelling Economy - possibly. We can't fault the staff (although no apology was ever given for our late arrival) and every other part of the experience was very good. We would go to Vegas again with Maxjet at sale prices as there are limited alternatives. But New York - there would appear to be better choices at similar prices. Do not rely on this airline (certainly while they try to cover too many routes with not enough planes). Just know what you are getting into. If you have two trouble free flights then you'll have a great trip and a bargain to boot.

Dulles to STN on June 4 - original aircraft was in for servicing so they replaced our plane with an "all first class" 757 previously leased to the Dallas Mavericks basketball team. Seats were above coach but certainly far from first class. Cabin crew were very apologetic and still fed us very good food but a single aisle plane with seats that hardly recline didn't make it up for us. On the taxi trip to STN for our June 17 return we learned through the toll-free celll number that the flight would be delayed 7 1/2 hours. Phone agent would not rebook us - said we had to take care of it after arriving at the STN counter. When we got to the counter we found out the flight had been cancelled. We were put on a shuttle back to Heathrow where we were rebooked in COACH on Virgin! As consolation we were told that we would each receive two vouchers for future travel on Maxjet. We'll see if the vouchers actually show up and if the airline stays in business - otherwise I wouldn't fly these guys unless I had a whole lot of time on either side of the trip to allow for 24 hours of schedule mishaps. Also that it was interesting that of the seven flights operating this week from Dulles to Stansted 2 were delayed 7 hours 2 were delayed over 12 hours and 2 more were completely cancelled.

I just travelled with Maxjet to Las Vegas. Service was excellent for the price. The Business class cannot be compared with the likes of BA or Virgin but the price is comparable with Premium Economy. The seat is equivelent to the old style bucket seats. The seat goes back far enough to get a decent night sleep and the configuration is 2-2-2. As for the price I compared their price with Virgin and BMI's Premium economy price. And at just under £800.00 including tax it was a no brainer! I got a further discount from invegas.co.uk. The flight takes a bit longer than Virgin but this is probably due to the smaller plane. If you are a regular business class traveller and you think you are saving a fortune you will be disapointed. If however you fancy splashing out instead of economy then you will be delighted!

JFK-STN-JFK last week. The plane was full on NY-London run and almost full on the return. Service remains equal if not superior to United/American Intl. business class. The experience can be described as what MaxJet calls traditional business class. This means a comfortable seat with a 60" pitch (not a flat bed) decent food (the lobster was probably the best in flight meal I have had) alcoholic beverages served by attentive cabin crew and a decent selection of movies. There were some minor issues I would have liked to see improved such as serving dinner sooner and breakfast later and heating up the nuts before serving them (a real time inflight tracker would also be nice as would power ports) but these are minor quibbles. A note to those who would avoid MaxJet because they would rather use or accrue frequent flyer miles on a major carrier: Fly MaxJet instead. I have priced out a business class upgrade on this route on two US carriers and it was the same price before accounting for the 50000-60000 miles I would then need to expend before getting the upgrade. I prefer to save my major carrier miles for when I really need them or they are a better use of miles such as for trips to Asia.

So inadequate were Maxjet's replies to my two e-mails on disrupted seating assignments that I have written to their Customer Services VP an address provided in their onboard literature. Maxjet are offering a dood fare good seat and pretty good food but let themselves down badly on reliability timekeeping and customer service. The comment on the good seat does not apply to 8D/F which they should not be selling as their regular product. My battles on changed seat assignments continued at LAS. It appears that the Reservations department do not fully understand the impact of aircraft changes some of which occur because of Maxjet's flaky reliability. The inbound aircraft was late but still had time to go out on time at 5pm. However they were always chasing the clock when the cabin crew were boarded late perhaps because of the TSA. We didn't push back until 5.15 and then had a 20min taxi. One thing that goes straight out of the window with time constraints is the canape service which I have not seen in a while. I imagine they are loaded so am I to understand that they are simply wasted? Maxjet show an overall time of 10hrs LAS-STN which I think is actually unachievable given the time factors at LAS and flight on two engines. The pilot made a bizarre departure announcement that the forecast weather for London was 54 degrees (F) and must have been reading an actual rather than a forecast. My lobster was unexpected and very good but it would have taken more than an agreeable crustacean to improve my overall impression of Maxjet on my 4th round trip. I can report a highly satisfactory outcome to my latest tranche of queries which eventualy I addressed to VPCS at Maxjet. I received comprehensive and valid responses; given the benefits offered by Maxjet in spite of their occasional failings I shall be happy to travel with them again.

MaxJet is an economy airline maquerading as a 'quality' alternative to BA/AA/Virgin/United business class - the Ryan Air of 'business class'. The planes are very old and tired - which means they have an unusually high percentage of mechanical problems. I was diverted to Boston enroute from Dulles to Stanstead when one of the two generators onboard (which powers the entire aircraft electrical system) failed over Newfoundland. The staff were ill prepared for any of the obvious fallout such as "what the ---- do we do now to get to London". I opted to take my money back from MaxJet rent a car back to DC and booked a very comfortable Virgin Economy Plus seat the following evening.