As I grow older and richer, I find that living gets cheaper. I now enjoy senior citizen discounts on rail and bus fares and reduced entry to museums, cinemas, and theaters. When in London, my travel on that city’s red buses and underground trains is free. In Paris, public transport costs half what it used to when I was younger.
Air travel also got cheaper with the arrival of no-frills, low-cost airlines. But that saving was at the cost of my comfort-tiny seats, squeezed together, and non-existent service. This never appealed to me so I avoided such aircraft until a new breed of low-cost luxury airlines flew onto my radar-screen a few months ago.
The first of these was MaxJet, a daily service between New York’s JFK and London’s Stansted airport, which I have taken several times.
This is an all-business-class airline, whose planes are fitted out with big, comfortable seats that have generous leg rests and backs that recline almost to the horizontal position. There is plenty of space between them, so I can spread my books and papers around.
The food is perfectly edible, with a choice of three or four dishes, and the wines excellent. And the fare? Well, it’s on a first come, first served basis, with the earliest bookers getting a round-trip seat for $1,500. Later bookers pay up to just under $2,000. But this compares with over $3,000 for a business-class reservation on the so-called legacy airlines, like American, United, British Airways, and Virgin.
And when the plane is only business class, I find the atmosphere more relaxing. Whining babies, unruly children, and over-weight passengers who spill out of their seats into yours, simply disappear.
MaxJet passengers can use the Korean Airlines lounge at JFK and have their own lounge at Stansted, which I find a far more convenient airport than crowded Heathrow. There are far fewer passengers, baggage arrives quickly, and getting through security, customs, and immigration is a breeze thanks to a special “fast track” service.
A Stansted Express train leaves the airport every 15 minutes, and, half an hour later, I alight at Tottenham Hale, switch onto the Victoria underground line, and find myself at Kings Cross within an hour of touching down-something impossible to do from Heathrow.
Now rivals to MaxJet are springing up like snowdrops, although I have not tried any of them yet.
An airline called Eos offers a daily all first-class service also between Stansted and JFK at fares of around $3,000 for the round-trip. Its planes, capable of carrying 220 passengers, are equipped with just 48 luxurious seats, which fold out into flat beds.
This January, another new airline called SilverJet began an all business-class service that sounds similar to MaxJet’s, but between JFK and Luton, an airport to the south of London which, like Stansted, is far less congested than Heathrow, allowing faster boarding and more on-time departures.
And now the French are getting in on the act. January also saw the arrival of L’Avion, a French carrier offering an all business-class service between Paris-Orly and Newark, New Jersey, complete with “French food and wines.” I am definitely tempted. IL