All Business

About a month ago, CityCrab and I took off for a 10 day holiday to London and Paris. We planned the trip almost a year ago and hoped, at the time, that booking this far in advance would work out travel wise. We figured with 10 months notice, the flight to London would be in expensive and we'd be able to use out gajillion miles we've diligently earned over the years to upgrade to business class. We know we are not 8 hour flight, middle row in coach people. I have no problem saying publicly here that USAirways sucks . There, I said it. We both have USAirways credit cards that we opened just to earn miles thinking we'd be able to use them for all sorts of things: business class, first class on short flights with dreams of whole cans of sodas, free toiletries, ear phones and that little sleep mask. Alas, it was not to be.

CityCrab did extensive research (one of his best qualities) and found us alternate travel resources. We rolled the dice and make arrangements to fly the new all business carriers. Maxjet, Silverjet , EOS , L'avion are just a few that started in the past year or so. Because of our travel dates, we flew Maxjet to London and Silverjet back to the States. Here's the skinny:

Maxjet was a wonderful experience. They are a US-based carrier (out of DC), their seats are similar to those in Delta's first class (it's about a 160 degree decline), they have a high flight attendant to customer ratio, the galleys in the cabin are open all flight for you to help yourself to drinks, snacks and, City Crab loved this, the all night Reuben. (although for the record he never ate it. I think it was the idea that it was available whenever.) Maxjet flies into Stansted which is about 45 minutes form London. Once you land, just jump on the train or hire a car to take you into the city.

Silverjet was also a good experience however, both CityCrab and I decided we would prefer to fly Maxjet. Silverjet is UK based, flies out of Luton (only accessible via car), their seats do decline 180 degrees but the food is outrageous. Not that I fly for the food but I felt the food has this air of pretension. For example, their menu touts their chef as someone who is culinary trained, offers entrees like sea bass wrapped in banana leaf (who wants THAT on a plane) and you can see a guy walking through the cabin in a chef's uniform. I thought it was a little over the top but I just don't appreciate that level of service.

Overall good experiences, especially when stacked against USAirways. The other important detail I left out was that both of these are actually cheaper than flying business class on domestic carriers. And, both of the carriers offer deals to London. For example, upon our return I received a promotional email from both carriers offering roundtrip airfare for about $800. Now, that's a deal.