Friday, June 01, 2007
Getting there: New York and back: Space to think is lure on all-business NY flight
By Jill James
Published: May 14 2007, FT
Top of entrepreneur Mr Alan Bain’s list of travel priorities is value for money – as befits a man who is president of the American-Scottish Foundation. “Being a Scot I value value,” says the 70-year-old New York-based businessman.
His regular journey is from New York’s JFK airport to London-Stansted and back, which he makes about five or six times a year.
Interestingly, although he does use Continental Airlines occasionally – which has direct flights from the US to Scotland – his airline of choice is Maxjet, the all-business class service which is proving a hit with regular transatlantic travellers.
He prefers to use its service to Stansted and then takes the train to Scotland – in preference to direct flights. “I love the train and I can work on it too,” he says. “I don't use a computer – yellow pads and a pen – and I write and scheme on my way over.”
“Continental has an attractive product in that it goes directly to Glasgow and Edinburgh but it's a small plane and you feel crowded. In Maxjet you've got space.”
Mr Bain started travelling with Maxjet after reading about it in the New York Times.
“I had the immediate thought that this would be attractive to Scots and I tested it on that basis,” he says, pointing to the affluence in sections of the Scottish business community.
“It's a great airline – a really good product at good prices. You are not in a crowded environment and to me that's a huge plus. The idea of these huge airliners carrying hundreds of people daunts me.”
“I've just booked a ticket this month for $599 – that's just $1,200 for the return trip,” he says. He usually persuades his daughter to book his flights online as he says he is not a computer buff.
He is perhaps an unusual traveller in that he likes to only read or write while on board and thinks that the inflight entertainment system just takes up too much room. “One of the things that I still enjoy about air travel is meeting people,” he says.
If he has one critiscism to make about Maxjet it is that it could consider putting on a night flight from Stansted – “because of the timing you really have to stay over at the airport if you're getting the morning flight,” he says.
A web site search for a specified business class weekday return flight from any London airport to any New York airport, booked one month in advance, produced a list of 176 options – an hour's work for those who do not have the luxury of a business travel department or company to book their flights and have to search for their own.
MaxJet's business class came out cheapest at £910.50 with a flight times of 7hr 45m outward (to NY) and 7hr15m inward.
Icelandair came out second cheapest at £1,446 return but with a much longer journey time (more than 10 hours) because of stopovers in Reykjavik.
By contrast, comparable business class British Airways flights cost £3,974. The airline does not fly to the US from Stansted but does offer direct flights from other London and UK airports. That cost also comes down substantially if booked in advance – to around £1,300 return on one web search.
It should also be pointed out that in a web search of options for the business class traveller Maxjet offered one option for the dates but British Airways offered 73 and Virgin Atlantic offered 38. ¶ 5:36 AM
Published: May 14 2007, FT
Top of entrepreneur Mr Alan Bain’s list of travel priorities is value for money – as befits a man who is president of the American-Scottish Foundation. “Being a Scot I value value,” says the 70-year-old New York-based businessman.
His regular journey is from New York’s JFK airport to London-Stansted and back, which he makes about five or six times a year.
Interestingly, although he does use Continental Airlines occasionally – which has direct flights from the US to Scotland – his airline of choice is Maxjet, the all-business class service which is proving a hit with regular transatlantic travellers.
He prefers to use its service to Stansted and then takes the train to Scotland – in preference to direct flights. “I love the train and I can work on it too,” he says. “I don't use a computer – yellow pads and a pen – and I write and scheme on my way over.”
“Continental has an attractive product in that it goes directly to Glasgow and Edinburgh but it's a small plane and you feel crowded. In Maxjet you've got space.”
Mr Bain started travelling with Maxjet after reading about it in the New York Times.
“I had the immediate thought that this would be attractive to Scots and I tested it on that basis,” he says, pointing to the affluence in sections of the Scottish business community.
“It's a great airline – a really good product at good prices. You are not in a crowded environment and to me that's a huge plus. The idea of these huge airliners carrying hundreds of people daunts me.”
“I've just booked a ticket this month for $599 – that's just $1,200 for the return trip,” he says. He usually persuades his daughter to book his flights online as he says he is not a computer buff.
He is perhaps an unusual traveller in that he likes to only read or write while on board and thinks that the inflight entertainment system just takes up too much room. “One of the things that I still enjoy about air travel is meeting people,” he says.
If he has one critiscism to make about Maxjet it is that it could consider putting on a night flight from Stansted – “because of the timing you really have to stay over at the airport if you're getting the morning flight,” he says.
A web site search for a specified business class weekday return flight from any London airport to any New York airport, booked one month in advance, produced a list of 176 options – an hour's work for those who do not have the luxury of a business travel department or company to book their flights and have to search for their own.
MaxJet's business class came out cheapest at £910.50 with a flight times of 7hr 45m outward (to NY) and 7hr15m inward.
Icelandair came out second cheapest at £1,446 return but with a much longer journey time (more than 10 hours) because of stopovers in Reykjavik.
By contrast, comparable business class British Airways flights cost £3,974. The airline does not fly to the US from Stansted but does offer direct flights from other London and UK airports. That cost also comes down substantially if booked in advance – to around £1,300 return on one web search.
It should also be pointed out that in a web search of options for the business class traveller Maxjet offered one option for the dates but British Airways offered 73 and Virgin Atlantic offered 38. ¶ 5:36 AM
