This appeared in the S Times today and online. Fits with my own experience (minus the Kaiser Chiefs).
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article...9778_2,00.html
Cut-price club class
It promises business flights to New York at budget prices, but can Silverjet deliver? Susan d’Arcy is the first to find out
Every time most of us book a long-haul flight, we’re faced with an impossible dilemma. Flying cattle class is increasingly degrading, but business class is extortionate. What do we do? Now, a new airline called Silverjet is promising to provide a solution, by doing for business class what Ryanair and EasyJet have done for economy: making it affordable.
On January 25, passengers on Silverjet’s inaugural flight to Newark, New York, paid as little as £799 return (although the standard fare is £999). For that, they got three inches more stretching-out-and-feeling-smug space than in BA Club, for about half its lowest price. In fact, Silverjet’s standard ticket is only £152 more than Virgin’s starting rates for premium economy, with its miserly 38in seat pitch.
New York is just the start. Silverjet’s global ambitions run to a network of 30 routes. Next year, it hopes to launch to South Africa, India, the Caribbean and China, just in time for the Olympics. It all sounds too good to be true and, as the only travel writer invited on the first flight, I decided to risk the jet lag to find out if it was.
Although Silverjet may be making headlines, it’s not the first carrier to target the transatlantic business-class market. In the autumn of 2005, Eos and Maxjet both began all-business flights from Stansted to JFK. I’ve travelled with Eos and, in terms of luxury, it beats Silverjet hands down (BA and Virgin too, for that matter) — but, charging from £1,700 to £3,200 return, it’s not exactly courting the budget-conscious traveller. Maxjet, on the other hand, certainly ticks that box, with an £854 lead-in fare. However, its service lacks the glamour you associate with this bracket of travel. It’s closer to premium economy: seats have a 60in pitch, but they only recline by an unsatisfactory 20 inches and have a depressingly old-fashioned aura — not surprising given that they’re reconditioned 12-year-old Delta cast-offs. Aircraft technology has come a long way since 1995.
The airport experience, on the other hand, has deteriorated drastically during that period — a fact that Silverjet has cleverly exploited by creating a private terminal at its UK departure airport, Luton. Mmm, Luton... I couldn’t point to it on a map, but I can assure you I found it only marginally less convenient to reach than the other three — a negative that is offset by the joy of Silverjet’s 30-minute check-in.
I arrived to find a hotel-style lobby in place of the traditional row of desks. A friendly “concierge” took my passport and suggested I saunter through to a chic, airy lounge, furnished with sink-in sofas and dominated by a generous breakfast display that included a never-ending supply of Krug, more than making up for the lack of duty-free shops. After a few minutes, my new best friend found me to return my passport with boarding card. Absolutely no queuing.
As Silverjet has its own security controls within the terminal, I could embark at my leisure, again with no queuing. It was unbelievably civilised. Ordinarily, you can’t put a price on happiness. In this instance, my husband reckoned that not having to endure my customary airport whines (“Why’s she only getting her passport out now she’s at the counter?” “If the bloke behind bangs into me one more time...”) has to be worth a couple of hundred quid.
All this is in stark contrast to Heathrow and Gatwick, where paying more is no guarantee of escaping security hold-ups. At busy times, I’ve seen staff siphon sections of the main lines through the fast-track lane. How priority passengers must throw back their heads and laugh when a stag party is ushered ahead of them.
The acid test, of course, is life on board. Silverjet’s decor isn’t as suave as the muted blues and greys of BA and Eos, or as show-stopping as Virgin’s purple palette — it’s that bog-standard, flecked economy interior — but its pod seats have an impressively 21st-century gloss, with taupe upholstery, a chocolate and caramel soft-leather surround and a futuristic metallic shell. An idiot-proof panel offers upright, relax and sleep positions, with buttons for finer adjustments and a massage option. At 23in across, it’s 4in wider than Maxjet’s version and just one under Eos’s award-winning design, yet I still felt cramped when watching a film on my table-top TV during lunch.
The cooked-to-order food, though, was tasty, and hot drinks are served in mugs rather than the usual horrible little eyewash things.
At night, the seat extends to an inclined flat bed, as opposed to the fully horizontal ones from BA, Eos and Virgin. I slept for five hours straight, but other passengers complained of slipping down that eight-degree angle. Silverjet claims it will address this concern, although I’m not sure how economically viable that promise is. Any alteration is a hideously expensive exercise. Take this example: one of the airline’s cute innovations is an in-flight women-only lavatory.
Silverjet wanted to put a vase of flowers in there, but found that even this minor addition would require £12,000 worth of health-and-safety tests. So the orchids are on hold until the company is turning a profit.
How will it do that? Here’s the maths. Silverjet intends to sell most of the 100 seats on every 767 aircraft for £999. Its overheads are £65,000 per return flight (£24,000 for fuel, £6,000 leasing costs, £8,000 for staff, £4,000 for catering, plus maintenance, admin and so on); so, once the 66th ticket is booked, it’s in the black. As Maxjet is practically always sold out, I can’t imagine Silverjet having difficulty generating the necessary income. Its product is infinitely superior to its slightly cheaper rival, and not significantly behind the big-league players. Okay, there’s no goody bag, a limited entertainment system, no frequent-flyer points and a thin schedule, but those are small sacrifices in my book.
Service is also worth a mention. Staff on the American-owned Maxjet and Eos can be intrusively overfamiliar; BA has too many Sharon Osbourne lookalikes, whose surly attitude suggests they’re only working because of a disappointing divorce settlement; and Virgin has more than its fair share of glazed-eyed trolley dollies. Silverjet has deliberately recruited flight attendants with hospitality rather than airline backgrounds. That decision pays off, with a refreshingly sassy, bistro-sleek attitude from the crew.
Coming home, the indie band Kaiser Chiefs were across the aisle from me. I asked frontman Ricky Wilson, winner of several style awards, for his opinion of the newcomer.
“Business is a huge waste of money and this is much better than premium economy. In fact, for the first time ever, I actually looked forward to a flight. Silverjet is for real people.”
Whether rock stars qualify as “real people” is debatable, but that aside, Wilson is right. Here’s an airline that treats passengers with respect — most of the others contemptuously refer to customers as Self-Loading Freight. Silverjet’s deconstructed club-class concept may make us SLFs question why we’re paying way over the odds for comfort in the air. I predict a riot.
Susan d’Arcy was a guest of Silverjet and the Four Seasons New York (00 800 6488 6488,
www.fourseasons.com), which has doubles from £345
Who's offering what on the New York route
SILVERJET
Fares from: £999
Seat pitch: 75in
Seat recline: 6ft 3in flat bed
Dining: meals cooked to order and served individually (no trolleys) Entertainment: 25 hours of movies and 16 hours of television on a 7in table-top screen
Airports: Luton to Newark
Contact: 0871 700 8520,
www.flysilverjet.com
BA CLUB WORLD
Fares from: £2,091
Seat pitch: 73in
Seat recline: 6ft flat bed
Dining: dishes have been devised by Michelin-starred chefs. Club Kitchen allows for flexible dining
Entertainment: on-demand system, with more than 100 movies and television programmes on 10in digital screens, as well as radio channels and audio books
Airports: Heathrow to JFK and Newark; Manchester to JFK
Contact: 0870 850 9850,
www.ba.com
BA WORLD TRAVELLER PLUS
Fares from: £825.80
Seat pitch: 38in
Seat recline: 7in
Dining: as in economy
Entertainment: 12 audio, 16 games and 18 movie and television channels on 8in seat-back screens
Airports: Heathrow to JFK and Newark; Manchester to JFK
Contact: 0870 850 9850,
www.ba.com
VIRGIN UPPER CLASS
Fares from: £2,192
Seat pitch: 79in
Seat recline: 6ft 7in flat bed
Dining: “freedom meal service” where passengers can choose when to eat Entertainment: 300 hours of video on demand on 10.4in screens; in-flight beauty treatments; on-board cocktail bar
Airports: Heathrow to JFK and Newark
Contact: 0870 190 9090
www.virgin-atlantic.com