I noticed that MaxJet shows different seat maps for their JFK and IAD flights.
Are the aircraft different or just different cabin config?

I am not sure about the layout of the 102 seats but I flew last Wednesday (second flight) on the STN - IAD route with my wife and 4 children. It was excellent in all respects!

One thing I did note was that the comments regarding the bathrooms on the JFK aircraft had been taken on board and these had been fully refitted.

I am looking forward to the flight back tomorrow. 6 seats for the price of 1 in J Class! Fantastic.

On a different note - does anyone know how fast you clear immigration/customs at Stansted - is a 1.5 hour connection time to easyjet or ryanair do-able?

How was the IAD lounge? Will be taking this flight late April and am curious as to what to expect. Looking forward to it based on everyones experience, though.

We flew back on Wednesday and this will be helpful for both of the 2 posts above.

The lounge used by MaxJet is the NW lounge. It is absolutely fine with a full bar, cookies, snacks and fruit.

Unfortunately there was a technical problem with a fuel supply pipe on the aircraft. This could happen with any aircraft and we were all sympathetic. How they dealt with it was amazing. There were between 50 and 60 of us on the flight and I think they pulled all of their staff in including the crew who all came round to talk to us. This included their COO who personally spoke to every passenger. They then took us over for a wonderful meal with drinks in the main terminal (can't remember the name of the restaurant but I think it had "Joe" in the name and had an executive chef who was working the tables after preparing the food). The meal was superb.

We departed 3 and a half hours late after the part was flown in from Ohio and fitted.

In the flight I and my family were exhausted and slept most of the way. Since we had already eaten I tried the superb halibut with mango sauce but nothing else.

We landed over 3 hours late into STN so we missed our Ryanair flight which was scheduled at 11.55 but closed at 11.10. Due to the bomb scare at PIK (I found out about this later) we could not get on another Ryanair plane so flew Air Berlin to Glasgow. As a one off (MaxJet are point to point) and as promised by their COO (by the time they told us about the technical problem it was the next day in the UK so I could not rebook online) they paid our flights to GLA and also let us use a room in the Radisson to freshen up on their account. This made the whole experience wonderful rather than adequate in a potentially stressful situation. Their duty manager at STN stayed at our side throughout the arrangements and personally assisted in everything.

This is a company committed to their customers from the top to the bottom. I cannot speak higher than that. It was a pleasure to deal with them at every level.

Although I had left nearly 4 hours between flights this was not sufficient to make the connection due to the delay. I think in future I will do what I have done previously with Ryanair and book us on to more than one flight. If you do that early enough you can just burn the ticket you don't use and still pay a reasonable price for the journey.

Thanks for this great report. Do you think a 1 hour 35 minute connection to Ryan Air would work if there are no delays? (with a back-up ticket for a later flight just in case).

I don't think you can through check your luggage to Ryan Air so I suspect this is too short a connection time. Also, is there a way to connect to the Ryan Air flight without clearing customs and immigration? If not, this connection time is definitely too short.

Sounds like they really take care of their passengers. Glad to see that they came through. I doubt a legacy would do that.

You would struggle. There is a train to take to the main terminal, immigration to clear, luggage to be collected and check in at Ryanair who are strict on their 40 or 45 min closing. Remember also Ryanair charge after 15 kg of checked luggage.

RyanAir offers internet check-in - and I carry a carry-on only. So maybe this would work.