Royal Jordanian and domestic flying in Jordan
VIE-AMM Royal Jordanian A320-200 (J)
Was a full flight, clearly RJ has some regulars who are well known to staff. Their narrow body aircraft feature varying sized business class cabins. Relatively comfy but it is a mid-haul product. So think QF trans-Tasman or CX regional. 2x2 seating, we had row 1 with the bulkhead with enough room to stretch out. IFE on all of RJ is certainly a big step down from the top airlines but it’s functional and has a small selection. In this case screens are in the armrests.
One of the big differences with RJ is food serving. Let’s begin with the entrée though - soup or appetizers. I went for the latter which included a shrimp some veal and an avocado salad.
Next up is the mains. Now while you can read the menu which is all quite nice, they don’t exactly ask you what you like. Instead after a bit of waiting they move through the cabin with the trolleys with all the main meals plated, à la carte. That is you can see the mains on the plate then you pick and they’ll serve the sides you want with it. The clear advantage of this is, you see what you're choosing. It all appears much fresher or at least better quality, possibly from serving a whole bowl of rice for instance rather than reheating individual portions. It also means you pick exactly what you want and skip what you don’t.
Mains to choose from were Fillet Steak w/ Pepper Sauce, Chicken Breast with Café De Paris Sauce, Baked Salmon with Dijon Mustard Sauce and Ravioli in what I think was a rose sauce. Sides included roast potato, mixed vegetables and rice. Some examples are below.
Desert is served in a very similar nature, with a choice of sweets or a cheese plate. Proper plates, cutlery etc. so nothing poor in this regard.
Service was good, you’d have to say they’re efficient considering the added complication of their meal service. Meals are heated up then serving commenced with more meals coming straight out the galley to refill the trolley. They move through the cabin swiftly and nobody is left waiting. There's a small choice of alcohol. There standard affair is Moët and a red & white from Jordan. At least on the European routes they appear to switch between two menus, one for the first half of each month the other covers the latter half. A couple French wines go with this changing menu.
Flight time from Vienna was 3.5 hours. On arrival we got stuck in a distant bay, so had to take another bus to the terminal. It appears only mostly the widebodies get access to the aerobridges. Noticed an AF A330 sitting there, apparently delayed or cancelled. At Amman buses are again divided into classes however in this case business class gets a regular coach like vehicle with seating. Economy gets the large people carrier.
Upon arrival you usually go through to immigration/arrivals or hit the transfer desk. The transfer desk is where you get your free pass to the transit hotel (previously owned by RJ) that has been mentioned around here. Free hotel room and meals if a long transit. In our case we were actually transferring to the one and only domestic flight down from Aqaba. This gets a tad complicated because you are effectively entering the country without a visa or stamp. The nice bit is Aqaba the town and region are part of a free trade zone with tax breaks and what not, so if you enter or go to Aqaba soon after your arrival you get a free visa – otherwise you pay to get one on arrival.
Notes about AMM airport: It is a bit run down and old concrete structure. There is a huge construction project going for a new large glassy terminal looking like it will be much better. The drive into and an out of the terminals are messy until then. The two terminals oppose one another with an airside bridge in between. One is supposedly for RJ, the other for everyone else. There used to be a lounge at either end, now they have just the one but the walk from one side to the other takes a mere minute. Honestly however the mirrored configuration confused me for a bit. I’m generally very good and never lose my bearings but in this case I did briefly. Lots of duty free of questionable value. Find the escalator up to the lounge and you're fine.
It gets a little complicated here and I wish to simply the next few posts but basically we flew the domestic connector down to Aqaba and back in J on their jungle jets, stayed at various resorts and even dared to try the transfer hotel. We visited the RJ lounge a couple times. So I’ll try to group them together for everyone’s benefit. For now let's stick with flights and look at the interesting domestic segment they have on offer.
AMM-AQJ-AMM Royal Jordanian E195LR/E175LR (J)
Not many pictures here because they're short flights and you reach a point of being disinterested photographs of a bulkhead. Jordan has two international airports. Amman (which technically still has its old innery city intl airport operating like MEB) and Aqaba. Aqaba only has two dailies to and from AMM. So very quiet indeed. Over the border in Israel the story is a bit different, anyway…
Boarding in AMM is again by bus, they put people into holding pens at AMM, probably to ensure everyone is accounted for before boarding. Occasional asking if you were in business class but it seemed to make little difference. At AQJ just walk to your plane, nobody really cares.
The domestic flight is clearly filled with more affluent locals, I think many people would simply take the JETT bus – much cheaper. For us though, fully flex J was very cheap. About $100 each way. Economy was less than half that. So easy SC’s here. There was a Ramadan special in the paper at the time. If you booked any RJ flight you’d get 50% off another one. We couldn’t be bothered ringing a local ticket office to do it but my thoughts were unusual status run! Certainly there would be a few more WP’s if SYD-MEL was that price in J.
Business cabin had only a couple other people in it on each flight. The first time we were actually asked if we were meant to be in business… eyes rolled a little. Would have been nice for them to check the manifest for any visiting Emeralds. That obviously hints to the fact that nobody ever checks your ticket here either.
Seating in their Embraer’s is 1x2 so couples on the right, of course economy is 2x2 as you’d expect. Leg room was plentiful. No IFE of any sort. On the domestic flight they didn’t serve food but at least in J you get a drink. Tea/coffee/some rather nice Mango juice in glassware. The FA on the 2nd flight offered us the remaining juice cartons to take with us. It’s a SYD-CBR length flight, really quick. The price difference just covers the lounge access and extra luggage. Understandably many people out there won’t pay an extra $40/50 for the sub-hour flight.
Aqaba International Airport (AQJ) makes you realise how much empty land they have. Long roads to small buildings. On arriving there were two immigration officers and a two police officers in the entry room/doorway. Locals obviously flagged through. Nearly comical but we tell the immigration guy we need a visa, so go ‘line up’ by turning 90 degrees to the other guy. He looks at it for a minute then stamps. Then handed back to the first guy. Police officers are 2 metres away. One finished the first officer wants to check it, then the other. I say comical because it really felt more like they wanted something to do having waited all day and finally getting an international visitor, much more so than being suspicious . Generally everyone, including locals on the street are friendly here. Sometimes you never know being the ‘foreigner’ what’s entirely going on but if a shared smile and hello bring you no troubles then just be thankful compared with some parts of the world. On leaving and arriving at the airport the police at the gate wanted to check our passports but they did offer us chocolate oddly.
Leaving Aqaba for Amman, somebody – no idea if RJ staff but he didn’t want/ask for a tip – grabbed our bags from the curb. Keep in mind Gladstone airport is probably bigger. It’s about 20 metres walk from curb to check-in, immigration/security (actually there’s no security) and onto the tarmac. Checking in we looked for our itinaries, someone else just flashed their gold Royal Plus card. So I just handed over my QFF card, 10 seconds later we had two boarding passes. Think he just looked for my name on the booking.
AQJ has one item shop and one food shop. This simplicity matches the flight board.
All up if you’re heading to AQJ or Petra then try out the RJ service. It is a little simple at times and questionable value buying J tickets (but hey, who wants the easy status credits?) but offer a quality mid-haul and regional product at reasonable cost.
Finally the one time we passed through arrivals in Amman I noticed baggage services appeared to have a pile of bags lying around. Not sure if they’re usually disorderly but our bags turned up fine each time.
. I have to warn that in the long arctic winter Helsinki looks VERY different, it's dark and cold and the locals escape to the Canary Islands and Thailand...
