Royal Jordanian Airlines

Normally fly Qatar Airways but took advantage of the recent Royal Jordanian Airlines sub-£1k fares in business class to Bangkok out of London – so my review is using QR as a benchmark / reference. Overall, my first experience of RJ was of a good 3 star airline. Excellent new business class class seats on 787 across all 4 legs – seat 1D is a good choice as this seems to have greater foot-well space compared to the others which looked a bit tight. Food was decent but felt throughout all flights that cabin crew while pleasant enough were not very proactive on drinks, coffee etc. In fact the male crew just seemed to leave all the work to the female crew who seemed rather over-worked. Also 2 of the 3 pilots on the final leg from AMM-LHR spent most of the flight occupied in the lie-flat seats while leaving the control to a FO. Never seen this happen before and struck me as quite strange. AVOD was quite limited but very easy to navigate. Would use RJ again and one of the their key selling points at this price-point is their One World alliance membership.

London Heathrow to Khartoum via Amman with Royal Jordanian. A321 and not Boeing 787 as advertised. Left Heathrow a bit late but arrived in Amman nearly on time. Cabin crew were efficient, plane was clean, and food was satisfactory. Flight was not full. A319 for onward flight to Khartoum-an older plane but on time. Again crew efficient and another reasonable meal was served. Inflight entertainment was basic. Return flight from Khartoum to Amman left on time, but only after security checks both in the airport and on the aircraft. RJ has warned that security checks have been modified. Flight to Amman an old but clean A319. Cabin crew were efficient but did not deal with screaming children who seem to run up an down the plane at will. Amman to London again no sign of the advertised 787 but another A321. Flights on time. Three hot choices for the meal and food was good. Overall a good trip. Khartoum airport is a nightmare - allow plenty of time - it has few facilities.

We ended up flying Royal Jordanian from London to Hong Kong via Amman because we were travelling at Christmas time, when flights are expensive, and they had the cheapest seats we could find. I regularly travel on British Airways, and the RJ staff were equal or better than BA. The food was fine, but you don't travel economy and expect gourmet food. I think my only major issue with RJ is that on long flights such as the ones we took, it wouldn't kill them to give out free alcoholic drinks. Our tickets were well over £500 each, and a couple of glasses of wine surely wouldn't have broken the bank! Fortunately I read that they charged for drinks before leaving, so I bought a bottle of wine for the flight in duty free at Heathrow - make sure you get one with a screw top! The flights were all slightly late leaving, but not by much - we were late leaving Heathrow and Hong Kong due to airport congestion. The planes were fine, the A330 fairly new I think and the 787 very new, and feels spacious inside, with a seemingly taller ceiling. Flying to Hong Kong via Amman made it a long journey, about 18 hours going and over 24 coming home, due to a 6 hour stop in Amman, but there are many worse airports to spend a few hours in than Amman - try Addis Ababa or Nairobi. Amman airport is modern, spacious, airy and clean with has good loo's etc. There are several bars and cafe's, McDonalds etc and good (and cheap) duty free shops. Royal Jordanian isn't going to set your world on fire, but it is a good airline with pleasant staff and modern aircraft, operating through their hub in Amman, which is not such a bad place to spend a few hours if you have a stopover there.

Bangkok to Tel-Aviv via Amman, and our flight with Royal Jordanian was among the worst we ever had. The crew was non-existent most of the time and when approached, less than accommodating. The food trays were distributed during the first half hour of the flight, then the crew disappeared until two hours before landing, when another food tray was given. If one required a glass of water (over a 9.5 hours flight!) we had to approach the crew in the screened-off galley and request one. No stewardesses passing by offering a drink or any other refreshments except for the very poor meals. The seats were cramped and uncomfortable, with pieces falling off and no leg-room, an ancient, unmodernised entertainment system. The only plus was that the flight arrived on time. It was a great relief stepping off the plane. I dread our return flight in a week's time.

Flew Royal Jordanian Airlines from Amman to Paris return. Airport staff at Amman efficient and polite, while at Paris airport was disorganized. The airplane was clean and was modern (appreciated the onboard entertainment) and the seats were comfortable. Food tasted delicious for economy class on both legs and they offered 3 main course options. Cabin crew friendly and helpful. My complaints are that before landing the toilet was dirty and required cleaning, and the ticket price is high.

Amsterdam to Bangkok via Amman with Royal Jordanian Airlines, and all 4 planes I took were pretty new with inflight entertainment and not bad leg room. Checked in online, all flights on time. The food was standard airline quality. I am rating this as 5 out of 5, basically because it is what you should expect from an airline.

Doha to Beirut via Amman with Royal Jordanian. I would never recommend this airline. Our flight was delayed in Qatar, and that made us miss our connecting flight from Amman to Beirut. Once we reached Amman Airport the front desk staff told us that we will have to wait for 6 hours in order to connect with the available flight. When we started telling them that this is not an option since we have babies with us, they were very rude, and told us to go decide what we want to do then come back to them. What is worse is that the connection flight was delayed another time for another hour. So we ended up waiting for over 7 hours in the airport with our children. I would understand that problems may happen with flights, but the rudeness I experienced with the Royal Jordanian staff was the worst ever. Moreover, they had no control over their flight details, since it was showing on the screen that boarding started and no one was their to check the passports and tickets of the passengers. It was even showing last call on the screen, and still no one from the staff showed up.

London to Bangkok via Amman. Unreliable, uncaring and unfair! No room at the Inn at Christmas for Royal Jordanian passengers who are left stranded at a full hotel after RJ cancel their onward flight, then RJ staff leave passengers to fend for themselves. The problems began when there were been 4 minor changes to my flight times over the past few months. The last change happened the day before I flew when they cancelled my 3.00am Boeing 787 flight from AMM to BKK and put me on an A330 9.30 flight to BKK on 17th December. When arriving in Amman airport, there were no staff to meet anyone to tell them what to do. We had to wait an hour before we were all bussed to the hotel at 1 am in the morning. The bus was overcrowded and had people standing in the aisles which is a safety hazard. The coach dropped the load of people off at the hotel who were unprepared, understaffed and unhelpful. It took a further 90 minutes sort out the mess and to check some people into a room, but there were not rooms for most of the passengers as the hotel was full. At around 2.30 in the morning, with no one from RJ any where around, I left to come back to the airport and slept on an airport bench. In the morning I wanted a shower in the RJ lounge. But they were extremely poor in the crown lounge at Amman airport. The sink hadn’t been cleaned, the shower door didn’t close, therefore water went everywhere and you can’t get the soap out of the dispenser because the door won’t close. Also the toilet seat was broken and you have to pay $15 for the privilege. It took nearly 2 weeks for RJ to respond to my complaint email, with a ‘sorry, but there’s nothing we can do, but we hope you fly with us again. What a joke of customer service. Dreadful airline, they change and cancel flight, treat passengers badly and then don’t even do anything when you complain. Never fly Royal Jordanian. There are plenty of choices, don’t risk it!

Medina to London via Amman. Royal Jordanian Airline is the worst airline I have ever used. The staff - as we walked in to the plane we were told you can sit wherever you would like, this meant that giving us designated seats was completely useless as people were searching for new seats because other people had taken their own. But the most shocking part was when the plane had decided to take off when they had not even allocated a couple and their 7 month old baby seats yet who were still standing in the isle. After getting off at Amman, the staff were even more disorganised - we landed at 1.45am and waited for transfer until 6am in the morning, to be taken to a hotel for only 2 hours and then bought back to the airport for our flight at 12pm. When we asked staff why it takes so long to sort out transfer, the airline had said it was the driver taking too long or we didn't have our transit forms completed. Every country I have been to before make people fill in these forms on the plane, and we weren't even given these forms till the end of the 5 hours. The Royal Jordanian Airlines staff both on and off the plane are absolutely useless.

Heathrow to Bangkok return via Amman on Royal Jordanian. Three sectors out of 4 were on a Boeing 787, very comfortable and good TV screen - Ifound plenty of watchable films. The final sector was on an A330, which seemed outdated compared to the 787 but was standard compared to other airlines. The food was adequate but be aware if you order Alcohol you will be charged for it - soft drinks are free. Transit in Amman is a joke, very chaotic and very rude Security Staff, I had goods confiscated from me, (which are not prohibited) - when I questioned them they became rude and aggressive. I am sure the goods were then shared out between them as a bonus! Check-in staff at LHR were very good, at Bangkok they were rude. As said many of the Cabin crew are surly and non smiling but some are. Whenever I pressed the call button for a drink etc they always came and I did not have to wait. My only criticism of Ground and Cabin crew (excl LHR) is that during the boarding of flights they do not board by Seat row, it gets very chaotic and the Cabin crew do not act to make the process smoother. On my Amman-LHR flight, many passengers were walking around the cabin asking other passengers to swap seats - this lead to a delay. You can pre-book your seat on RJ website in advance, so do that to ensure your party sit together. To pre-book just go to Manage booking - enter your reference number and enter few bits of extra info and then you can to it. I would have no hesitation in flying Royal Jordanian again.