Review of Royal Jordanian flight from Amman to Istanbul in Business

As promised, I tried not to wait another year to publish the rest of the series :) 

AMMAN, QUEEN ALIA airport

We have been dropped off in front of the dedicated check in area for Business. Royal Jordanian has a private part of the terminal for business and status passengers.

Check in was a bit of a hassle since the system was saying that we were no show on the IST to AMM flight, thus automatically voiding the E-Ticket for the return. We showed the agent the bag tags and our boarding passes that we kept and those were sufficient proofs for him. But still he couldn't manually re-open the E-tix. After a long call to the ticketing service, the problem is solved. The whole story took about 20 minutes but we could wait on sofas and were offered water in the meantime. 

Following the check in zone, there is a business and status only police check followed by security check. We breeze the two controls in less than 2 minutes.

The garden looks amazing and I liked the fact that the lawn was all artificial in a country that receives so less water falls. 

I really like Queen Alia Airport, it is bright and airy, the only downside is that it can be quite noisy.

crown lounge

We then headed to the Crown lounge. The entrance is really poorly designed as there is only one lift or the emergency exit stairs. There are two lifts on the other side of the lounge but as nobody mans the welcome desk, in the last three years, I have never seen them accessible. We had no troubles to go up, but to go down we had to wait more than 5 minutes as the lift is for max 4 people with luggage and there were 10 people waiting.

We were warmly welcomed and went to the left side of the lounge that is much quieter but at the opposite of the buffet.

The FIDS:

This is the very poor wine offering:

Lounge area:

The fruits weren't that good:

Two juice fountains, the juices were good but at the time we visited the lounge, there was not a single glass, only plastic cups were available even for wine. Not that business … 

Local handcraft :

There is some hot food also:

Chicken skewers in a cream sauce, jordanian köfte, vegetables and pasta with tomato sauce. Nothing to write a book about.
There is also soup but the container looks so awful:

Homous is also available:

Salad bar:

Coffee machines, one of them wasn't working:

This is what they called the dessert buffet:

My selection:

Wasn't that good. I can't say it was bad, but really low quality food. Nothing to do with the typical Jordanian kitchen…

A last snap of the lounge before we left: 

Travel docs:

AMMAN, QUEeN ALIA II

The way to the terminal side where RJ operates most of its flights:

Our 788 being catered:

Terminal view:

The NATO 135 is still there:

A320 RJ:

JY-BAA, our plane, was the first Dreamline to be delivered to Royal Jordanian:

Front door:

This E95 was bound to Damman:

E75:

A321 with a white radome:

the flight

Boarding started on time with Business class passengers first. The way to the aircraft is pretty long:

Our bird:

The welcome is a bit cold, we are just wished welcome aboard and asked for our boarding pass before being whisked to our seats:

The cabin:

My seat:

The screen is big with a very nice definition:

Safety Card:

Seat controls:

Handset:

Feet box:

Something I don't like is that you see everything that is on your neighbour seat:

Power plugs:

PSU:

Welcome coffee but no juice offer this time, this is a bit sad:

The armrest can be lowered:

Legroom is great:

Forward galley:

The lavs are clean but on the small side:

Headset are being handed out before push back:

We left 5 minutes early:

The safety movie, that was quite funny, is being played:

Hope to be back soon AMM!!

I think both of us begin to know this E-135 :)

Iraqi Airways 738:

Recto:

That was the last A310 Cargo operated by RJ, by now that one is also gone.

This one has been on storage for a while, the engines are already gone:

Air Peace and one of its 735. This Nigerian airline has a very, very bad safety record. It manage to write off three of its 735 within two months in landing accidents, with no fatalities though.

Air Leasure, a charter and ACMI egyptian operator that used to operate A342 (last scheduled airline to operate it), being replaced by A332 and then ceased operations.

Two 737, a -500 and a -400 Aero Contractors, another strange Nigerian operator. Started services, suspended services and just restarted again. I don't believe the first of the Boeing could fly again, the second one is looking better but the engines are not covered up, doubting it could fly again any time soon.

Skypower Airline 737-300F, also from Nigeria, as obscure as the other two airlines above.
The L-1011 in the back ground was an ex- Delta frame that was sold to Sky Gate International that intended to fly it on ACMI. Never happened though. 

This L-1011 really flew for Luz Air a Portuguese ACMI/Charter airline. The airline became "White" that still operates for TAP with ATR42/72:

Royal Falcon was a Jordanian charter airline that flew between 2007 and 2016, here their A320 and in the background with only the tail visible their 734:

Alexandria airlines, still active with this 737 and, to my surprise, a 777-300 (SU-KHP) taken up but since, put in storage …

Tarco Air, never heard about them, they are based in Sudan and operate a small 737 and a single F50 fleet:

Those 767-200 belonged to  Safi Airways and Silver Airways, very unlikely to see them taking flight again:

Another view:

This  A320 belongs to Jordan Aviation just back from a lease to Kish Air, it is now engine less. That bird is over 23 years old

That 727 will definitively not fly again:

So won't this L-1011:

After this interesting spotting, we took off in the westerly direction:

I was looking forward to a beautiful view over Dead Sea, but their was heat fog that day, so this is the best picture I could take in distance:

Before Dead Sea:

The Jordanian Dead Sea coast:

I really needed to work on the picture to be able to see something:

We are here:

The moving map is really well done:

Service started with a hot towel:

The IFE is really nice, but no time to explore everything on this short flight:

Over Israel:

The table is set by a very distant and cold crew member:

Leaving Israel:

The tray is delivery without smile and looks almost the same as the one we got on the inbound flight:

Dessert and salad:

Hot bread:

Playing a bit with the window:

Drinks are served 10 minutes after the tray, but they were so hot that we had to ask for ice.

The samossa was the same as on the outbound, the baba ganoush wasn't good, the meat ball uneatable. The tomato and the vegetables were ok.
Coffee is served later, still without a smile.

The cabin layout is a bit weird with a large open space at the back of the cabin close to the doors, surely meant to be a bar on long haul flights and a further lavatory.

The bar:

Door 2:

Bed mode just to test:

A very stange thing, the seat doesn't touch the feet box in full. There is a hole between both on almost half of the seat. Very uncomfortable.

Seated or on lounge mode, the seat is really nice, but not in the bed mode, definitively. Some wing views: 

As already mentioned, you see both screens, and that is something that really disturbs me.

The sun begins to set and here, plays with some layers of clouds:

And the "real" sunset:

Almost cloud surfing:

The weather in Istanbul isn't that nice:

We landed under the rain, with a cold 16° that was almost 20 degrees less than Dead Sea :(

We had to beg for fast passes as only 5 were available for 10 passengers. The crew gave them out to the first 5 and then asked us to contact the ground staff with whom we had to argue to get them. Not really business friendly.

We were really glad we argued as the lines at the immigration were terrible, but mostly empty at the fast lane. The bags were delivered within 5 minutes and we hopped to the taxi to go back to the Renaissance for a last night before heading back to Europe with KLM. 

touristic bonus: sunsets over dead sea

The sunsets over Dead Sea are really famous, the colors are breathtaking:

baptism site

This place, along the Jordan river is considered as being the site were Jesus was christened. Access is possible either from Palestine or Jordan. Unfortunately the Jordan river is not a river anymore, but just a little stream of water.

It is very dry around:

This should be the Jordan River:

This is the place where Jesus was christened:

Three popes already came to this site: John Paul II, Benedict XVI et the latest, Francis:

Some mosaics:

There is a beautiful church close to the river:

And here is the "River":

The Palestinian side:

And the Jordan site, with some christenings:

The water color is not that appealing :(

 A last view of the church before leaving. Christians and Muslims leave in peace in Jordan.

Jordanian flag:

dead sea day time

If the sunsets are breathtaking, the day view is also very nice during the day. That was the view from our room: