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Using Avios on Royal Jordanian – Part 1, review of Royal Jordanian short-haul Crown Business class

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This is my review of a Royal Jordanian A320 short-haul flight to Amman.

Royal Jordanian has a surprisingly low profile amongst Head for Points readers.  They would have been further off my own radar if I didn’t have a friend who uses them regularly and is a fan.

This is why Royal Jordanian should be on your radar:

As a member of the oneworld alliance, you can earn and redeem Avios for their flights

Royal Jordanian operates brand new Boeing 787 aircraft to Heathrow Terminal 3 with its latest business class seat

Via its base at Amman in Jordan, you can fly to various parts of the Middle East and Asia, including Bangkok and Kuala Lumpur

I recently flew back from Dubai to Heathrow on Royal Jordanian.  This article covers my A320 short-haul flight to Amman.  Future pieces will cover the Crown Lounge in Amman (click here) and the Boeing 787 business class service to London (click here).

Flying Royal Jordanian short haul

Royal Jordanian uses Terminal 1 at Dubai International Airport which is the same terminal as British Airways.

Check in was a breeze as you would expect at 5.45am for a 7.45am departure.  I was given a pass for the Royal Jordanian lounge which is actually a shared facility.  However, due to the poor signage in the terminal, I headed in the wrong direction and found myself outside the British Airways lounge at a few minutes past 6am.

oneworld airlines have reciprocal lounge access so British Airways was happy to let me in.  I was totally alone.  It was a bit weird.  Everything was set out, including an extensive hot breakfast buffet, but there were no guests.  I stayed for an hour and in that time not a single other person entered!  The first BA flight is not until 10am so it isn’t surprising that no-one had arrived by 7am when I left.

I usually don’t like the new BA Dubai lounge because it is too small – substantially too small if we’re honest.  When you’re on your own that isn’t really a problem and this was my best visit yet.

Seating

Royal Jordanian has ‘proper’ short haul business class seats in Crown Business as is common in the Middle East.  If you only remember one thing from this review, let it be this.

As per the seat plan here:

there are four rows of 2 x 2 seating.  Here are a couple of shots of the seat:

…. with this one showing the seats when reclined:

Design-wise it is far too beige for my liking.  What the seats lack in style they make up for in size and comfort however.  Whilst I didn’t use it, there is also IFE with a monitor built into the seat arm.

Unfortunately, I had a problem with my seatmate as you can see:

I assumed the guy had boarded wearing sandles.  However, when we landed, he pulled out a pair of trainers and socks from under his seat.  He had clearly decided that his feet needing some fresh air.

I also had issues with my neighbour across the aisle.  When I flew Qatar Airways First Class a couple of years ago I had a problem with my seat mate watching videos on his iPhone without headphones.  And guess what – I’ve no idea if it was the same guy, but yet again I was sat near someone who had no qualms at all about watching iPhone videos with no headphones.  No-one else seemed to care.

Meal

At just over three hours, Dubai to Amman is realistically more medium haul than short haul.  We were only offered a one plate platter which was a little disappointing and, to be fair, is a lot less than British Airways would offer on a 190 minute flight:

It didn’t do much for me but I had eaten well in the BA lounge.

What does Royal Jordanian cost on Avios?

If you just booked Dubai to Amman on Royal Jordanian, it would cost 20,000 Avios plus £65 of taxes in Business Class, one-way.

Economy is 10,000 Avios one-way plus the same in taxes.  Paying the extra 10,000 Avios for Business Class is not a bad deal given the big comfortable seats and the chance to use the British Airways lounge in Dubai.

Overall the Royal Jordanian short haul experience was perfectly acceptable although lacking in any ‘wow’ factor.  I enjoyed the oversized seat but the food and service were underwhelming.  That said, given how early I had got up that morning, I wasn’t necessarily in the mood to be ‘wow’ed and was simply happy to have a decent seat to get another three hours rest.

Once we landed in Amman, I headed off to visit Royal Jordanian’s flagship Crown Lounge, reviewed here …..

How to earn Avios points from UK credit cards

How to earn Avios from UK credit cards (December 2021)

As a reminder, there are various ways of earning Avios points from UK credit cards.  Many cards also have generous sign-up bonuses!

There are two official British Airways American Express cards with attractive sign-up bonuses:

British Airways BA Amex American Express card

British Airways American Express

5,000 Avios for signing up, no annual fee and an Economy 2-4-1 voucher for spending ….. Read our full review

British Airways BA Premium Plus American Express Amex credit card

British Airways American Express Premium Plus

25,000 Avios and the UK’s most valuable credit card perk – the 2-4-1 companion voucher Read our full review

You can also get generous sign-up bonuses by applying for American Express cards which earn Membership Rewards points, such as:

Nectar American Express

American Express Preferred Rewards Gold

Your best beginner’s card – 20,000 points, FREE for a year & two airport lounge passes Read our full review

American Express Platinum card Amex

The Platinum Card from American Express

30,000 points and an unbeatable set of travel benefits – for a fee Read our full review

Run your own business?

We recommend Capital On Tap for limited companies. You earn 1 Avios per £1 which is impressive for a Visa card, along with a sign-up bonus worth 10,500 Avios:

Capital On Tap Business Rewards Visa

The most generous Avios Visa or Mastercard for a limited company Read our full review

You should also consider the British Airways Accelerating Business credit card. This is open to sole traders as well as limited companies and has a 30,000 Avios sign-up bonus:

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express card

British Airways Accelerating Business American Express

30,000 Avios sign-up bonus – plus annual bonuses of up to 30,000 Avios Read our full review

Click here to read our detailed summary of all UK credit cards which earn Avios. This includes both personal and small business cards.

(Want to earn more Avios?  Click here to visit our home page for our latest articles on earning and spending your Avios points and click here to see how to earn more Avios this month from offers and promotions.)

Category

oneworld alliance partners

Comments (48)

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

  • Frenske says:
    20 Feb20 February 05:10

    Upper class does not mean having more class.

  • Alex says:
    20 Feb20 February 05:25

    Interesting, I flew AMM-AUH a couple of years ago and was offered a proper hot meal on a tray. On AMM-Europe flights they do trolley service. I wonder if your time of departure meant a pared down meal, or whether it is cost cutting since I flew.

  • Courtster says:
    20 Feb20 February 06:56

    I know it was an early flight, but is RJ a ‘dry’ airline? It’s 1700z somewhere after all.

    • Trent says:
      20 Feb20 February 08:41

      They’re not a dry airline, I always had plenty to drink when flying with them in Crown Class.

    • Nick says:
      20 Feb20 February 10:41

      Sorry to be pedantic, but it’s only 1700Z once per day. What I think you meant is that ‘it’s 1700L somewhere’…
      Being clever is all very well, but you need to do it accurately or you just look stupid!

  • Dev says:
    20 Feb20 February 06:57

    I am sure that there are some non-Avios/non-TP earning J fares on RJ so be careful when choosing them thinking you are getting an easy 560 a la Qatar.

  • ee says:
    20 Feb20 February 07:30

    We also experienced the iPad sans headphones on a Qatar flight (a longer DOH-SOF segment) and we seemed to be the only ones bothered by it. We were 2A 2C and it was the guy in 1A watching loud videos who was the culprit. We didn’t say anything, but reasonable to ask the crew to say something?

    • Combat Johnny says:
      20 Feb20 February 08:38

      When people play music at me when travelling without headphones i tend to reply with some napalm death. They quickly stop

    • Andrew says:
      20 Feb20 February 09:17

      Incredibly annoying.

      There is an option. If you know the film, talk about the plot loudly. “This bit’s really good, they’re going to” etc. If you’ve got a child, have them stand up and hang over the seat to watch.

      If it’s music. Just sing along.

    • Sapiens says:
      20 Feb20 February 09:36

      If the perpetrator is particularly belligerent, i have no qualms about playing music loudly from my phone in their direction.

  • Simon says:
    20 Feb20 February 07:33

    Surely watching videos without ear plugs/phones can be addressed by the staff, even if you have to make a polite request to them? If everyone watched videos without ear plugs then the whole section would be a nightmare.

    Bare feet might be more subjective as localised, but certainly not nice if you’re sat next to them.

    • Nick says:
      20 Feb20 February 10:43

      I don’t mind bare feet unless they smell. I take my shoes off on each and every flight (albeit always have socks!). Music and/or films sans headphones, however, is an entirely different thing and I would expect crews to do something about that. I would ask if necessary, and hope very much that they’d do something!

  • Werner says:
    20 Feb20 February 07:50

    Did you ever manage to get Avios from an RJ flight? Many people complain, and I also did not get Avios from 2 RJ flights into my Iberia account.

    • Scottydoggiom says:
      20 Feb20 February 09:26

      They never creditted our accounts until i raised the problem with RJ . Took quite a bit of messing around , sending copies of tickets etc but finally i got them into my BA account .
      I wouldn’t of even checked except a friend asked me how many points i got for our flights

  • flibby says:
    20 Feb20 February 08:08

    Have never flown RJ, but have to say those photos make it appear less attractive that Qatar for intra Middle East short hauls. Having said that I’ve never redeemed Avios on Qatar and I suspect it might cost more as it calls the front of it’s short hauls First Class rather than Business Class.

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

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