NEVER TRAVEL - Royal Jordanian Airlines
Mar 31, 2008, 1:38 pm
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 4
NEVER TRAVEL - Royal Jordanian Airlines
12/15/07 – Original Flight as per booking was AA6299 – conveniently changed to RJ264 - Scheduled departure from ORD (Chicago) – 9.30pm
Called the local 800 223 0470 on 12/15/07 at 1pm and confirmed that we were allotted seats 15J & 15H and were supposed to be airport 4 hours before departure time.
We reached the airport at 5.30pm being one of the first one to the RJ counter, only to find the RJ counter unopened. After an hour wait we find out that flight was delayed and would leave at 3pm!!!! . Luckily at 7pm the counter opened and there was total chaos – no lines – all passengers trying to reach the counter at once, All Arabic speaking passengers were jumping in the front and not without confrontation we checked in our bags at about 7.30pm. We had requested aisle seats 14J – 14H but without reason to 6J – 6H as the allotted seats were assigned to someone else!!!
We are still waiting at the gate when we learnt that flight was still delayed – we board the aircraft at about 6pm instead and are waiting in the aircraft for another hour - flight takes off about 7.30am (8 hours behind schedule – 14 hours after we have arrived at the airport) – what a great start to our trip.
No one from RJ is really concerned about the passengers except for the courteous – sorry for the delay announcement.
Arrival time at AMM scheduled at 5.30pm 12/16/07 – we wake up at 2.30am 12/17/07 to learn that we have landed at another domestic airport in Amman due to fog conditions. We wait for 45 minutes on the tarmac – then we are unloaded from the aircraft and wait patiently for another 30 minutes in dark conditions on the runway for a shuttle to take us to the terminal.
Total chaos at this domestic terminal – Armed guards walking all over – only one Immigration official person speaks English – and very hard to get to as over 100 passengers are trying to reach him. No signs of any RJ Official. They separate all passengers travelling to DEL (Delhi) and they put transit stamps on our passport and then would not return our passports. The customs official cannot speak English – he has a name tag – but not in English - he has a bunch of passports in his hand and keeps on disappearing and appearing with them in his hands – keep on following this customs official - we are all panicky. After being able to reach the only English speaking lady customs officials she tells us that they will give it back to us when we board the connecting flight from the main International airport. They say they are working on a shuttle bus to the international airport - no one knows what is happening to our luggage. It is about 8am (5 hours after we have landed – no food - no vending machine – no cafeteria - no nothing) when the first RJ official who speaks English arrives and starts to organize retrieval of our luggage from the aircraft. After 2 hours it is about 10am when we have identified our luggage and they seemed to have whisked away the luggage to the International airport – we are still waiting for conveyance to the International airport. It is 11.00am when we board a shuttle bus for the International airport – we are so much relieved to find the custom official with the passport accompany us in the shuttle – we make it to the airport at about 11.30am. On reaching the airport they say that they are announcing the boarding of our flight to DEL RJ192 – so we need to rush through getting boarding pass and security. Unbelievable delay at the ticketing counter – RJ clerks seem not to know what they were doing – and wanted us to rush to the plane!!!! No time to eat food – we buy candy bars- drinking water at our expenses at the airport – No food offered by RJ since we landed at the domestic airport earlier night at 2.30am. We pass through security and finally board the aircraft about 4.30pm – waiting for 30 minutes – we are advised that the time limit as per regulations was over the limit for the crew was over and they would not be able to fly us out … they would be looking for alternate crew – 30 mins later they cannot find the crew and we are forced off the aircraft and back into the security area. Cannot access any payphones to call anyone about our impending delay – no access to the fast food area – miraculously someone from RJ brings in some packed food – there are over 150 passengers and only about 70 food packets – all passengers crowd like bees on the cart – which is gone in 60 seconds… subsequently more food arrives on request – when I suggested that we were vegetarians – I was given a funny look – take whatever was available or go hungry – we were compelled to pick the vegetarian part from the non vegetarian meal offered. We return to the aircraft one hour later when they find an alternate crew.
We were allotted seat numbers 20J – 20H inexplicably even though we were assigned 11J – 11H.
But we were so desperate to get out of Amman we really did not care – I would have left standing on the plane if there were no seats available!!!
Surprisingly rest of the flight was uneventful – as we just ate and slept through the flight after the stress of being in Amman and landed at Delhi at 2.30am 12/18/07 – instead of 5am 12/17/07 – only 21 hours late!!!
1/24/07 – Original flight RJ187 scheduled to depart at 5.55am moved to 5.40am but finally took off at 7am.
When we reach Amman – we go to the transit counter to take RJ263 and we find there is no concept of a line in this part of the world – everyone flocks on to the counter – and if you know Arabic – you are answered – otherwise you are requested to stand in the line – after standing in something that looked like a line – find out that this line is not for Chicago – I need to go to another line – the new line does not move for 45 minutes – it is evident that the RJ people are diligently working for the 45 minutes but are not able to check in ANYONE – I don’t know what they were working so hard, other people in the line say this is quite normal !!!. There was another officer overlooking them all the time but to no success – they must be training new hires everyday!!
On this part of flight except that we were again moved from the allotted 11J – 11H to 26F – 26H and they were not able to give me any good reason why they would do that. We were confirmed vegetarian meals for all the four legs of our flight iternary and to our surprise we were served Non vegetarian food as they ran out of the vegetarian meals – the hostess said I did not request vegetarian meal as per his list – I had nothing to argue with him – so we had to be content with salad – drink – bread rolls for our dinner. On the second meal – the hostess was nice enough to salvage two vegetarian meals in advance.
The only striking thing that strikes to me that after such difficult and inconvenience – none of the RJ crew is sorry or offering any make up for the inconvenience caused to the passengers. Everyone in the group was vowing never to fly Royal Jordanian ever in their life and also spread the word that no one else would too.
Royal Jordanian should be removed from the One World alliance as their service standards are that of a backward developed country. Customer satisfaction is not their dictionary!! Royally Screwed Airline
Called the local 800 223 0470 on 12/15/07 at 1pm and confirmed that we were allotted seats 15J & 15H and were supposed to be airport 4 hours before departure time.
We reached the airport at 5.30pm being one of the first one to the RJ counter, only to find the RJ counter unopened. After an hour wait we find out that flight was delayed and would leave at 3pm!!!! . Luckily at 7pm the counter opened and there was total chaos – no lines – all passengers trying to reach the counter at once, All Arabic speaking passengers were jumping in the front and not without confrontation we checked in our bags at about 7.30pm. We had requested aisle seats 14J – 14H but without reason to 6J – 6H as the allotted seats were assigned to someone else!!!
We are still waiting at the gate when we learnt that flight was still delayed – we board the aircraft at about 6pm instead and are waiting in the aircraft for another hour - flight takes off about 7.30am (8 hours behind schedule – 14 hours after we have arrived at the airport) – what a great start to our trip.
No one from RJ is really concerned about the passengers except for the courteous – sorry for the delay announcement.
Arrival time at AMM scheduled at 5.30pm 12/16/07 – we wake up at 2.30am 12/17/07 to learn that we have landed at another domestic airport in Amman due to fog conditions. We wait for 45 minutes on the tarmac – then we are unloaded from the aircraft and wait patiently for another 30 minutes in dark conditions on the runway for a shuttle to take us to the terminal.
Total chaos at this domestic terminal – Armed guards walking all over – only one Immigration official person speaks English – and very hard to get to as over 100 passengers are trying to reach him. No signs of any RJ Official. They separate all passengers travelling to DEL (Delhi) and they put transit stamps on our passport and then would not return our passports. The customs official cannot speak English – he has a name tag – but not in English - he has a bunch of passports in his hand and keeps on disappearing and appearing with them in his hands – keep on following this customs official - we are all panicky. After being able to reach the only English speaking lady customs officials she tells us that they will give it back to us when we board the connecting flight from the main International airport. They say they are working on a shuttle bus to the international airport - no one knows what is happening to our luggage. It is about 8am (5 hours after we have landed – no food - no vending machine – no cafeteria - no nothing) when the first RJ official who speaks English arrives and starts to organize retrieval of our luggage from the aircraft. After 2 hours it is about 10am when we have identified our luggage and they seemed to have whisked away the luggage to the International airport – we are still waiting for conveyance to the International airport. It is 11.00am when we board a shuttle bus for the International airport – we are so much relieved to find the custom official with the passport accompany us in the shuttle – we make it to the airport at about 11.30am. On reaching the airport they say that they are announcing the boarding of our flight to DEL RJ192 – so we need to rush through getting boarding pass and security. Unbelievable delay at the ticketing counter – RJ clerks seem not to know what they were doing – and wanted us to rush to the plane!!!! No time to eat food – we buy candy bars- drinking water at our expenses at the airport – No food offered by RJ since we landed at the domestic airport earlier night at 2.30am. We pass through security and finally board the aircraft about 4.30pm – waiting for 30 minutes – we are advised that the time limit as per regulations was over the limit for the crew was over and they would not be able to fly us out … they would be looking for alternate crew – 30 mins later they cannot find the crew and we are forced off the aircraft and back into the security area. Cannot access any payphones to call anyone about our impending delay – no access to the fast food area – miraculously someone from RJ brings in some packed food – there are over 150 passengers and only about 70 food packets – all passengers crowd like bees on the cart – which is gone in 60 seconds… subsequently more food arrives on request – when I suggested that we were vegetarians – I was given a funny look – take whatever was available or go hungry – we were compelled to pick the vegetarian part from the non vegetarian meal offered. We return to the aircraft one hour later when they find an alternate crew.
We were allotted seat numbers 20J – 20H inexplicably even though we were assigned 11J – 11H.
But we were so desperate to get out of Amman we really did not care – I would have left standing on the plane if there were no seats available!!!
Surprisingly rest of the flight was uneventful – as we just ate and slept through the flight after the stress of being in Amman and landed at Delhi at 2.30am 12/18/07 – instead of 5am 12/17/07 – only 21 hours late!!!
1/24/07 – Original flight RJ187 scheduled to depart at 5.55am moved to 5.40am but finally took off at 7am.
When we reach Amman – we go to the transit counter to take RJ263 and we find there is no concept of a line in this part of the world – everyone flocks on to the counter – and if you know Arabic – you are answered – otherwise you are requested to stand in the line – after standing in something that looked like a line – find out that this line is not for Chicago – I need to go to another line – the new line does not move for 45 minutes – it is evident that the RJ people are diligently working for the 45 minutes but are not able to check in ANYONE – I don’t know what they were working so hard, other people in the line say this is quite normal !!!. There was another officer overlooking them all the time but to no success – they must be training new hires everyday!!
On this part of flight except that we were again moved from the allotted 11J – 11H to 26F – 26H and they were not able to give me any good reason why they would do that. We were confirmed vegetarian meals for all the four legs of our flight iternary and to our surprise we were served Non vegetarian food as they ran out of the vegetarian meals – the hostess said I did not request vegetarian meal as per his list – I had nothing to argue with him – so we had to be content with salad – drink – bread rolls for our dinner. On the second meal – the hostess was nice enough to salvage two vegetarian meals in advance.
The only striking thing that strikes to me that after such difficult and inconvenience – none of the RJ crew is sorry or offering any make up for the inconvenience caused to the passengers. Everyone in the group was vowing never to fly Royal Jordanian ever in their life and also spread the word that no one else would too.
Royal Jordanian should be removed from the One World alliance as their service standards are that of a backward developed country. Customer satisfaction is not their dictionary!! Royally Screwed Airline
Last edited by sbhagat786; Mar 31, 2008 at 2:06 pm Reason: PNR and name removed for privacy reasons
Mar 31, 2008, 1:57 pm
#2
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Oct 2002
Location: Currently in Bloomington, IN, but Normally NYC, CDG, and even POZ or wherever FT takes me.
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Posts: 14,021
Welcome to FT sbhagat786. 
First of all, you should remove any and personally identifiable information from your post (i.e. your name and record locator). Posting such info on internet fora is not prudent and against the TOS anyway.
I cannot comment on your experience with RJ as I have never flown them and can offer no objective comparison. It does appear that you were the victim of unfortunate circumstances at the airport in Amman, and of indifference at ORD.
Hope you have better luck with your future travels!
First of all, you should remove any and personally identifiable information from your post (i.e. your name and record locator). Posting such info on internet fora is not prudent and against the TOS anyway.
I cannot comment on your experience with RJ as I have never flown them and can offer no objective comparison. It does appear that you were the victim of unfortunate circumstances at the airport in Amman, and of indifference at ORD.
Hope you have better luck with your future travels!
Mar 31, 2008, 2:10 pm
#3
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2007
Posts: 4
Royal Jordanian Airlines
This was my first post - I appreciate your help for editing and covering up.
I can understand that it was one of my unfortunate experience, but what bothers me is that there is NO sign or effort of or expressing sorry for the inconvenience- forget cash - not even words!!!
I can understand that it was one of my unfortunate experience, but what bothers me is that there is NO sign or effort of or expressing sorry for the inconvenience- forget cash - not even words!!!
Mar 31, 2008, 2:29 pm
#4
Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Dublin, Ireland
Programs: BA Gold, Mucci
Posts: 2,068
For what it's worth, I would write Royal Jordanian a letter outlining your experiences in a clear and concise manner, and perhaps also send a copy to the oneworld HQ or something like that.
Myself, I've flown Royal Jordanian previously from LHR-AMM-BKK in Crown Class and found the service completely faultless from start to finish, even with a one hour delay leaving London (we got vouchers at check-in - all passengers did). I am flying them again in July (BUD-AMM-BKK and back) so I will report then.
Again, sorry to hear of your experience - sounds like a nightmare!
Mar 31, 2008, 4:40 pm
#5
Join Date: May 2002
Location: SNA
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Sorry about your experience sbhagat786. Having flown RJ multiple times in the past year (including the ORD-AMM-DEL route that you flew), I have always been pleased and not had such issues. The fog at AMM is a weather problem and cannot be attributed to RJ. It You did not mention why your flight out of ORD was late but I will just assume it was a RJ issue. As has been mentioned, the line cutting/jumping is a cultural thing and you will experience it all over the Middle East and parts of Asia (including India). Not sure why they did not give you vouchers for food, etc at AMM since they put us up at the airport hotel once when we had a 7 hour layover (CAI-AMM-DEL) on an award ticket without us even asking.
Your experience was rather unfortunate and I hope you won't give up on RJ. I will continue to fly RJ since I have had no issues with them. In fact, their A340 to DEL is amongst the cleanest planes I have seen to/from India. I don't like that they don't have in-seat entertainment on the ORD-AMM route which is relatively a long flight.
On most of the ORD-AMM or vice-versa flights I have noticed a large number of American connecting to/from Iraq and mostly headed to TX, AL, MS in the other direction. I got chatting to 2 of them on seperate instances and both were truck drivers for some contractor in Iraq. Just makes sense for them to fly RJ since it is one of the few airlines to be serving Iraq. And it seems silly to me why AA won't give credit on the Iraq flights (Cuba I do understand).
Your experience was rather unfortunate and I hope you won't give up on RJ. I will continue to fly RJ since I have had no issues with them. In fact, their A340 to DEL is amongst the cleanest planes I have seen to/from India. I don't like that they don't have in-seat entertainment on the ORD-AMM route which is relatively a long flight.
On most of the ORD-AMM or vice-versa flights I have noticed a large number of American connecting to/from Iraq and mostly headed to TX, AL, MS in the other direction. I got chatting to 2 of them on seperate instances and both were truck drivers for some contractor in Iraq. Just makes sense for them to fly RJ since it is one of the few airlines to be serving Iraq. And it seems silly to me why AA won't give credit on the Iraq flights (Cuba I do understand).
Jan 31, 2009, 10:31 pm
#6
Join Date: Jan 2009
Location: Amman , Jordan
Posts: 1
Dear Sir , you have wrote that >>(we have landed at another domestic airport in Amman due to fog conditions)) there is only one International Airport in Jordan , Are you sure that you know what your talking about ????
Feb 1, 2009, 9:23 am
#8
Join Date: Apr 2008
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Posts: 987
It is my understanding that Aqaba (AQJ) also handles international flights. According to the OW timetable, RJ flights AQJ-CDG once a week, and likely other airlines use it since it is a popular jumping off point for Red Sea scuba diving.
Feb 1, 2009, 10:27 am
#9
Moderator, Hilton Honors
Join Date: Nov 2003
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Posts: 71,422
Amman isn't the only airport in Jordan. When flights divert they normally go to whichever airport is most practical at the time - this is not necessarily to an international airport.
Feb 1, 2009, 11:02 am
#10
Join Date: May 2007
Location: ORD, DEL
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Posts: 6,185
Sorry to hear OP's experience. I have flown RJ only once: DEL-AMM-IST. The experience was not exciting in any way, but routine enough with only modest delays and nothing to complain about.