Rami Tamimi

Basically, there are 3 airports in the whole country: 2 in Amman (AMM and ADJ) and Aqaba (AQJ) and only one route: between AMM and AQJ.

The annoying this is that in the old airport building (before 2013), the domestic flights (grand total of 11 per week ) were handled together with the international ones (like in LHR) , so one could access the duty free and a proper lounge when flying to AQJ...not anymore with the new airport and a separate gate for 1.5 flights per day.

Rami Tamimi

A cheaper alternative to RJ on the AMM-AQJ route.

For the reasons I will mention below, this might not be suitable/relevant to a lot of you, but I thought I' d post it anyway, as it might help someone looking for a domestic flight.

Royal Wings, RJ's subsidiary, which operates a single A320 has been building up its presence in AQJ with it operating flights to Dubai (DWC), BEY, CAI, HEL, ARN and CPH. They also have to operate positioning flights between AMM and AQJ and they finally realised that they can offset a few hundred $ of their costs by selling tickets for the domestic sector.

So they sell tickets for 20JD oneway and 34JD return, which is much cheaper than RJ (the absolute minimum I have managed to get in the last few years was 55JD during a promotion), with normal fares being in the region of 90-120JD. RJ's taxes and YQ alone (for redemptions) are 2JD more than the Royal Wings fare btw.

Might be useful given Ryanair's launch in AQJ and AMM, as well as TK AQJ route resumption.

A few aspects on Royal Wings (RW):

-the departure times may appear strange, but they make more sense when you take into account that these are essentially positioning flights;
-they don't release seats too far in advance, so its normal to see "No Flights" if you are looking for flights for next month, check again later;
-forget about FFP, oneworld, lounge access (to see what a great lounge you will miss, please refer to the #1 in this thread);
-forget about connection protection, baggage interline, onward BP etc.... you are essentially buying a bus ticket;
-the flights are only bookable on Royal Wings | Royal Wings ,they are not published in the GDS, and hence not available via OTAs.... not even on rj.com

Considering that the cheapest JETT bus ticket is 9JD each way and 18JD for the VIP minibus and that elite status does not get you too many benefits on this route, I' go for it for the price. The single 320 they use is old and is in Full Y configuration, but hey... its a 35 min flight after all.

slickvik

If you have one ticket tagged to AQJ via AMM, will bags go to final destination, no need to pick up in AMM? Thanks.

Rami Tamimi

No need to pick up. Indeed you might find it difficult to get them to check the bag to AMM only (especially at some stations like LHR), because they are fighting the throwaway ticketing technique. Do check the tag though, just to be absolutely sure.

seattle29

"Transit from AQJ to INTL"

To confirm, when flying AQJ-AMM-LHR on RJ, bags are checked all the way to LHR? I just need to head up the elevator at AMM and clear immigration?

Rami Tamimi

If it is on a single ticket, then yes, if you have 2 tickets, then it depends on the competence of the agent in AQJ.

You will have to clear security too.

flyerby

Rami Tamimi

To be fair though, it's CAI's fault if they sent your IST bound baggage to the carousel.... it's not something that RJ can control. Technically, RJ does not have the obligation to check thru on separate tickets, especially to another airline, but apparently, your agent was competent enough and in a good mood The best RJ agents work in the J class check-in lounge, which you can obviously use as an RJ Gold member.

flyerby

I did have one not so huge benefit to check my luggage all the way through. At TK checkin counter in CAI, they didn’t have to weight my luggage as it was already in their system

mediator

Sorry to bump a four year old thread.
For AQJ-AMM-IST, will the agent issue both BP at AQJ, or I’ll have to visit some sort of transfer desk at AMM? No checked luggage. Everything is on a single PNR. RJ to RJ.

ahopkins767

Also to jump in - do you know what RJs current network is? I am looking to redeem vouchers ex Asia and nothing comes up…