Royal Jordanian 737
Jul 5, 2017, 6:01 am
#1
Original Poster
Join Date: Oct 2012
Location: LCA/KUL/RGN
Programs: RJ Gold, AZ E+, Air Asia Platinum
Posts: 2,189
Royal Jordanian 737
In case you wondered why a 733 or a 734 might appear on your flights. Due to the peak season (+ the extra traffic due to Qatar's situation) , they decided to wet lease 2 planes for a few months (till September).
733 leased from Star Air (South Africa)
734 leased from YanAir (Ukraine)
The cockpit and cabin crew are provided by the two airlines, but each flight also has between 1 and 3 RJ cabin crew who help out with the service,do announcements and deal with outstations staff. RJ crew onboard are there purely for the service side and don't engage in the "safety" side, because they are not certified to operate the 737s.
There is a lot of criticism on Facebook about it, I have flown the South African 733 (reg ZS-TGB) at the start of the week and there was nothing horribly wrong about it. At 19.2 Y.O it's old (especially compared to RJ's otherwise very young fleet), and slightly cramped, but to be fair I found it to be clean and well maintained. The South African crew were quite nice too and you could see they were excited to check out the new destinations because they kept staring at the windows during decent.
Service on those planes is the same as mainline RJ, including meals/ meals presentation, alcohol, pillows&blankets e.t.c. Same goes for the airport handling, no changes here either.
At the end of the day I would prefer to fly on an RJ aircraft (it was nice to break away from the RJ routine though), but I would also prefer to actually end up getting to my destination on-time and without cancellations. I am not familiar with the market for wet leases, so not sure if there were better options available out there.
733 leased from Star Air (South Africa)
734 leased from YanAir (Ukraine)
The cockpit and cabin crew are provided by the two airlines, but each flight also has between 1 and 3 RJ cabin crew who help out with the service,do announcements and deal with outstations staff. RJ crew onboard are there purely for the service side and don't engage in the "safety" side, because they are not certified to operate the 737s.
There is a lot of criticism on Facebook about it, I have flown the South African 733 (reg ZS-TGB) at the start of the week and there was nothing horribly wrong about it. At 19.2 Y.O it's old (especially compared to RJ's otherwise very young fleet), and slightly cramped, but to be fair I found it to be clean and well maintained. The South African crew were quite nice too and you could see they were excited to check out the new destinations because they kept staring at the windows during decent.
Service on those planes is the same as mainline RJ, including meals/ meals presentation, alcohol, pillows&blankets e.t.c. Same goes for the airport handling, no changes here either.
At the end of the day I would prefer to fly on an RJ aircraft (it was nice to break away from the RJ routine though), but I would also prefer to actually end up getting to my destination on-time and without cancellations. I am not familiar with the market for wet leases, so not sure if there were better options available out there.
Jun 4, 2018, 9:23 am
#3
Join Date: May 2000
Location: HFA
Posts: 1,712
Jun 10, 2018, 8:11 am
#4
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Magic Kingdom
Programs: AA Exp, Radisson VIP, Expedia OneKey Platinum, Hilton Gold, Bonvoy Gold, Hyatt Explorist, Amex Plati
Posts: 437
Apparently I have one of these in a couple of weeks on an Amman-Dammam sector. The kicker is that it's all economy class. So my award booking on this sector got downgraded from business. Not impressed, RJ.
Jun 25, 2018, 9:12 pm
#5
Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Magic Kingdom
Programs: AA Exp, Radisson VIP, Expedia OneKey Platinum, Hilton Gold, Bonvoy Gold, Hyatt Explorist, Amex Plati
Posts: 437
Well I flew on one of these 'wet leased' aircraft for my Amman-Dammam connecting flight. It was a Shaheen Airways aircraft. I think it was an A319. I forgot to make a note. But I can say it was almost totally lacking in amenities. Itt's an all-economy, no business class plane so I was downgraded from my business award seat. It's only a 2-hour flight but after a long trip from ORD and points before that it's not ideal. There are no TV screens. No entertainment that I can tell. Just a cold sandwich box for catering. As a bonus I got 2 brat brothers from hell sitting behind me that kicked the seat and screamed pretty much constantly. Thanks a lot RJ. I know that you have special seasonal operating needs. But can't you do any better than this?
Aug 5, 2018, 12:58 pm
#6
Join Date: May 2000
Location: HFA
Posts: 1,712
I was on a leased 737 last week, CAI-AMM; it did have a business class but I was in economy.
The pitch on this aircraft was the worst I ever had. I'm not a large person but I felt more cramped than ever before. My window seat did not have a window. There was no entertainment of course, but the worst was the two young children seated behind me who only stopped crying a few times during the flight, and this was in order to be able to scream in such a high pitch that I wanted to die. Their mother was totally helpless, and didn't even try to comfort them. At a certain point I remembered I had some chocolate bars in my bag and turned around to give them to her, which won me 2-3 full minutes of peace.
It was only a 1:15 hour flight, but one I will remember.
The crew was all-men and they all had a beautiful British English.
We arrived 10 minutes late, taxied for 5 minutes, parked on the apron and waited for the bus, then drove around the airport and had to go through security; it all cut my 1:15 connection time to about 30 minutes. I made it but not my bags.
The following flight on A321, in an exit row and with an empty seat next to me, was such a relief. A much, much nicer aircraft, with in-seat screens and decent pitch. And a window!
Shuly
The pitch on this aircraft was the worst I ever had. I'm not a large person but I felt more cramped than ever before. My window seat did not have a window. There was no entertainment of course, but the worst was the two young children seated behind me who only stopped crying a few times during the flight, and this was in order to be able to scream in such a high pitch that I wanted to die. Their mother was totally helpless, and didn't even try to comfort them. At a certain point I remembered I had some chocolate bars in my bag and turned around to give them to her, which won me 2-3 full minutes of peace.
It was only a 1:15 hour flight, but one I will remember.
The crew was all-men and they all had a beautiful British English.
We arrived 10 minutes late, taxied for 5 minutes, parked on the apron and waited for the bus, then drove around the airport and had to go through security; it all cut my 1:15 connection time to about 30 minutes. I made it but not my bags.
The following flight on A321, in an exit row and with an empty seat next to me, was such a relief. A much, much nicer aircraft, with in-seat screens and decent pitch. And a window!
Shuly
Aug 5, 2018, 8:01 pm
#7
Join Date: Sep 2017
Programs: TK E+, RJ S, AZ E
Posts: 1,869
I was on a leased 737 last week, CAI-AMM; it did have a business class but I was in economy.
The pitch on this aircraft was the worst I ever had. ...
The following flight on A321, in an exit row and with an empty seat next to me, was such a relief. A much, much nicer aircraft, with in-seat screens and decent pitch. And a window!
The pitch on this aircraft was the worst I ever had. ...
The following flight on A321, in an exit row and with an empty seat next to me, was such a relief. A much, much nicer aircraft, with in-seat screens and decent pitch. And a window!
