transiting TUN tunis
 

i have architected myself a flyertalk worthy travel home for the holidays itinerary, consisting of 2 PNRs and 4 flights.

ATH-FCO-TUN on ita airways arriving 10:35
TUN-AMM-ORD on royal jordanian departing 14:35

is there anything i need to know about transiting tunis? i have a carry on sized bag that i usually check in. should i try to stick with it as a carry on ATH-FCO-TUN then check it in via a transit gate in TUN? will i be able to do this, or will i have to arrive in TUN anyway? i assume not but am unfamiliar with the country/airport and how things may go down, so advice appreciated!

You will have to clear passport control and pick up your luggage before rechecking in with RJ. Even if you have a delay on your inbound flight leaving you 2 hours for connecting, this should be doable. Cutting it to 1.30h might be tight and more than that you could be in trouble....:p
Arrivals is one floor down from departures, but all located within the same terminal. If you are premium customer, the premium check in for RJ is sort of separated from all regular check-in area - you just have to look out for it.

The airport can be very crowded and if you have lounge access, the TunisAir lounge used by RJ is nothing to shout about, however still much better compared to waiting in the terminal/gate itself.

All above based on my experience 2 months ago.

Cheers!

ah i see! arriving in economy but leaving in RJ business :)

I flew TUN-AMM-ORD last week.
I usually spend the night so I've never arrived in the morning nor tried to use the transit lane but in the afternoon I've never had to wait at immigration or customs.
RJ premium check-in is in the first row before you actually enter the actual check-in area. It is no where near the normal RJ check-in desks. It is to the immediate left of the departures board in this photo.

https://cimg6.ibsrv.net/gimg/www.fly...4f3e712f0.jpeg

You will get no priority baggage tag and you will get Tunisair boarding passes for all your flights.

The delay is usually immigration/customs/security when flying out. Make sure you don't have more than $1600 cash on you.

The lounge is just okay and there will be no priority boarding.

dls25 you seemed to have gotten the shortend of the stick. When I flew from TUN in J with RJ, I did get
- priority tag
- boarding with priority for J/OW status holder

I have never gotten a priority tag on any airline leaving TUN, I've flown RJ, AT and TU all in J - I thought it was just a Tunis ground handler thing.

I have never had priority boarding on any airline in TUN either. In my experience, they just say something in Arabic with no English or French translation and just start boarding with one queue.

I am not quite sure what you mean by priority tag - but in my case, it was not the usual bright orange OW standard tag with RJ on it, but they attached the one for the hand baggage - indicating the baggage is in Crown Class (which did not withstand the baggage handling and ripped off when it arrived at the destination).

Although, I might not have as many experiences as you, for my last one - maybe I'm lucky? - I was awaiting at the departure gate, and initially in Arabic, and in both French and English, I can confirm they called those in Business and Platinum/Gold card holders to board as I just walked up to the desk. Economy line seems to have been kept to the other side of the desk.

Cheers!

Royal Jordanian wouldn't know how to priority board if their existence depended on it - at any port. Boarding is always of a consistent 'stampede' style.