Total Score: 11 / 20
Service 2.5 / 5
Food 2 / 5
Seat 3.5 / 5
Amenities and IFE 3 / 5
Flight Number: RJ 183
Departure from Hong Kong at 9:35 PM
Seat 1C
Though Royal Jordanian is a fairly small airline, they have a fairly large fleet of Boeing 787 Dreamliners with fully flat business class seats flying to cities in North America, Europe, Asia, and of course the Middle East. I have flown this aircraft many times on flights between Tel Aviv and the Far East before, and this was my latest flight experience with them.
This flight doesn’t operate direct to Jordan, rather it makes a quick stop in Bangkok where it often picks up a majority of the passengers going to Amman. On my flight, no more than 20 passengers who originated in Hong Kong continued on to Amman.
Flight Schedule HKG – AMM
Seat and Cabin
Royal Jordanian installed the popular B/E Aerospace Diamond seats on their 787’s which come in a 2-2-2 layout in four rows at the front of the plane. The seats go fully flat and have a reasonable amount of storage, however aren’t all that private when the cabin is full (on the flight between Bangkok and Amman, the cabin was 100% full). Waiting at all seats are decent headphones, and a large pillow and blanket (I’d recommend asking for two pillows).
The storage compartment behind the seat provides enough space for a water bottle and other small items like glasses or a phone. This area is where the USB charging ports as well as the general power socket are located.
Each seat has a table that folds out of the center console which can slide back and forth and be folded in half.
While the seats all have excellent legroom, unless you’re seated in the first row there is very limited space to put your feet in bed mode (highly recommend sitting in row 1). While I would prefer reverse herringbone seats like what you’ll find on airlines such as Cathay Pacific, Air France, and EVA Air, Royal Jordanian’s seats are perfectly fine. For the full RJ 787 seatmap, click here.
Which would you prefer?
Row 1 legroom 
Rows 2 – 4 legroom
Service
Like all Arabic airlines, service begins with a warm towel, dates, Arabic coffee and a welcome drink.
The crew distributed a new amenity kit from Acqua Colonia which was pretty standard.
The RJ crew generally aren’t so engaging and are just interested in getting the meal service over with which was the case on my flight. This is fine for most passengers, but don’t fly RJ looking for 5 star service.
Food
While I have previously enjoyed RJ’s food, over the years I think their onboard catering has gotten worse and worse. On the first flight from Hong Kong to Bangkok there were no options to choose from. I was served a drink, salad, dessert and a plate consisting of some shrimp and cold cuts all on a single tray. I didn’t bother to eat anything as it all looked unappetizing.
For the 9 hour flight to Amman, we were given dinner menus with four choices for the main dish.
I had the sweet and sour chicken which was decent, but more along the lines of a good economy class meal. I didn’t bother eating the side salad or bread served with it.
Royal Jordanian has a decent drink selection on par with what you would expect when flying business class. However, I was disappointed with the wines on offer as the quality is what I would expect them to serve in economy class, however the Taittinger champagne was nice.
Breakfast was served before landing. Having flown Royal Jordanian many times before, I know their breakfast is basically the same as what they offer in the lounge (which is not too good either), so I chose to stay sleeping rather than have breakfast.
Bottom Line
I used to be quite happy flying RJ, though that was when the catering was much better, the business class cabin was less than half full, and I had flown few other airlines in business class. If all you’re looking for is a lie flat seat and RJ has a good timed flight and price, I think they are a fine option. However, I wouldn’t choose to fly RJ over most major airlines with a similar price and schedule.
