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Royal Jordanian Airlines’ Airbus A330-200 Trip Report
Dear all,
Here is a series of short trip reports on interesting flights that I took during the past few months. The first one would be on an interesting trip I took from Bangkok to Hong Kong onboard Royal Jordanian Airlines’ latest fleet addition – Airbus A330-200 to temporarily replaced the Airbus A310-300 and the delayed delivery of Boeing 787s. Unfortunately it is a disappointment from check-in to arrival. The fact that RJ has selected a much hated angled lie-flat seats and a very disinteresting flight crew ruins my past positive experiences on RJ.
July 11, 2010
RJ 182 BKK-HKG Lv1615 Arr2005 Airbus A330-200 JY-AIF “Prince Ali Ibn Al Hussein”
Link - http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...8QbNHDNy5bqR-Q
Check-in:
TG handles ground services for RJ and there were two RJ uniformed staffs at the counters, which really did not do much except chitchatting among themselves. Check in opened at 1:30pm and there was no priority check-in lane, but due to the low loading on the BKK to HKG segment, check-in was okay except the staff input my AA number wrong and a supervisor finally fixed it and I got my miles posted two weeks after the flight. No fast track service for RJ business class passengers, for those who care!
Lounge:
RJ uses Thai Airways Royal Silk or Royal Orchid lounge at Bangkok airport, and both were rather small and uninteresting in terms of snack offering. Beverages are the usual alcoholic and non-alcoholic selection, and I recommend using CX or BA/QF lounge for Emerald and Sapphire elite members.
Boarding:
The flight arrived late from Amman and parked at gate E4 at 3:47pm but the turnaround was reasonably quick, considered catering need to be done here as well as crew change. Boarding began late at 4:26pm and there was no announcement regarding the delays. The only good occurrence was that the ground staff remembered that I was a business class passenger and went out the way to invite me to board first, as I was the only J passenger joining here in Bangkok. The F/As immediately offered me a drink, and on my seat, there was a pair of headset and a menu, but was for the Amman to Bangkok segment. The menu looked dirty and had been reused frequently. I think it is time for RJ to work on a new menu and stop reusing them. Just keep a simple menu and wine list and no need to go fancy. You really should not reuse the menus more than a month. Just use a simple folded cardboard featuring RJ planes or Jordanian scenery will be sufficient! The flight was half full and I moved to 3K to allow a couple to sit together.
Push back happened at 4:42pm and we began taxing towards R/W19L. We took off at 4:58pm and stayed at 33,000feet throughout the flight.
Service:
Well no menu was provided at this sector, so F/As basically just asked you Chicken, beef, fish or pasta and provided zero description. Beverages were not offered except a glass of water, and you had to ask for other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The motto here is to get the meal service over soon, so the F/As should sit and enjoy some free time. The whole dinner took thirty-three minutes to serve including hot towel, appetizer, entrée and tea/coffee service. Wines are not offered and the F/As were in a hurry despite a two and half hour flight time. The food was actually nice, and the appetizer tray came with a Thai Seafood salad and a ham with white and green asparagus roll, as well as a bowl of mixed salad with Italian dressing, a wheat roll and a cheese spread. Dessert is also included in the tray, which is a coffee crème cake in vanilla sauce. The appetizer was fresh and a good one, and the meals were better than CX and TG for sure on the same segment. I chose the chicken entrée, which ended up being a Thai Green Chicken Curry with rice and steamed vegetables. It was okay entrée, but I might have gone with other choices if I knew it was a curry dish. The F/As disappeared for the rest of the flight, and that comment card I filled out was definitely not pretty.
Seat:
I was really disappointed at the choice of seat, especially in lie flat sleeping position. There was an angle and RJ should come with a better design, and hope it will pick a better seat of future A330s and Boeing 787s. In some ways I preferred the old sleeper seats on Airbus A310-300s. I got two seats to my own, so it was okay, but on a full flight, it would be unpleasant. I took pictures of the seats in the preset relaxing position, which was good, and in lie flat sleeping positions. The new seats came with universal power outlets and a personal on demand entertainment units.
Entertainment:
There were 16 Hollywood movies, 10 Arabian movies, 38 various TV programs (but not enough sitcoms), and 9 interactive games. The system is all on demand, and is okay, but nothing like CX, EK, or SQ. It can use more selection.
Arrival:
Descent began at 7:58pm HK local time, and we landed on R/W25R at 8;33pm and parked at gate 33 eleven minutes later. I did not have bag, so did not know how they perform. But knowing HKG in general, the bags should come out pretty timely.
Conclusion:
I am really disappointed at this flight and am shocked at the poor quality of service. Despite a nice meal, the lack of beverage service and/or service in general made this flight unimpressive and definitely did not do RJ a good review. The angled flat seats are a mistake, but having universal power outlets is good.
Dear all,
Here is a series of short trip reports on interesting flights that I took during the past few months. The first one would be on an interesting trip I took from Bangkok to Hong Kong onboard Royal Jordanian Airlines’ latest fleet addition – Airbus A330-200 to temporarily replaced the Airbus A310-300 and the delayed delivery of Boeing 787s. Unfortunately it is a disappointment from check-in to arrival. The fact that RJ has selected a much hated angled lie-flat seats and a very disinteresting flight crew ruins my past positive experiences on RJ.
July 11, 2010
RJ 182 BKK-HKG Lv1615 Arr2005 Airbus A330-200 JY-AIF “Prince Ali Ibn Al Hussein”
Link - http://share.shutterfly.com/action/w...8QbNHDNy5bqR-Q
Check-in:
TG handles ground services for RJ and there were two RJ uniformed staffs at the counters, which really did not do much except chitchatting among themselves. Check in opened at 1:30pm and there was no priority check-in lane, but due to the low loading on the BKK to HKG segment, check-in was okay except the staff input my AA number wrong and a supervisor finally fixed it and I got my miles posted two weeks after the flight. No fast track service for RJ business class passengers, for those who care!
Lounge:
RJ uses Thai Airways Royal Silk or Royal Orchid lounge at Bangkok airport, and both were rather small and uninteresting in terms of snack offering. Beverages are the usual alcoholic and non-alcoholic selection, and I recommend using CX or BA/QF lounge for Emerald and Sapphire elite members.
Boarding:
The flight arrived late from Amman and parked at gate E4 at 3:47pm but the turnaround was reasonably quick, considered catering need to be done here as well as crew change. Boarding began late at 4:26pm and there was no announcement regarding the delays. The only good occurrence was that the ground staff remembered that I was a business class passenger and went out the way to invite me to board first, as I was the only J passenger joining here in Bangkok. The F/As immediately offered me a drink, and on my seat, there was a pair of headset and a menu, but was for the Amman to Bangkok segment. The menu looked dirty and had been reused frequently. I think it is time for RJ to work on a new menu and stop reusing them. Just keep a simple menu and wine list and no need to go fancy. You really should not reuse the menus more than a month. Just use a simple folded cardboard featuring RJ planes or Jordanian scenery will be sufficient! The flight was half full and I moved to 3K to allow a couple to sit together.
Push back happened at 4:42pm and we began taxing towards R/W19L. We took off at 4:58pm and stayed at 33,000feet throughout the flight.
Service:
Well no menu was provided at this sector, so F/As basically just asked you Chicken, beef, fish or pasta and provided zero description. Beverages were not offered except a glass of water, and you had to ask for other alcoholic and non-alcoholic beverages. The motto here is to get the meal service over soon, so the F/As should sit and enjoy some free time. The whole dinner took thirty-three minutes to serve including hot towel, appetizer, entrée and tea/coffee service. Wines are not offered and the F/As were in a hurry despite a two and half hour flight time. The food was actually nice, and the appetizer tray came with a Thai Seafood salad and a ham with white and green asparagus roll, as well as a bowl of mixed salad with Italian dressing, a wheat roll and a cheese spread. Dessert is also included in the tray, which is a coffee crème cake in vanilla sauce. The appetizer was fresh and a good one, and the meals were better than CX and TG for sure on the same segment. I chose the chicken entrée, which ended up being a Thai Green Chicken Curry with rice and steamed vegetables. It was okay entrée, but I might have gone with other choices if I knew it was a curry dish. The F/As disappeared for the rest of the flight, and that comment card I filled out was definitely not pretty.
Seat:
I was really disappointed at the choice of seat, especially in lie flat sleeping position. There was an angle and RJ should come with a better design, and hope it will pick a better seat of future A330s and Boeing 787s. In some ways I preferred the old sleeper seats on Airbus A310-300s. I got two seats to my own, so it was okay, but on a full flight, it would be unpleasant. I took pictures of the seats in the preset relaxing position, which was good, and in lie flat sleeping positions. The new seats came with universal power outlets and a personal on demand entertainment units.
Entertainment:
There were 16 Hollywood movies, 10 Arabian movies, 38 various TV programs (but not enough sitcoms), and 9 interactive games. The system is all on demand, and is okay, but nothing like CX, EK, or SQ. It can use more selection.
Arrival:
Descent began at 7:58pm HK local time, and we landed on R/W25R at 8;33pm and parked at gate 33 eleven minutes later. I did not have bag, so did not know how they perform. But knowing HKG in general, the bags should come out pretty timely.
Conclusion:
I am really disappointed at this flight and am shocked at the poor quality of service. Despite a nice meal, the lack of beverage service and/or service in general made this flight unimpressive and definitely did not do RJ a good review. The angled flat seats are a mistake, but having universal power outlets is good.
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