Neither Royal, Nor Jordanian

I have always been a proponent of Royal Jordanian. For the longest period of time I've been giving them the benefit of the doubt. Especially when it comes to the herculean endeavours running a daily flight to the USA.

Let me start with the reservation process.

I was told that the "class" that my open-ended-ticket was purchased on has been all been filled. Only to be issued a ticket at the check-in counter of exactly the same class (I had to pay the difference to upgrade to my same-class!)

Money really is no object, but the attitude is.

I spent few hours on the phone with your US office. Sadly that translates to a lot of dollars being paid to the 1800 line. What that means is less efficiency in operation and higher overhead. [And in that department, I have a number of Ideas that I can share to help you keep cost to minimum and provide excellent customer service). Feel free to contact me if you're interested

Next comes that issue of the check-in counter in Chicago Airport.

I have NEVER in my whole life, and with any of the airlines that I've been on seen a counter that is closed-for-check-ins. With two "Wasta" lanes. It was very sad trying to explain to the Americans standing in that line why "some" people are bypassing the people who have been standing in that line four couple of hours.

The second problem was seeing the employees in the office, refusing to go out and start checking in people. Forcing them to form a line that extended outside of terminal 5 in Chicago airport.

I understand that it's a tough crowd the employees are dealing with, but they need to set an example in order, efficiency and professionalism. Sadly, the most professional and efficient employee was one that had the SAS sign on his uniform.

And then, came the flight, first the condition of the airplane

The Airplane (Airbus 340) was in such miserable condition that it really made me feel sad, and almost vow not to ever get on a flight that seems to have a lot of damage. Even if it was superficial. How would the passenger evaluate the true condition of the plane if he keeps seeing all these issues.

1. The water faucet was detached from it based, and precious water was being wasted none stop
2. The cabinet below the water faucet, clearly marked not to be opened has come off it's hinges and the whole face-lid ware exposed and appeared dangerous
3. The overhead spotlights were non-functioning. The whole row I was in didn't have a single one that could be turned on. I checked
4. The overhead TV's were spinning with Vertical alignment
5. The entertainment composed of: Some Asian company building bridges for their, railroad. Spiderman3, and a 1 hour TV show. (For a 12 hour flight). Interestingly the entertainment system is still VHS based (correction s-VHS) That whole rack can be replaced with a DVR unit that weighs 1/10 takes 1/10 the space and serves everyone in real time. Add to that that there are no "Tapes" to change

The service

1. most people hauled the trays they had themselves to the kitchenette
2. The service was so slow and clumsy that people started walking over to the kitchenette to get things
3. The Call button was on for 45 minutes with no one answering it. I finally gave up
4. The English was so poor that people literally laughed at every single announcement
5. When one of the crew was asked for anything that would usually take 5 seconds to answer they would disappear for 20 minutes and come back with a smart-ass remark
6. The attitudes of the people working there need to be checked. Just about every single one of them thinks that people on the flight are actually working for them and not the other way around
7. The Concept of friendly is lacking
8. The concept of the customer is always right is non-existent
9. The crew didn't render any assistance or help to people who needed it the most. Nursing mothers, families traveling with kids who were obviously overwhelmed
10. The crew overslept and woke up too late to fix the breakfast meal
11. I'm not going to comment about the food, I actually thought that part was done well done
12. The crew smelled like smoke, which is completely inconsiderate to the passangers who couldn't smoke. Thank god I quit somoking a while ago

Royal Wings magazine

1. Most articles are written by non-Arabic writers. (And I find it odd that we don't have good writers to fill the pages of the magazine)
2. The magazine fails to capture the essence of the Jordanian experience, there just isn't enough originality in it
3. One of the pictures of Mansour Mouasher was there, without mentioning him
4. Apart from the fancy glossy paper of the magazine. Nothing else is interesting. I read the article that "Samer al Majali" had in the first page, and felt saddened to see how just about every value, concept or competence mentioned was lacking during the flight.

The condition is really horrible. I will probably reconsider several times before thinking of RJ another time, IF I ever decide to do so.

This was one horrible experience that I'm not eager to repeat, I was sad, ashamed, upset and angry that the pride and joy of our kingdom and the holder of our nations most prestigious name failed to perform in front of the multi-national passengers on that flight.

The service was not Royal, and I'm ashamed to call such a service Jordanian. Call it anything you want but such poor service shouldn't be branded with our nation's identity