The world of international business lounges in the Middle East is a serious business, with competing lounges between Turkish Airlines, Emirates, Etihad and Qatar Airways all fighting for each other’s connecting travellers. Our visit to the Royal Jordanian Lounge represented a visit to one of the more legacy carriers in this region. How would the Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge compare to some of these newer upstarts?

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This post is one chapter on our trip to Jordan, Israel and France during the end of the pandemic. This trip was enhanced through Marriott Bonvoy Elite Status, Hertz Gold Plus Rewards and Alaska Mileage Plan. For more information on how this trip was booked, please see our trip introduction here. For other parts of the trip, please see this index.

If you enjoyed this post, please follow us here or on social media through Facebook, Twitter or Instagram for more travel tips and hacks on how to “Upgrade Your Travels”.

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Review: Royal Jordanian Crown Business Lounge, Queen Alia International Airport, Amman, Jordan

This review is of the Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge at Queen Alia International Airport in Amman, Jordan.

Dependent on your departure area and carrier, you may also have access to the nearby Petra Lounge Queen Alia International Airport, Amman Jordan.

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Our departure flight today was on Royal Jordanian Crown Business Class Amman – Tel Aviv. We departed The St Regis Amman after a wonderful world class stay, and self drove ourselves to the Queen Alia International Airport.

After passing through a security cordon, we arrived to the Queen Alia International Airport. The airport has an institutional and almost Star Wars type of feel to it with arched domes surrounding by a utilitarian concrete structure.

After a week of driving throughout Jordan, we returned our rental car to Hertz on the ground floor. We ended up logging one thousand two hundred and eight five kilometres on the rental. The Nissan Sunny served us pretty well, and it was not bad for a visit to this land locked country.

We had a long rental car return and check process, with a full examination of the car including a spare tire check. I was given a final copy of the bill hand written, although there was no electronic receipt provided. Surprisingly, the bill did come in accurately in the end as represented with an accurate charge on my American Express.

Checking Into Royal Jordanian Business Class:

We located the Royal Jordanian Business Class Check In, which was situated on the top floor. The escalators at the Queen Alia International Airport seemed to be broken, along with one out of two lifts at our end of the concourse. This resulted in a queue for the elevator and we eventually located the not easily marked dedicated Royal Jordanian Business Class Check In on the far right hand (or southern side) side of the airport.

Entering the airport, we passed through an X-Ray Baggage check. We were led into the Royal Jordanian Crown Check In Room, where we had a quiet and distinguished seated check in for our flight.

Our checked baggage was escorted away by porters and tagged to our final destination. The baggage tags were handed to myself, so I then walked over and handed them to the porter. Our check in host encouraged us to use the Fast Track Lane for Security and immigration. There was no coupon given, only a blue stamp on our boarding cards

We left the Royal Jordanian Crown Check In, and passed through the next ring of the security cordon. We passed through exit immigration in the main hall, then through a fast track of security. We had a full laptop swap for explosive materials before we found ourselves dumped into a duty free retail zone on the secure side of the international concourse at Queen Alia International Airport.

Locating the Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge:

The Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge occupies a large first floor (or upper floor) concourse space immediately above the departures hall for international departures. The access point is immediately at the far end of the concourse, immediately after exiting the duty free retail zone.

Immediately after passing through a large winding duty free area, you’ll find yourselves in front of Amman’s flight screens. The screens area admittedly small for a major international airport.

The flight board had a number of regional destinations during our mid afternoon visit centered mostly on Middle Eastern locations in Egypt, Iraq and Kuwait.

The lounge entry can be seen immediately underneath and in between the flight information display screen posts.

Accessing the Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge:

The Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge is among the more accessible lounges for an international business lounge that is affiliated with a major airline alliance.

The Royal Jordanian Lounge offers complimentary access for International Business Class travellers, and allows it’s Royal Jordanian economy class passengers the opportunity to purchase access through a lounge voucher. Royal Jordanian lists its terms and conditions on its website as follows:

• The lounge voucher is only available for the flights out of/transit in of Queen Alia International Airport (AMM).
• The lounge voucher only allows 3 hours stay for each passenger.
• If passenger wishes to stay more, they would need to purchase a new access voucher.
• The service is non-refundable.
• Business Traveler, Top Frequent Flyers still gain free of charge entrance to Royal Jordanian Lounge.
• The entry of infants is free of charge.
• Unaccompanied minors will not have the access to the lounge unless an adult traveler is with them.

As a member of One World airlines alliance, if you have top tier status as a One World member, you’ll also have access to this lounge based on One World Lounge Access policy. One World lists their access policies as follows:

Enjoy exclusive access to premium airport lounges around the world with oneworld Emerald or Sapphire frequent flyer tier status. Members of oneworld airline frequent flyer programmes with the equivalent of oneworld Emerald or Sapphire tier status can use lounges offered by oneworld airlines when departing on any flight marketed and operated by any oneworld member airline, regardless of cabin class being flown (exceptions are noted below).

• Emerald tier frequent flyers can use First Class, Business Class or frequent flyer lounges.
• Sapphire tier frequent flyers are welcome in Business Class* or frequent flyer lounges. (*does not include Qantas Domestic Business Lounges)
• Emerald and Sapphire members may invite one guest to join them in the lounge. The guest must also be travelling on a flight operated and marketed by a oneworld carrier.
• You must be prepared to show your boarding pass and frequent flyer membership card, with oneworld Emerald or Sapphire tier status, to access a lounge.
• Access is available on the day of travel (or before 06:00am the following day), at the airport from which the oneworld flight on which the eligible customer is travelling departs.

The Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge also appears to contract with almost every other international carrier serving Queen Alia International Airport – Amman, Jordan. At the time of our visit, these included the following non One World Alliance airlines:

• Middle Eastern Airlines
• Saudia
• Lufthansa
• Austrian
• Egypt Air
• Turkish Airlines
• AlItalia
• Kuwait
• Flynas
• Aegean
• Air Algerie
• Ukraine International Airlines
• Gulf Air
• Oman Air
• Tarom
• Yemenia Airlines

Flying on these carriers in First or Business Class will likely get you contracted (out of alliance) access to the Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge.

If all those routes don’t get you into the lounge, the lounge is also a member of Priority Pass. If you hold a credit card that comes with a Priority Pass Select Membership, like the American Express Platinum Card, you’ll likely be able to access the lounge (subject to capacity restrictions) by presenting the card at the front reception.

Our access was confirmed for us today by a Royal Jordanian Business Class Amman – Tel Aviv flight. After attending to the reception located on the concourse level, we were given access to the upper floors which were accessed through an elevator bank behind reception.

Inside the Royal Jordanian Crown Business Class Lounge.

The Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge is set up in a giant “U” shape across the upper floors of the international . It is such a large place, they have set up a Crown Lounge “Comprehensive Guide to a Haven of Luxury” on their website that offers a good map for the lounge.

It is always an exciting experience to visit any international airline carriers’ flagship lounge at their home base. The Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge represents this pinnacle experience at their home base at Queen Alia International Airport at Amman, Jordan.

The Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge represents a really competitive but not class leading international business lounge. While it offers heaps of space, it does so in an environment that is more institutional rather than luxurious space. It’s natural to compare this space against its international competitors such as Turkish Airlines Business Class Lounge Istanbul or the Qatar Al Mourjan Business Lounge Doha where there is international connecting traffic. The Royal Jordanian Lounge offers good, but not excellent features, compared to these world class giants and it’s candle dims a little bit when it is compared directly against these other world class facilities.

Immediately after getting off the elevator at the Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge, we found ourselves in the main reception area. The reception area was decorated with flowers along with a series of clocks representing many different time zones.

There were giant open air glass windows, which led for a bright and airy space. Looking inwards to the lounge, there were various overhead walkways that led to different areas of the lounge.

The upper concourse space of the lounge offered great views into the concourse. Our views from our chairs offered a great retail concourse view towards the Amman Duty Free Zone. This is arguably the best possible option if you don’t have an apron view of airlines, and is much better than no view at all.

We touched down in these comfortable couches. While the seating was really comfortable and spacious, unfortunately there were not a lot of power points available to charge devices.

After touching down in the above couch area, I set out to explore the lounge facility. Royal Jordanian has branded each part of the lounge on it’s maps, however they weren’t specifically identified or signed as such when you wander through the lounge itself.

I started walking along the left hand side of the lounge, and passed a large number of lounge seating in high backed couches. I immediately came across the pizza bar, which was serving up fresh baked pizza. Fresh pizza is such a great treat, and there are few lounges that provide pizza cooked in a proper wood burning oven.

Continuing onwards, I eventually came along a food and beverage outlet called “The Library” which mostly served coffee based beverages. It had a bar styled format, with high stool chairs at the coffee bar.

The lounge offered a wide expanse of lounge chair seating. The seating seemingly was endless as it stretched across the upper concourse. It is perhaps why the lounge can offer so much access through contract partners and Priority Pass; it is hard to imagine the lounge every getting completely full.

I eventually came along “The Neighbourhood” – a family oriented area. It was totally deserted on our visit today. Even the food and beverage location at this end was shuttered.

The seating eventually wrapped around this end point of the lounge. Overall, there was an ample amount of lounge seating available and enough space that was quiet for those seeking some solitude.

I continued my tour around the lounge. The space is sparsely decorated, and Royal Jordanian didn’t seem to spend that much on the decorating budget. Furniture seemed to be plunked down in the middle of this wide open space, and it almost felt a little temporary in nature when compared to other international business class lounges.

Making my way back, I eventually headed over past reception to the other side of the lounge space. All the spaces were bright and well lit for working or relaxing on the local time zone.

I even encountered some old school video games on the walk back through the family zone. Although, there were no kids fully engaged with this space today, it certainly looked like a lot of fun.

Crossing over to the other side of the lounge, I crossed the overhead bridge walkways with views to the concourse below. The right hand portion of the lounge contained the food and beverage zones, and offered much more high density seating. I passed by a series of whimsical purple chairs, which were nice and unusual accent pieces for a group sitting together.

The lounge seating overall was exceptionally expansive. There were more than enough places to sit, relax and work. Thanks to a very large footprint, there were multiple seating options. The large space was almost to a detriment as the space didn’t appear to be wholly decorated much more than the actual furniture itself. The only other minor issue was that there were not a lot of charging points for devices located throughout the lounge itself.

Food and Beverage:

I located “The Blue Bar”; the only place in the Royal Jordanian Lounge where alcohol was served. The Blue Bar had the look of an Irish Pub and was decorated in dark modern colours, with high top seating along with conventional bar seating.

While it was advertised as a cocktail bar, I mostly saw draft beer, house white and red wine being served. Surprisingly, for our late afternoon visit, they had completely run out of wine glass stemware for wine for several hours. I enjoyed a glass of wine in a brandy glass.

The lounge offered a full buffet of hot and cold meal items. This was a really popular feature of the lounge, and it seemed that the buffet had a harder time keeping up to the demand of visitors.

The buffet featured fresh fruits and pastries.

There was also a great looking middle eastern green salad bar.

There were also an excellent supply of hummus and other middle eastern salads.

The food located within the Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge was more than I expected for an International Business class lounge. There was a wide variety of food available, and judging by the demand, the food seemed to move quickly.

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In addition to the buffet, there was also an Anabtaw Sweets Retail counter located within the Royal Jordanian Lounge. Customers could attend to purchase sweets to take with them on their journey. I didn’t see many travellers taking advantage of this, but I suppose it could be a good opportunity for the right person.

We spend a few hours in the Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge prior to departing on our Royal Jordanian Business Class Amman – Tel Aviv flight. The lounge met our expectations in every way.

My Thoughts on the Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge Amman:

The Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge in Amman is the flagship lounge for Royal Jordanian and represents the only Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge in the system.

The lounge features every possible amenity, with a specific highlight on a large amount of available seating. There was a lot variety with the food, although they tended to run out of food. In addition, they seemed to run out of actual glass ware, which was surprising since we weren’t visiting during a peak period.

While the lounge was perfect and had every amenity expected for an international business class lounge, the lounge did dim a little bit in comparison to other middle eastern carriers that offer a terrific international transfer experience. In this sense, it isn’t as nice as some of the other lounges for the mega carriers

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If you’ve visited the Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge, how did you find that it compared against other international business class lounges ?

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