Review of British Airways flight from Amman to London in Business

the routing

After 12 wonderful days in Jordan spent between days with our friends, long evenings with doing nothing but chatting with the same friends, having jordanian dinners, visiting Wadi Rum and …. doing nothing.

amman queen alia

Our flight was leaving at 08:05, we left the hotel at 05:00A as the drive to the Airport from the Dead Sea takes around 45 minutes. The airport terminal is quiet but the BA check in is a disaster.
There is a supervisor that guides people to the check-in desks but there is only one desk for Business passengers and 5 for the Coach passengers.
8 people are waiting for the business counter and it takes ages. The Coach counters only take coach people and there is always no wait there. At some point we begin to complain and a second counter is eventually opened for the business passengers.
We arrived at 05:45 and finished the check in at 06:30. Ways too long.
Then we proceeded through the police control, where it only took 2 minutes. Then security where there almost no wait. Then comes the big …"WTF" of this report …

I know security is always very strict in AMM and photo cameras together with teleobjectives are always deeper inspected. To avoid problems, I took them out from my bag. My mom does the same, but our two cabin bags are "selected" for additional inspection.
The agent asks if he can make explosives checks on the camera, i-pad, phones and computers. Done in no time.
Then we are asked to open the bags in full and to show all medecines we have with us.
As I have had several surgeries this year, my doctor gave me a prescription of Tramadol. My mother also has a very important pathology and needs to be treated with drugs that are like chemiotherapy.

We had our prescriptions digitalized in case of.

The agent asks to see the paper copy but as we have them dematerialized we can't provide them. And then it begins. I wanted to show them the papers on the computer but they keep on saying only paper copy.

Then it starts with questions on why we had those drugs, that this is illegal, and that no such drugs are allowed in Jordan without paper prescription. At least 4 agents came and asked the same questions again and again. Why we have that, why we took them. For me it is pretty easy, I came with 3 pills, just in case of and took none. But my mother takes them everyday. She had to explain why everyday, why this drugs.

After a very long time the head of medical service came and confirms we have the right to have this drugs with us, but since we have no paper prescriptions, they will be confiscated.

To finish with the agents took copies of our passeports and boarding passes. I am sure that for my next travel to Jordan I'll have all prescriptions on paper :)

This took a solid 45'' and it was not 07:20. Since there is an additional control at the gate, there is no more time for a lounge visit :(

To conclude this story, a single shoot of the check-in counters:

Walking to the gate:

I was almost sure we would be selected for the additional security control, but no :)

TK 333:

RJ A320:

the flight

Boarding started on time, and as usual in AMM, the jetbridges are never ending:

Our plane is there. If you look at the sky, you'll see it grey, which is pretty uncommon for September, it rained in the night. Usually it only starts to rain later in october.

The aircraft door:

The welcome was nice, the cabin still the same as on the previous flight:

And after row 12, only non reclinable seats:

Limited recline, but still better than the last rows of the plane :)

The pitch … No comment :(

Front view:

Once upon in time, there were screens in this cabin:

Ontime push back, here a Jordan Aviation A320:

A320 Royal Jordanian:

E175:

One of the last active 767-200, Jordan Aviation:

Dreamliner RJ:

A310 Cargo RJ:

There is a big MRO base in AMM and LX is one of their customers:

More LX :)

Even more :)

 Indigo A320:

Air Leasure, an old Egyptian Airline with an A340-200:

My little baby here is this Tristar, just love it:

Air Peace 737-500 another 767-200 Silver Air (stored at the same place since about 4 years!)

Never heard about this one:

Safi Airways 767-200: (also stored here since years)

Rich International is here since more than 10 years :)

Line up and take off:

Around the airport:

The highway from Amman to Aquaba:

Then Dead Sea:

Palestinian side:

The WiFi looks like the sea : Dead ^^

Orange juice or water are offered:

Safety card:

The breakfast is then served, there were a "choice" of a cold option with cheeses, a cheese ommelet or scrambled eggs with beef and chicken kebab.
In fact, speaking about "choice", when the crew arrived at our row, there is only the scrambled eggs left.

The croissant was under blister and wasn'y good at all. The eggs are overcooked, the beef was like boiled, what the called chicken kebab is just a plain chicken fillet. On the right side there are hashed browns and beans.
The hashed browns and the beans were good. The rest was in between disgusting or bad. There was also a yaourt with apricots that was not that bad.
This was what British Airways serves on a 5H flight in business.
At least we were treated with wonderful view over Santorini:

I was able to take a nap, we decided to take the last row hoping nobody will seat there, since the flight wasn't full. At least, this paid off :)
Once awoken, I asked for water and a hot chocolate:

The WiFi gets back to life:

Arriving in the UK:

Inland:

And landed:

We parked next to that A321neo:

Leaving the plane:

A word about the crew: they were nice upon boarding but afterwards, we saw they were pissed of the product they were offering. They responded to calls, but spent most of the time in the galley.

Bye A320neo:

Once out, we face that!

What is this? That was the day were the UK experienced its land and border automated controls biggest breakdown. No computers, no automatic gates worked. At the worse point of the day, there was a 4H wait and a 1 km long wait to enter the UK.
Thanks god, we were only in transit and have no passport controls. The queue was really impressive, at noon, it was about 500 meters:

I was so happy not to be there :)

The next leg is coming soon :)

wadi rum - bonus

We decided to get there on a day trip, 4H drive to get there but we had a lovely driver. Our friends in Jordan booked everything and the transportation for that day was only 160€ with leaving at noon and being back at 02AM.

The entrance in Wadi Rum is not that expensive: 5JOD for foreigners, 1JD for locals, in total we paid 14JD -2 foreigners 4 locals- around 18€
Then we rented a jeep to have a long tour in the desert until sunset.

Wadi Rum is an amazing and fascinating place, lots of movies have been made there, The Martian, some Starwars and more.

It is so impressive to be here:

A souvenir totem:

It's almost if you are alone on earth:

We climbed this little sand hill:

The views were breathtaking:

Wadi Rum is also an open air museum with those  petroglyphs for example:

I loved this place so much and will definitively come back for a longer tour.

And the sunset, magical!

food bonus: مقلوبة jordan maqluba

The Maqluba (مقلوبة) together with the  Mansaf (منسف) are two of the most eaten dishes in Jordan. The Maqluba is usually made with chicken while the Mansaf is with lamb. But there are also a lot of differences I couldn't tell.

Our friends cooked us a Maqluba, and we were treated like kings. We ate the traditionnal Jordan way, on the floor:

That dish is to die for. We loved everybite. It was just awesome.