Good evening from New York City! 
the big apple, the unofficial economic capital of the world 
if the world was just one country, I wouldn’t even be surprised if NYC was declared the capital. I came up here from Miami, FL 
on American Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner a flight review already up and available to check out. Now NYC isn’t my final stop, I’m actually here for a layover on my way to Amman, Jordan 
and tonight will be the night we board the plane taking us all the way there. We’ll be flying on Jordanian flag carrier, Royal Jordanian in economy class on their Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, the backbone of their long haul service. I also won’t be traveling alone with me as I’m going with a friend of mine you actually lives here in the big apple and is a big reason why I chose to layover here compared to somewhere else. Without further to do, let’s get to the airport and get this trip started!
Royal Jordanian being a member of the OneWorld alliance, uses terminal 8 here at John F. Kennedy International Airport. T8 is majority controlled by American Airlines with some of their closest partners also operating from here like British Airways, Iberia, Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qantas and Royal Jordanian. The RJ check in area wasn’t too busy when we got to the terminal but by the time we were actually done and could make our way to security, it filled up pretty fast so make sure you arrive early. If I was concerned on how security would’ve been back in MIA, JFK was going to be a completely different ball game. These major hubs were the most affected by the government shutdown with the FAA delaying and cancelling many flights due to ATC shortages and even delays at TSA as those workers also had to work without pay. Luckily, both me and my friend have pre check so we had no worries and were clear in about 5 minutes. We were both were hungry so we decided to go eat at a sports bar, we only ordered drinks and appetisers since we knew we were gonna get food on the plane. We both had some cokes and garlic parmesan chicken wings 
which were plentiful to keep us happy for now and still save some space for the food we’ll get on the flight. Meanwhile in Fort Lauderdale, FL 
while we were eating, the Colombian National Team 
were starting their match against the New Zealand National Team 
for an international friendly to prepare both teams for the upcoming 2026 FIFA World Cup. They actually had the game broadcasting at the restaurant so we both agreed to stay and watch the game until like 15 minutes until boarding as our flight will depart from the satellite portion of T8 while we are still in the main section. On the topic of Soccer or Football 
wherever you’re from, Jordan country we’re visiting, had just recently qualified into their very first World Cup so congratulations to them! 
We were able to stay for a good majority of the game before we had to go like halfway during the 2nd half as we needed to get across the airport, the score was Colombia 1 - 0 New Zealand. T8 is a really nice space and despite JFK not being as big as a hub compared to the likes of DFW, CLT and even MIA, it is easily the most themed terminal to AA in their network, they have a mural of their logo evolution and even a model of a chrome Airbus A300. I had a slightly shorter walk to my gate than the walk from my gate when I arrived from MIA Thursday night although it was generally in the same area. We got there about 5 minutes or so before boarding started so we sat down and streamed the game on my phone while we waited for us to be called up.
FLIGHT INFO:
Origin: John F. Kennedy Intl 
(JFK/KJFK)
Destination: Queen Alia Intl (AMM/OJAI)
Flight Time: 10:23
Boeing 787-8 (Royal Jordanian)
Server: Expert
By the way, our ride to Amman will be JY-BAA an 11 year old Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner delivered to Royal Jordanian back in August 2014. The aircraft is named after Hussein bin Abdullah, the current crown price of Jordan
since July 2009.
It didn’t take long at all for our boarding group to be called since our AAdvantage statuses also gave us earlier boarding than most. We were called up to board right after business class and the typical pre boarders.
Royal Jordanian only has one type of Boeing 787-8 and they all seat 270 passengers in a 2 class setup. Up front are the 24 “crown” or business class seats where RJ utilises the Collins Diamond Parallels a 2-2-2 configuration, the seat configuration alone can be a big drive away factor for most as majority of the industry is focusing on seats guaranteeing aisle access for all. There is no premium economy and we simply move into first of two standard economy cabins which have 246 Collins Aerospace Pinnacle seats in the typical Dreamliners 3-3-3 configuration.
We’re both seated in the rear section of economy class with me in 28K and my friend behind me in 29K. I found the seat to be fairly comfortable which is always great considering this is the backbone of their long haul fleet. Waiting on the seat were pillows, blankets and a water bottle, I always like when airlines give out an extra water bottle on top of the pillow and blankets it really gives me hope that the flight will be amazing. The seat also came with a seatback screen which we’ll check out a little bit later into the flight. Overall there wasn’t a whole lot to talk about, this cabin is essentially what you can expect when flying long haul and it gets the job done which is the important part. Boarding concluded right on time, pushback however did not we remained at the gate for almost a solid 10 minutes before we got actually begin pushing back, that’s JFK for you 
It doesn’t end there however as our fairly lengthy taxi route and slow pace of speed really cost us some time which we can hopefully make up in the air.
Eventually, we finally did reach JFKs RWY 22R and made our way into the night time skies
leaving NYC behind us and Jordan ahead of us.
The ground delay was long enough for me to finish watching the Colombia V. New Zealand game where NZL scored evening the score before COL came in and scored one more time with the game ending Colombia 2 - 1 New Zealand. Another victory for COL in the books 
hopefully we can have this performance in the actual World Cup.
After a very peaceful departure from JFK this evening passing over my friends neighbourhood of Belle Harbor, a good chunk of Long Island and a great victory for Colombia we reached our initial cruising altitude of 29,000ft, we’d later climb up to 31,000ft and eventually 35,000ft for our journey to Amman.
Our dinner service started right as we flew by Westbrook, ME just outside of Portland. It was between a chicken or pasta dish which both me and my friend chose the chicken, it came alongside some lettuce 
and steamed rice 
bread roll with butter, side salad 
and a chocolate ice cream 
cup for dessert. A water bottle was also provided along with a beverage of choice which I chose a Coke and my friend a Sprite. Overall both of us enjoyed our meals the only thing we both could say could’ve been improved on was maybe warm up the bread rolls because they simply taste much better warm than cold but it was still great nonetheless. The crew were also MARVELLOUS always in the aisle checking on us, each one was also EXTREMELY proficient in Arabic which is the official language of Jordan which is great because there was a good amount of Jordanians on this flight back to their home country along with many of their kids who were probably going to see it for the very first time including us. 5 stars for this crew any day of the week! 
It was pretty late by the time the meal service wrapped up so I decided to go to sleep while my friend tried to find something to watch on the IFE before his fatigue hit him hard. So I guess that means we’ll see you guys in the morning.
Good morning from just off the coast of Klitmøller, Denmark
while I was up and about, my friend was still passed out on the seat with no sign of him waking up within the next hour or so.
I decided to get up and use the lavatory which was standard as far as long haul lavatories go and now it’s time to dive into the IFE system RJ provides. The system is powered by the Thales TopSeries Avant system which provided a good amount of content to watch on demand not a whole lot compared to the other Middle Eastern carriers and even majority of North American carries but still a solid amount to keep you entertained for a good amount of time. Their longest flight is currently from Amman to Chicago-O’Hare which is around 13 hours but their new flight to Dallas/Fort Worth which launches in May 2026 is set to overtake that flight . A high quality moving map is also provided which makes tracking progress much easier. I settled on some Jurassic World for the remainder of the flight as I haven’t seen the film in a while and barely remembered anything about it. WiFi is also NOT provided so be sure to keep that in mind!
The movie ended as we passed directly above Central Romania
or more specifically Transylvania. I would love to visit it one day especially since I’m really into the medieval times and the region is famous for that.
It was around this time that my friend woke up and it was just in time as our final meal service, breakfast was being served. It was a bit strange for breakfast to be served as it’s around 2:00pm or so in Amman but it was fairly early in the morning back in New York City so I guess it kind of made sense. We had the chose between a vegan or non vegan option where we both chose the non vegan one which came with scrambled eggs and french toast 
same bread and butter we got at dinner, fruit bowl and 2 choices of beverage with both of us choosing a Coffee 
but I went with an apple instead of orange juice 
that my friend chose. We were both happy campers either way so it really didn’t matter but like I said before, I wish the bread roll was warmed up instead as to me a cold bread roll just kind of screams laziness in my opinion. It wasn’t bad though and the main and other side dishes for both meal services made up for it however.
After that I simply just relaxed and watched the moving map and talked with my friend for the rest of the flight as we made our way across Bulgaria 
and Turkey 
before flying above the Mediterranean Sea for the last few minutes of cruise passing right by Cyprus 
before our approach into Amman.
We began our descent into Amman just off the coast of Tel Aviv, Israel
we remained over the Mediterranean before coming into Israeli air space for a brief minute before crossing into Palestine 
for another brief window before eventually entering Jordan just outside of Amman, we’d fly past the airport on downwind and make a 180 over the desert 
and come into land on AMMs RWY 26L.
Down below you can see the coast of Israel along with part of Tel Aviv.
Unfortunately, our side of the aircraft didn’t have the view of Amman so instead we got treated with the same desert
landscape we’ve seen all across Israel and Palestine apart from a few small towns here and there and AMM airport. It was beautiful don’t get me wrong but nothing to actually see outside that was noteworthy so let’s just skip to our final approach for RWY 26L.
TOUCHDOWN! Welcome to Amman, Jordan
ladies and gentlemen I’m really excited to be here especially since I’ve always been interested in this part of the Middle East. Don’t get me wrong I loved Dubai, UAE 
and Doha, Qatar 
but I felt like it was too urban for me so it’s nice to finally see some less urban areas of the region. I also had a really positive experience with Royal Jordanian as the seats were comfortable, crew were nice, IFE was sufficient and great in flight food as well. The only real improvements I could say are to install WiFi because come on it’s 2025 about to be 2026 that’s pretty much a standard across the world at this current point. Another small thing they could also do is warm up the bread rolls provided with the meals because to me it feels awkward to have a hot main dish but cold bread roll. Other than that, I have no true complaints for RJ and would definitely fly them again on a trip to Jordan!
We unfortunately didn’t make up enough time en route so we ended up parking up at Queen Alia International Airport just a few minutes behind schedule but still not that bad and we weren’t connecting onwards so it wasn’t a big deal anyways. Our aircraft would later be prepared for its next flight over to Istanbul, Turkey
and we’ll be heading over to immigration and customs 
which definitely took a while given there were a lot of other Royal Jordanian flights across Europe, Africa and the Middle East and heck even the aforementioned flight from ORD was also still in the process of clearing passport control. Luckily the long and tiring wait in immigration gave time for our bags to come out quickly so the both us collected our belongings and exited the terminal right after to find a rental car center, we found one about 5 minutes from the airport, got our car and made our way to the hotel just outside of the city center to drop off our belongings, “recover” after that long flight and get ready for a night out in Amman.
That will be it regarding this flight from New York JFK to Amman, Jordan on Royal Jordanian’s Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner in economy class. Stay tuned for a potential spotting session and the flight back to JFK and as always between now and the next time, see you in the sky! 
like I’m not reading all that.. lol