Why Royal Jordanian puts American Airlines to Shame

[13 hours on the Airbus]

1. They have touch-screens in every seat.

These come with games, on demand movies, an interactive map of where your plain is/how fast it’s going/ETA, streaming radio, Arabic music, American music, etc.

2. The flight attendants look like models. What happened to the good old days where female flight attendants wore pressed skirts, jackets, hats, and were also ridiculously good looking? They all moved to Jordan and renewed their geneaologies. I thought of it as proper, charming, and comfortable, but feel free to read that as misogynistic, oppressive, and anti-modern. Someone has to.

3. No BS. Everyone is super nice unless you’re being disobedient. Call it rude, call it time-efficient: There’s no, “ma’am, could you please put that carry-on back in the overhead bins? We’re not allowing people to get up just yet” – only, “No./La.” and they put it back for you.

4. The people who fly Royal Jordanian are much more pleasant. By the looks of him, I sat next to the Israeli Uncle Jessie. He spent about 40% of the time praying (flight anxiety, I assume), often bumping his head into the touch screen monitor in the back of the seat and turning it on and off. Instead of sweating, making anxious conversation, and/or trying to hold my hand to soothe his flying fear, he softly hummed the Qur’an to himself. We can learn from this.

5. They take you away from the watery torture of the Midwest Spring/Summer and bring you here:

And that was just economy class.