Review: Royal Jordanian Crown Lounge Amman Airport (AMM)

During my two-part birthday trip to the Golden Triangle, I had an extended layover at Amman Queen Alia International Airport (AMM), between two Royal Jordanian flights. I was arriving from Bangkok (BKK) in Royal Jordanian’s Boeing 787-8 business class, and departing to Frankfurt nearly six hours later, in Royal Jordanian’s Embraer E190-E2 business class.

This gave me the chance to spend some time in Royal Jordanian’s Crown Lounge, which is the carrier’s flagship lounge at its hub airport. There were aspects of the experience I enjoyed, like a varied food selection and barista coffee, so there are clearly some areas the carrier is trying.

However, there are also several downsides to the lounge — I found the staff to be rather inhospitable, and more focused on chit-chatting than keeping the lounge clean. I also don’t love how the lounge fully opens up into the terminal, and as a result, has quite the bird infestation. It’s also disappointing how they charge for shower use, even if you’re in business class, which is a very unusual policy. Anyway, let’s get into the review… separately, I’ve reviewed the Plaza Premium Lounge Amman.

Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman location

The Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman is easy to find. If you’re originating in Amman, you’ll find yourself in the center part of the terminal with duty free shopping.

The entrance to the lounge is hidden in a corner of that space, next to the Starbucks and the the Donuts Factory (which, if you ask me, looks mighty similar to Dunkin’). Meanwhile if you’re connecting, just follow the signage for lounges, and you’ll find yourself in the same area.

I must say, for a flagship lounge for a long haul airline, the entrance is sort of hidden and uninspiring, not that this is a big deal. It’s just the entrance on the terminal level, while the actual lounge is located one level up.

My welcome experience in the lounge didn’t exactly exude hospitality. When I first entered, the lounge attendant seemed to be having (based on the tone) what I assume was a personal phone call on speakerphone, and didn’t so much as say a word to me.

I later left the lounge for a bit and returned, and that agent said nothing to me when I entered, despite me saying “good morning” and “thank you”).

What is wrong with Royal Jordanian’s culture? As I mentioned in my Royal Jordanian 787 review, there are signs around the terminal calling Jordan “the land of hospitality,” but you really don’t feel that when flying with Royal Jordanian.

Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman hours & crowding

The Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman is open 24/7, so it never closes.

Royal Jordanian isn’t a huge airline, but generally it has a mid-morning bank of flights, around 9AM until 11AM, and then a late night bank of flights, around 11PM until 1AM, so you can expect the lounge to be most crowded in the hours leading up to those flights. Outside of those times, the lounge is generally very calm, especially given how big it is.

Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman entry requirements

Royal Jordanian is in the oneworld alliance, so the lounge follows oneworld lounge access rules. While the lounge is primarily intended for Royal Jordanian business class passengers and elite members, it’s also open to all oneworld first and business class passengers, in addition to oneworld Emerald members and oneworld Sapphire members.

Those with oneworld elite status are allowed to bring one guest with them, while business class passengers generally can’t bring guests.

This also acts as a contract lounge for a variety of other airlines, ranging from EgyptAir, to Emirates, to Gulf Air, to Oman Air, to Qatar Airways, to Saudia, and more.

Interestingly — and rarely for the hub lounge of an alliance airline — the Crown Lounge is also open to Priority Pass members. Access is permitted up to three hours before scheduled departure, and up to two guests can be brought in, assuming your membership allows that.

Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman seating & layout

The Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman is located one level above the terminal, and as a result, it’s “open air” in the terminal. As you’d expect, this has many implications — you’ll hear a lot of noise from one level down, the temperate can sometimes be less than ideal, and there are also a good number of birds flying around.

The lounge is quite large — it’s around 2,500 square meters (27,000 square feet), and can accommodate around 340 guests. There’s a center area that connects the two sides of the lounge, and then you can walk in either direction, as the lounge is basically located on two different sides of the duty free area.

There’s also signage there, telling you in which direction the various amenities are.

If you enter and go right, you’ll first walk across a little “bridge” of sorts, and then you’ll find a cute little coffee setup, with some traditional design, along with a big screen with Royal Jordanian branding.

You’ll then first find the main buffet area (more on the food selection later), along with a bunch of cafe-style seating.

You’ll then find the bar area, which also contains a bunch of high-top seating,

There’s then a bit more random lounge-style seating, with a bunch of seats sloppily set up in clusters.

While that side of the lounge is primarily about the buffet and bar, the other side of the lounge has a lot more seating, along with some more specific food and beverage stations. You’ll find several different seating setups.

On this side of the lounge, you’ll also find the smoking room.

There are three more things I’d like to point out about the lounge design, which stood out to me.

First, there’s a major shortage of outlets — very few seats offer easy access to power ports, which is frustrating. Basically if you want to charge, you have to find outlets at random walls, and you might end up tripping someone in the process.

Second, the design just seems completely scattered. There’s no cohesive vision to the furnishings, and it almost felt like they just got a bunch of random furniture to fill the lounge, with no thought into how it actually looks.

Third, once again, there just seemed to be a lack of care. When I first arrived at the lounge, it was nearly empty, but was staffed with dozens of people. They were all just standing around chatting, while the lounge was dirty, with a high percentage of empty seats containing endless empty plates, cups, bottles, and napkins. In fairness, after about an hour they started tidying the lounge, and that’s when I took the above pictures.

But I think this also really sums up my overall impression of Royal Jordanian — on balance, employees don’t care much about the guest experience.

Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman food & drinks

The Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman has a solid selection of food and drinks, so I give the airline high marks for that. I was impressed by the number of different food and beverage stations, as this is an area where the airline is clearly trying.

The main food selection is located at the buffet, and of course that’s self serve.

During my morning visit, cold options included all kinds of spreads, veggies, cheese, salad, and a variety of bread.

Hot options included foul, boiled eggs, baked beans, a stewed tomato stew, shakshouka, beef bacon, scrambled eggs, beef and chicken sausage, hash browns, and more.

It’s cute how the lounge has a couple of other food stations, which vary throughout the day. There’s an all-day pizza bar… well, the Jordanian version, so more like manakish station.

There’s also a live cooking station, which was an omelet bar during my morning visit, and I believe it becomes a pasta bar later in the day. I decided to have a veggie omelet, and it was quite good.

There’s even a self-serve ice cream machine, which is mighty cool!

When it comes to drinks, they’re self-serve from fridges near the dining area, with options like water, soda, and juice.

There’s a full bar, though I didn’t partake in any alcohol.

I did appreciate the proper barista coffee available in the lounge, and had an excellent cappuccino. Again, though, the service was a bit off. When I showed up to ask for a coffee, there were two employees just standing there chatting. Even when they saw me standing there, they continued chatting for another 20 seconds or so before acknowledging me and helping me. You really feel like you’re inconvenicning them by being there.

All-in-all, this exceeded my expectations, with the food and drinks being the high point of the lounge.

Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman bathrooms & showers

The Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman doesn’t have a very impressive bathroom setup. The main bathrooms are just by the entrance.

The men’s room had three sinks, two stalls, and two urinals, which doesn’t exactly strike me as a lot of capacity for the number of guests you’ll find in the lounge. The bathroom also wasn’t very luxurious.

The lounge does have two showers, but they’re not complimentary to use, even if you’re flying in business class. Instead, they cost 11 JOD, or around 15 USD, to use. I suppose that’s one way to avoid queues with the limited capacity, but still, what global airline charges to use showers at its flagship lounge?!

I could see making it free for Royal Jordanian passengers and charging for Priority Pass members (there’s precedent for that), but this just strikes me as being super cheap.

Bottom line

The Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman has its pros and cons. I appreciated the solid selection of food and drinks, including bartender cocktails, barista coffee, a live cooking station, and an ice cream machine.

Beyond that, though, I found this lounge to be quite underwhelming. It doesn’t exactly have a beautiful design, it opens up into the terminal, it lacks charging options, and showers come at an extra cost. But what disappointed me most was the service — there wasn’t even a “hello” upon entering the lounge, and staff just stood around rather than cleaning tables littered with plates and cups.

What’s your take on the Royal Jordanian Lounge Amman?