Royal Air Maroc is Morocco’s largest airline, and as you’d expect, they offer the most extensive route network to/from Morocco.
The airline recently announced that they’ll be joining the oneworld alliance in 2020, making them the first airline in six years to do so. That means that eventually flying RAM will be a great way to earn and redeem oneworld miles.
Presently Royal Air Maroc’s North American destinations include Montreal, New York JFK, and Washington Dulles, and as of April they’ll also fly to Miami.
The airline uses Boeing 787s for their US routes. Up until now they’ve uses 787-8s, but soon they’ll start using 787-9s, and I’ll talk about the implications of that a bit below.
At the beginning of January, Royal Air Maroc filed with the US Department of Transportation permission to operate flights to Boston. This would only be Boston’s second flight to Africa, after Cabo Verde Airlines’ flight to Praia, Cape Verde. It looks like RAM has now been granted permission to operate this flight, and it’s on sale.
Royal Air Maroc will begin flying 3x weekly between Boston and Casablanca as of June 22, 2019. The new flight will be operated using a Boeing 787-8 with the following schedule:
AT210 Casablanca to Boston departing 5:05PM arriving 7:30PM
AT211 Boston to Casablanca departing 9:15PM arriving 8:50AM (+1 day)
This new route between Boston and Casablanca will cover a distance of 3,442 miles. It’s blocked at 7hr25min westbound and 6hr35min eastbound.
I reviewed Royal Air Maroc’s 787 business class between Doha and Casablanca in 2016, which is roughly comparable in length to their US flights. I was pleasantly surprised by the experience.
Royal Air Maroc has flat beds in business class on their 787-8s (though it’s an odd configuration), the service was friendly, and the food was quite good. I wouldn’t hesitate to fly them again, and think this is a great option for anyone who wants to go to Morocco and beyond.
Royal Air Maroc also recently introduced a new business class product on their 787-9, which consists of reverse herringbone seats, so that’s a very nice improvement. The airline has a total of four of these planes on order, though I wouldn’t expect to see them flying to Boston anytime soon.
Best of all, award availability on Royal Air Maroc has historically been excellent, and you can redeem just 44,000 Etihad Guest miles for a one-way business class ticket on Royal Air Maroc anywhere in their system (once the flight becomes bookable, this would include Boston to Casablanca, and you could even connect beyond there, if you’d like).
Etihad Guest is transfer partners with Amex Membership Rewards, Citi ThankYou, and Capital One.
On top of that, in just over a year you should be able to redeem oneworld miles for this flight.
Anyone plan on taking RAM’s new flight between Boston and Casablanca?
I have booked a Business class flight on June 22nd 2019 (first flight) from Boston/Casablanca/Marrakech and it does appear as though they will be using the new 787-9 between Boston/Casablanca and Casablanca/Boston according to my reservation confirmation and customer service.
@PW - If you look at other US destinations they serve (JFK, MIA) no flights are loaded after 10/25 either.
https://www.google.com/flights#flt=JFK.CMN.2019-11-15;c:USD;e:1;s:0;m:c.0;sd:1;t:f;tt:o
Strange airline: Our flight attendant crew Washington to Casablanca were all straight dudes who didn't seem very concerned with life.
Looks to be seasonal. Nothing loaded after October.
Looking on the safar website (and calling Etihad) for the CMN-JFK route (in July)... over a three week period i was able to find just one flight with J availability. Does this seem odd for an airline with "great availability" or do they normally load more space closer to flight date