Review: Business Class lounge, Royal Jordanian

The lounge is on the second floor after immigration.

The signage for it, although big (as we subsequently realised) is remarkably easy to miss, so we initially missed the entrance, and wandered for a while searching.

The lounge had been open for about three months when we visited, but asking some of the airport staff how to get to it drew blank looks, so as the national carrier's business class area, Royal Jordanian clearly needs to do a bit more internal promotion.

The airport itself is a little shabby, but step in through the entrance to the business class lounge and you walk into a different world. The lounge is huge, well-laid out, bright, airy and tranquil.

The designers have given the lounge a 'zoned' effect, creating a number of areas within it. The café area is self service, offering a buffet of finger food along with juices and hot drinks. We tried the range of food on offer (well, we were reviewing it!) and it was pretty good - you certainly would not have complained about the quality if you had paid.

Passenger entertainment

Across from the café area is the bar, with a wide selection of beverages also freely available, while in front of this is the lounge area, with huge comfortable chairs. There are four large flat screen TVs on the wall, each tuned into a different channel, plus a number of headphone stations, so that you can sit back, relax and listen to the programme on show - without distracting other passengers.

But, if watching telly is your idea of relaxing before a flight, then head to one of the 12 private flatscreen TVs, where you can sit in a comfy chair, select one of over 20 TV channels or, if you have the time and are prepared to watch in English, one of three movies. Other European languages on offer get only one movie. Supplied headphones ensure no one else in the lounge is disturbed. One niggle though - we had to ask a member of staff for the remote to operate the TV, and noticed afterwards that several stations were missing theirs as well.

For those who are not travelling alone, there is a games room with a full size pool table, a selection of board games and of course, a flatscreen TV on the wall. And this business class lounge is child friendly. The children's room is packed with toys for different ages, has a big table-football table and of course, the obligatory flat screen TV screwed to the wall, this time tuned into a children's channel.

Elsewhere, the lounge includes a prayer room, a computer room with internet-enabled PCs and showers.

When put together, it makes for a very comfortable, relaxing business class lounge that has tried to accommodate every type of traveller. So does this lounge pass our business class test? Well, we'd happily have spent longer relaxing in it and the 90 minutes we did occupy Royal Jordanian's Crown Lounge felt far shorter.