Flight came up as boarding and headed off to the gate area. We had taken a bottle of water and diet coke, thinking there was no screening required. However, when we approached the gates we saw a screening area and prepared to through the drinks away. No need here - there is no liquid restrictions! Also laptops etc could stay in bags. Very different to the UK. Boarding was a scrum again, although the gate agent kept non-Crown Class passengers back very well. This time there was joint airbridge boarding for the A330 plane. The configuration of the plane is 4 rows of 2-2-2 - fixed shell seats with angle lie-flat seats. In the lounge we had asked how busy the flight was and there were only 8 Crown Class passengers, we moved to have 2K and 3K (seats next to us empty).
Pre-take off drinks were juice/water again. After a shortish taxi there was then a fairly shakey take-off and we were off to Bangkok. Shortly after take-off there was a drinks service (champagne again) and more arabic nut mixture - really good mixed nuts. After a couple of rounds of drinks, hot towels again and then there was a snack service. This consisted of three pieces of bread each with a different topping (beef, tiger prawns and cheese), salad and a piece of cake. I wasn't that hungry and only picked at it. Was pretty tasty and service was professional and friendly throughout.
Then it was sleep time, so put my seat into "bed mode". I did slip down a bit being angle-flat - your feet are under the seat in front, and therefore I used a spare pillow in this foot well area which then stopped my slipping down. Managed 2-3 hours sleep on this flight, which was just over 7 hours in duration.
Woke as they were starting breakfast service - initially hot towels for everyone again. The tray came out with fresh fruit salad and pastries, followed by two sorts of smoothies and juice and then the hot breakfast trolley. This was a selection of Middle Eastern / Lebanese food, sausages, bacon, hash browns, poached egg with cheese (which also had salmon underneath) and mushroom omelette. I opted for a mixture of the poached egg, hash brown and the mixed Arabic / Lebanese food. Offered a range of breads, including flat breads. Overall a really good breakfast and definitely the best that I have had in the air!
The crew were all very polite and friendly - one thing I noticed was that everytime they give you something, this was always followed by "please enjoy!".
The other interesting thing we noticed was that there were a number of Jordanian secret service personnel on the flight (this was a theme on all of the RJ flights). They stood by the doors during boarding and then after boarding sat in one of the jump seats for the whole of the duration of the flight. They also kept a very close eye on the cockpit during the whole of the flight. That said, despite them being there, on several occasions the cockpit door was left open during the flight - not something I have seen for a very long time.
Arrived a little early in Bangkok - on arrival, the front door opened and some Jordanian staff (?secret service) boarded and passed faxed arabic paperwork to the obvious secret service agents on the plane. All slightly odd!
This was a really good flight - great that it was quiet up front and the service was definitely very good all round.
