A Guide to Royal Jordanian Transit Accommodation

In reality, how valuable is Royal Jordanians Stopover Paid by Carrier

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STOPOVER PAID BY CARRIER (STPC)

Royal Jordanian runs a transit package for those passengers with long transit times – commonly known as a Stopover Paid by Carrier or STPC. In fact airlines such as Asiana Airlines and Qatar Airways also have their own STPC policies.

While the rules vary by airline, the general rule for Royal Jordanian is that there must be a transit of 6 or 8 hours (dependant on the class of travel) but no more than24 hours.

Unlike Qatar Airways STPC, the eligibility rules for STPC are somewhat unclear, hopefully, this guide will fill in any blanks and clarify whats on offer.

To be clear, to be able to make use of Royal Jordanian’s STPC the transit must be because there are no scheduled flights for your route, not because you want to sit in the lounge for an absorbent amount of time.

So Long as you meet the minimum requirements, Royal Jordanian may provide hotel accommodation, meal and ground transportation from/To airport 

A Brief History of Royal Jordanian STPC

The Royal Jordanian’s STPC program developed as a solution to a self-made problem arising from their fleet scheduling in that some passengers may be left waiting in transit for an extensive period of time due to how flights to middle eastern transit hubs operate.

The issue is that Royal Jordanian wants to build Queen Alia International Airport as an international hub, and to do so, it must offer a compelling reason why you would want to do a stopover instead of flying direct. Especially if you are impacted badly by it’s scheduling.

For those who are unfamiliar, If you look at Royal Jordanian’s flight schedule (or even Qatar, Emirates or Etihad for that matter) you will see that at a certain time of day a majority of flights will all arrive and then all depart shortly after. By virtue of how a runways work, only 1 flight can land at a time meaning that all these flights are staggered in an intense and choreographed motion to minimise transit times for as many people as possible, getting this wrong costs the airline money and is bad for passengers as we really don’t want to be in transit for more than they need to be.

What you will see is that flights from the east will arrive first followed by flights from the west, flights going eastbound will then depart and then finally flights going west will depart.

While flights going east-to-west should have little issue in terms of transit, you can see that in some cases that flighting west-to-east will pose a problem if you do not have enough time to transit or your flight from the west arrives after your flight to the east has departed.

Thus, Royal Jordanian put in place the STPC program for these exact instances where you have to wait for the next rotation of flights to depart (which potentially can be 6 to 24 hours away) to get to your destination.


BASIC RULES OF
Royal Jordanian STPC

Due to the benefit of this offer, Royal Jordanian naturally wants to stamp out any possible form of abuse.

This is why the airline takes a very firm view, outlining the rules and taking a “you qualify or not” approach to the STPC program.

Your only recourse for getting an STPC by Royal Jordanian is to meet all the airline’s requirements.

Main Eligibility Requirements

Royal Jordanian has two absolute rules which trip most passengers up and will render any request ineligible. These are the headline rules which provide a quick guide to see if you are eligible or not

01

TYPE OF TICKET MATTERS

The type of ticket matters when it comes to STPC policy. In short, Passenger must be travelling on non-promo economy fares or on business class fares.

02

6 (or 8) TO 24 HOUR RULE

In addition, to get an STPC from Royal Jordanian, the rules on the duration of the transit changes depending on the class of travel.

The connecting time must be equal or exceeding 8 hours for economy class, or 6 hours for business class passengers.

The transit also must not be for more than 24 hours.

ADDITIONAL CONSIDERATIONS

Additionally, there are other important rules which also need to be met, but these are more obvious and do not trip passengers up too easily.

  • You must have the transit take place in Amman, Jordan;
  • There must be a transit – separate tickets (such as one ticket into Amman and one leaving Amman) do not qualify for STPC;
  • The ticket must be on “RJ 512 Stock” meaning the ticket must be issued by Royal and start with 512-xxxx to be eligible;
  • To be eligible for STPC, you must be booked on the first available connecting flight from arrival to departure;
  • You must hold a confirmed ticket, meaning tickets on standby do not count
  • STPC does not apply when the journey is wholly within the Middle East (defined as Egypt, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and United Arab Emirates but not Barsra); between the Middle East and North Africa, Tunisia and Algeria; or when there is a wholly domestic sector within Jordan
  • For group bookings, STPC does not apply;
  • Not all economy class tickets are eligible for STPC
  • Award Tickets (in classes U & X) are not eligible for STPC
  • Delayed flights cannot be handled by STPC. If your flight is delayed which in turn would make you eligible for STPC (as a result of meeting the 6 to 24-hour rule), unfortunately, any hotel accommodation will be handled by the airline’s Flight Delay Policy rather than by STPC.

FARE ELIGIBILITY

Depending on the economy fare class you are ticketed into, you may be eligible for STPC. Revenue Business class tickets are automatically eligible for STPC.

Award Tickets are not eligible for STPC

Eligible for STPC

Booking classes in economy which are eligible for STPC include:

L | V | S | N | Q | Y | B | H | K | M

Ineligible for STPC

Booking classes in economy which are ineligible for STPC include:

R | O | P | W `

As well as reward classes:

U | X

VISA’s & The Hotel

One of the better parts of a long transit is the ability to visit the city you are in. Royal Jordanian will only ever put you into one hotel which in itself is in a controlled zone.

If you do decide to make use of Royal Jordanisan”s STPC, then you won’t need a visa to get to the hotel, however, you will not be let out of the controlled zone without one.

When you get off the plane, head over to the transit area. Fill the paperwork, give it to the attendant, and follow him until you reach the shuttle bus leading you to Amman hotel (former golden tulip). There is no visa to pay, you get a free transit visa.

Royal Jordanian will not put you in any other hotel than this one, because the hotel is located in a controlled zone.

If you are there on transit there is absolutely no way to leave the hotel until they tell you to do so, 3 hrs before check-in and you will be accompanied back into the international zone.

If you wish to visit Jordan, the process is surprisingly simple, but there is an additional step you must do. When you arrive at the transit desk you must tell the person there that you would like a visa as well as to have a free stay at the hotel. If you do not do this, they will not give you the voucher to take you to the immigration desks to buy the visa.

A Visa-on-Arrival is 40 Jordanian Dinar.


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IMPORTANT FINAL REMARKS ABOUT
Royal Jordanian STPC

Royal Jordanian Tail
  • Whether or not you qualify for entry upon arrival or require a visa, entry into the Kingdom of Jordan is not guaranteed as this is still subject to the immigration authorities. For example, while you may be eligible for a free STPC in both directions of travel, Tourist Visa regulations can fluctuate and may impact overall ability to use the STPC – such as a Tourist visa only being granted in one direction of travel on a return ticket.
  • If you intend to make use of the STPC, remember that your baggage will be checked through to your final destination. Bring a change of clothes and any medication you require as if it was a regular short transit.

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Dan
Dan
Travelling on Points is the brainchild of a person who loves to travel and reap the benefits of doing so. Dan enjoys sharing the knowledge of travel as he believes that the more people travel the less narrow-minded, and more tolerant, people will be of each other.

Article Comments

6 COMMENTS

    • Hi there, sorry not sure what that is – taken a guess that you mean its a Bus and Rail combo ticket which would mean you would need to see if it follows the rules in relation to AccessRail

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