ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES review :  23 June 2009 : by D Lloyd-Davies  (UK)

LAD-ADDBKK-ADD-BKK in business class. Good price, about the same as Emirates economy. ET has some planes with reasonable IFE and some pretty old ones - including 767s in both categories, so it's impossible to tell what you will get. These flights were both operated by oldish 767s. The seats are ten years behind the latest business class offerings on world-class airlines; comfortable enough while sitting up but only offer slightly better comfort than economy when sleeping -there's no chance of sleeping on your side. Food no better than Singapore Airlines economy either, not terrible but not memorable. IFE consisted of overhead screens, with audio through cheap plastic headphones. Staff are good, professional and friendly in a slightly formal way, and the service is the best part of the ET experience. Overall a pretty average and rather dated experience and a long way short of business class in Qatar, Singapore Airlines etc.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES review :  23 June 2009 : by Andrew Fleming  (Ghana)

Accra/Addis/Bangkok return. Accra to Addis sectors in old 757's with old style seating - comfort fair but a greater recline would have helped. Apparently the last row of business on the 757's does not even recline the full distance of other seats due to their proximity to the cabin wall. Addis - Bangkok flight the 767s were used and cabin was slightly more modern but still far removed from the comfort might expect on KLM. Service was pretty generic on all flights, juice offered on boarding and a glass of champagne prior to take off. Inflight service comprised an aperitif with some nibbles, a starter, choice of 2 or 3 mains and a choice of desert with the option of cheese and coffee with a digestive to round off. The last flight also had an additional course of local Ethiopian food which is offered in business on selected flights (effectively day flights out of Addis). For me this was the best food of the 4 flights - nothing was bad but the international menu was not that inspiring and presentation was also average. The crew were happy to give me a second helping of the Ethiopian menu in lieu of the main I had ordered. Subsequent rounds of drinks were limited though on the Bangkok flight both were in the early hours and we were awaken for a simple breakfast. Entertainment is limited to a decent in flight magazine, a few newspapers and other titles such as Time and Newsweek and a movie or two played on a shared screen and if desired, listened to through a poor set of headphones. Security in Addis is very tight and so extra time to check in there would be wise. Lounges varied from pleasant in Accra (but minimal food), satisfactory in Addis, plenty of food but unclear how fast the turnover was so not too appetising and a limited selection of drinks (unusually both these lounges are self service for drinks). In Bangkok the lounge was also fair - a good choice of drinks and slightly better selection of food. One advantage was the 50KG luggage allowance and in both directions my bags happily arrived safely - even if the priority tag means nothing.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES review :  14 June 2009 : by P Keiser  (Germany)

Frankfurt -Luanda this past weekend for Business. Flight out delayed by 90 minutes as they had to wait for the aircraft to arrive from an earlier delayed flight. Usual friendly service at the airport in Frankfurt by non Ethiopian Airline staff, but onboard the food was well below par. We arrived Addis Ababa airport to find that my connecting flight had been cancelled- I had been bumped off the flight due to overbooking even in Business class. Ground staff were appalling - the levels of service and communication are abysmal especially towards other connecting passengers most whom seemed to be Africans - even business class passengers were not spared the rude retorts. I have never seen so many people receiving rude, ill-mannered service, nobody wanting to take responsibility for any thing, and no senior manager in sight. I even heard one of them say "if You dont like it you can change your Airline"! I was eventually given seating after insisting that I must be on board as I had a bording pass, and after running to the gate, with 10 minutes to spare between receiving my new boarding pass and departure time, arrived on board the aircraft to find my seat already occupied by an Ethiopian Airlines staff Member on a free flight! Spent another 15 minutes trying to get them to move out of my seat, the cabin crew then tried to tell me I was late and to go to economy class as the aircraft was full - even though I had a business class ticket and business class bording pass and seat assigned but I refused. Appalling packed-to-the-gills flight in economy, unrestrained children on mums' knees in business class! Food in Business Class was a terrible sandwich / hard roll, was told they were out of wine, and given half a can of Coca Cola when I asked for a drink! In Business class I expect the whole can but I guess they were rationing the drinks? Business class was not worth the extra $$$ - IFE was turned on only 2 hours into the flight and had a very poor selection. Tried to sleep, seats were poor and did not recline fully, 1 hour before landing crew rush to collect our headphones. I do not relish another trip with Ethiopian Airlines ever again. FA seemed to be casting angry glances at passengers who requested anything and rolled their eyes if you dared to call them.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES review :  10 June 2009 : by Steve Weller  (New Zealand)

LAD-ADD B767 Business Class. Flight started out a disaster as although I had a confirmed E ticket for Business Class, my details were not on the manifest. I had to stand at check in desk for over 40mins for the airline to sort it out. After finding my details, the check in Manager advised that Business Class was already full and I would be put on standby upgrade. This is despite having a fully paid and confirmed booking in Business. I was informed that they would monitor the situation. At boarding gate there was no information about standby upgrades and I was disappointed to hear from the Purser that they do not upgrade onboard and I was then told that Business was full. Just before departure the Purser offered my seat in Business Class. It was interesting to note that Business Class was only 30% full and there were 4 technical crew for Ethiopian taking up seats in Business. The crew were not even sitting together but chose to take single seats forcing paying passengers to sit together. Inflight entertainment non existent. Dining and beverage service was of good standard.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES review :  9 June 2009 : by William Kobe  (UK)

PAR-ADD-JNB. Flight crew on the flight from Paris were sullen and most unhelpful, doing the bare minimum and with bad grace. Breakfast served two hours before landing at Addis, and the small girl next to me missed hers. When she woke, her mother asked if she could have a roll and a cup of tea, She was rudely told that breakfast was ‘over’ and if the child was hungry why had she not been woken when everyone else had their breakfast. The kindest thing I can say about this FA is that she is clearly not a mother and probably doesn’t deserve to become one. I noticed after waiting for the toilets for a long time that one of them had been occupied for over 10 minutes by a female FA. The in-flight announcements made by a male FA were almost unintelligible due to his strong accent. The business class seats are uncomfortable on recline, and to find a good sleeping position requires understanding of the adjustment of the lumbar support and correct positioning. The IFE packed up, frustratingly in the middle of a film, and although it was reset, which took about half an hour each time, this left me with little incentive to carry on watching. The food could only be described as mediocre. The main reason I would not travel Ethiopian Airlines again is the awful Bole Airport, when you disembark you see clouds of smoke and people [particularly Chinese] smoking everywhere in the terminal. Have the Ethiopians not heard of the clean indoor air act? Also the scruffy business class/ VIP lounge, with rubbish left everywhere. On the return flight, I can only say that this was the most cramped and uncomfortable long haul flight I have ever experienced, in a very tatty and worn out B757.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES review :  9 June 2009 : by Derek Coggon  (Kuwait)

Every 3-months shuttle between (Iraq)-KWT-ADD-EBB business class on mostly older 757's. While serviceable have some seat and toilet issues. Business is cheaper than most airline economy classes and is a plus on route timing. Excellent onboard Staff and service make up for creature comfort issues. Biggest problem for me being disabled is security in Addis. Carbon- fibre prosthesis causes bells and whistles at security check-in, those people have no idea that human beings in this day and age can walk on prosthetic limbs - they really need some serious sensitivity training on these issues as I have nearly blown a gasket every time I have been told rather rudely to remove my prosthesis leg in the public check-in queue. I don't mind being escorted to private cubicle for some added before-flight entertainment of being strip- searched by the goon squad, but I do object strongly to being treated as if I am a terrorist with a bomb in my pants. As for the rest, given its an African airline I am impressed and the Ethiopian airline staff are great.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES review :  29 May 2009 : by C Blaschke  (Germany)

ADD-FRA Economy on a quite good looking 767-300 with IFE. The 757's they sometimes use on this route were a little bit worn out. Check-In was okay. I remember the chaos I used to know in Addis the last times. Legroom in economy is standard and crew was helpful and friendly - the food didn´t look good and tasted worse. All in all a 3-star-airline. One advantage of Ethiopian Airlines is to carry 45 kg baggage instead of 20 kg.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES review :  28 April 2009 : by P Irving

FCO-ENT-FCO. Business class flight from Rome to Addis was nothing special, certainly not up to the standard of other carriers. Business lounge in Addis was large with ample seating however dirty plates and used glasses left on tables made the room look dirty and unclean. My return flight from Addis to Rome was terrible. The tray table was broken, the seat did not fully recline and was in a poor condition. On the upside, the flight attendants were helpful and pleasant.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES review :  27 April 2009 : by J Giovani

Three flights with Ethiopian Airlines in one month, all problems or disasters. Travelled LHR to NBO, flight on time, no IFE - the TV's probably stopped working years ago, no other movie on the front screen or sound on music channels, although they did hand out headphones? Dinner very poor, breakfast barely acceptable. My seat worked, although others didn't. They lost the luggage in Nairobi airport, which is not a surprise when you see the mountains of bags in all corners of the arrival hall. Amazingly the luggage did not turn up turn up until 3 days later. NBO-BRZ economy, arrived at airport at noon for the flight departing 18.55pm. Plane had technical difficulties and departed at 20.00pm. This seemed to be a normal occurrence as they called it only a "slight delay". Ethiopian Airlines saved the best for last BRZ to LHR . Arrived at counter, and check in clerk got on the phone for 10-15mins to someone who didn't answer After further waiting, we were given seats that found out were double booked once we got on board and we were rudely told to simply sit any where else. They could offer no alternative other than to say sit down we are not going to delay this flight. It was now about 10mins before departure. The Station Mgr could do nothing for us except say the same thing and tried to put us at the back of the aircraft in the middle - there was no second option we refused and they asked the other passengers to move. On arrival in Addis there were clearly inadequately trained transit desk staff at Addis run by stressed staff, absolutely insufficient looking at the endless queue of passengers waiting to be served. There were augments with nearly every passenger mean while two suspicious looking plain clothes security officers wandered around pretending very hard to be “passengers” and would come up and stand by anybody who was having a conversation and listen in whilst trying not to look so obvious, but you can’t miss it when 4 Congolese men are specking in French and an Ethiopian mans just slowly walks over to them and stands behind them pretending to looking at the ceiling - what a joke. The flight did leave on time, and was of a little better standard than our first flight due to efficient FA's, but the whole experience was very poorly handled leaving us out of pocket for all our reorganized connecting flights, and extras. We would not advise any travel with Ethiopian Airlines, the first two experiences we had were somewhat expected when travelling through Africa, but our last flight given their absolute disregard of the customer.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES review :  15 April 2009 : by S Blackburn

LHR-ADD and back in economy. Outbound a full flight. Drinks soon after take off but disappointing that food took 2 hours to appear on a night flight. Similarly breakfast was a long time before landing, so not much chance to sleep. Headsets for film were not distributed until it had been on for an hour or so! However the first few rows of economy got free papers, and the food and drink (free alcohol) was passable. A passenger was taken ill which prompted every member of cabin crew to try to help - but this seems to be Ethiopian nature. Return flight was 50% full, and less so after fuel stop in Rome. This time the food was delivered quickly and there was a welcome second meal on the hop up to LHR. Perhaps some extra rounds with water would be good on the daytime flights, but otherwise pretty good. Timekeeping was poor though. All in all, much better than some US carriers.

ETHIOPIAN AIRLINES review :  21 March 2009 : by G Macpherson

Business Class Dar es Salaam to Heathrow with overnight accommodation provided in Addis Ababa. Check in Dar a breeze and the lounge access shared with other airlines was comfortable, with a selection of food and drinks. The flight to Addis was on a comfortable 737 with 2 seats on either side of the isle, food good and plenty of drinks, no champagne was offered. Ethiopian Airlines provided overnight accommodations at the InterContinental in town with meals. To receive the voucher for the meals and hotel you need to head to interlink desk, while there was a short queue for Business class passengers, the one for the economy was very long. It’s a fairly slick operation with a separate immigration desk for overnight transfer passenger and then a section cordoned off before the exit with seats while you wait for the transfer bus. The InterContinental hotel was new and what you would expect for a 5 Star Hotel. The next morning after being picked up by the airline bus I was whisked off to the airport. With the boarding pass issued in Dar it was straight through security and immigration. The flight back to London was on an old Boeing 757 with overhead screens. The plane had seen better days but the seats were comfortable with good legroom. As I prefer to read rather than watch a movie I can’t comment on films shown and if I do, I usually watch a movie on my laptop. However this isn’t really a long term option as there is was no power supply in the seats. Food was surprisingly good and what you would expect in business class, wine selection was a little limited but what they did serve was exceptionally good. The flight had to refuel in Rome for an hour which was a pain but then nearly half the passengers disembarked there. Flight back to Heathrow was quiet and uneventful with a small evening meal and drinks offered with the same cabin crew from the earlier leg. For the competitive price, cheaper than BA premium economy I was surprised on how good the quality of the service is and would happily use again.