Ethiopian Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Mumbai to Mahe via Addis Ababa. Our flight from Mumbai was delayed by 6 hours but there was no communication on this. As a result we missed our connection from Ethiopia and had to stay back in Ethiopia for a day. When we landed in Ethiopia from Mumbai our luggage was missing. It took them another 3 to 4 hours to find the luggage. I went myself into the storage rooms and looked for the luggage. Upon complaint of this there was no response from the ground staff. Next day when we went to catch our onward flight to Seychelles, we were told that we will be detained here as we do not have yellow cards. This was not asked from any other passengers as we all were on transit visa. Only when we threatened to call Indian Embassy and complain about this were we let go but not before we had to sign a document which had a 5000$ or something bond and said we are responsible if Seychelles decides to detain us.

✅ Trip Verified | I don't know where to start. The lowest level of service possible, the most ignorant, slow, unskilled and unprofessional staff I've ever seen, the oldest aircraft and amenities possible, the most arrogant, pretentious and unwelcoming employees. What a terrible image of Ethiopia and of your own culture they give to foreigners. They treat their clients with such disregard and nonchalance. And the pretension goes all the way to calling their airline: "The best in Africa." Really? How about the worst in Africa, or even the worst in the world. This airline should stop operating if they don't plan on changing their management.

✅ Trip Verified | Johannesburg to Riyadh via Addis Ababa. All my flights from beginning to end of my trip were delayed. At Addis Ababa Airport, staff lied about loading my luggage onto my flight. My luggage arrived in Johannesburg a day after I did and it was badly damaged. Ethiopian Airlines refused to do anything about it saying that according to their records my luggage arrived in good order, even though airport staff themselves wrote a comment and signed the delivery invoice acknowledging that my luggage was damaged.

✅ Trip Verified | Nairobi to Johannesburg via Addis Ababa. Was booked on flight ET 303 which was supposed to depart at 11h35 in Nairobi but ended up departing at 20H10 resulting in myself missing an onward connection ET 849. I had to stand in a queue for more than 2 hours to get an allocation to the next flight to Johannesburg. There was no one manning the queue resulting in squabbles among frustrated passengers.

✅ Trip Verified | Khartoum to Kigali via Addis Ababa on 16 Aug. 2018 on Boeing 737-800 and Boeing 737-700, respectively. Both flights delayed. Arrived in KRT 5 hours late (with Fydubai from DXB) due to closure of the airport. KRT airport had a crash and the lanes were blocked 4 hours in the morning. Had to accept No-Show and rebooking fee to ET just outside the airport. Had no visa but transit passed relatively smoothly with a lot of officers leading and attending me while retaining my passport. A humiliating experience but I know these things eventually works out well – just don’t be fuzzy. Ticket reissue went very fast, paid 100 USD cash. Both Boarding passes received in KRT which proved crucially necessary: flight became 45 Min. delayed. Bus-gatings from/to terminals throughout, very tiresome: I waited in KRT >30 Minutes with 80 passengers in a double-bus before it took-off to the aircraft 200 meters away. Transit in ADD was horrible due to hundreds of people waiting and blocking security check. Manage in last Minute to board an old 737-700 to Kigali. However, after boarding delayed >1 hour on tarmac due to “gas refuelling” discovered though the captains’ recalculation of amount needed. Service onboard were fine on both flights and could refill hot meals and drinks, inc. wine. Expensive ticket. Cannot recommend for unexperienced travellers.

✅ Trip Verified | Blantyre to Dubai via Addis Ababa. The worst experience and the ordeal is not finished yet and I am still waiting at Addis Ababa to go to Dubai. The problem started when flight at Blantyre was delayed by 3 hours. The worst, the booking clerk issued boarding pass till Addis Ababa and told me to collect boarding pass of Dubai at Addis Ababa. I believed and it was my biggest mistake. Now I came to Addis Ababa and after continuous follow up with the person concern i could not get boarding pass. They asked me to wait for some time and checked 80% passenger and then declared flight is full and next flight is in morning. It is to be noted that my flight was at 9.35 pm from Addis Ababa which got delayed to 1 am and after it was declared full, next flight announced was at 10.00 am in morning. There were around 25 passenger stranded without their fault in fact it was fault of Ethiopian airlines. After a lot of fight, struggle and waiting at 3 am new ticket is issued and we are left at low class lounge at our mercy to wait till 9.45 pm - promised to provide hotel but it is certain no such facility will be given because there are more than 500 people stranded for different flight because of overbooking and nobody is there to console or give appropriate reply.

✅ Trip Verified | Addis Ababa to Mumbai. We were sitting in row number 32 of the economy class. The air conditioning was poor and through out the duration of the flight (more than 5 hrs) we were uncomfortable due to poor cooling. We had informed the flight attendant about the issue twice but didn't notice any action from her on this issue. Also, the flight was delayed by about 90 minutes. We had to wait from about 9:30 PM (Addis Time) in the night or 12:00 AM Indian time to 9:00 AM Indian time and all that was provided was a meal by the airlines. The snack service was not repeated. Given that there is no provision for food in the Addis Ababa airport after the security check is completed, this is a very long time that the airline would be hosting the guests and should plan accordingly for delay in flights. Overall experience was pretty average. Given that the airlines would like to brand itself as the gateway to Africa, it should plan better.

✅ Trip Verified | Addis Ababa to Singapore was scheduled for 2320 on Sat. I did an online checked-in via the airline web site at 1700 on Sat and received an confirmation. There was no information that the flight time had changed during the online check-in. When I arrived at airport at 0915, I was then told that the flight was delayed till 06:20 Sun, and the check-in counter (at business class) staff told me that I could wait for the next 7 hours at the gate! After much protestation, I was referred to her supervisor who said that the airline can arrange for transit hotel, and he then appeared. After a long wait for him, and lots of chasing after ET staff - none of whom offered any help, I was at ADD airport before a transit hotel voucher was finally provided to me. Ethiopian should inform pax of any flight delays when the pax checked online - which they didn't. The cabin crew was not helpful or wanting to give any sense of service. I will never fly Ethiopian Airlines again.

✅ Trip Verified | The actual experience of flying with Ethiopian is OK. Nothing special, not really on par with the transatlantic coach flights to and from Europe, but pretty standard quality of food and service that I have come to expect from flights to and from Africa. However, a colleague had a medical emergency so I had to extend my trip, which meant I had to rebook my returning ticket. I cannot express to you the horror of that experience. Despite the fact that I was more than willing to pay whatever necessary change fees and rate differences, it took me a total of 8 Hours on the phone with them to rebook. They do not allow rebooking online, which meant that I had to spend an entire day on hold with various people, which is not easy (or Cheap) from a remote part of Ghana with little cell service. Every time I would get through the hold line and speak with a representative, they would figure out a flight for me, then "transfer" me to their sales department, and I would be hung up on. Or I would be on hold for an hour Then hung up on. After the complete mess that was finally getting this sorted out was finished, After 8 hours of this nonsense, they tell me that I cannot be confirmed for the rebook yet because I had to pay the change fees first, In Person In Cash. What airline in 2018 doesn't accept online payments, card payments over the phone, or even wired money? Of course, I was in rural Ghana, which meant I couldn't spend 3 days traveling from there to their head office in the capital to pay this change fee when the entire point was that I was unable to travel to Accra at that time for my original flight. After 2 weeks of fighting with them over the phone about this, Finally one of the local agents tells me I can pay the money into their bank account in a city nearby my location (who knows Why no one ever gave me that option previously!?). I was very worried this would turn out to be a scam because it was a pretty sketchy set up, but it worked out in the end. Moral of the story; if you can avoid booking with Ethiopian Airlines, Do It, because it you have any problems at all you are out of luck.

✅ Trip Verified | Dar es Salaam to Bangkok via Addis Ababa on 8th August 2018. Checked in online after some difficulties, but was allowed to transit 7 hours prior to departure. Granted 3rd part lounge in Dar is Tanzanite which always gives me problems when entering. Always greedy after money and this time they wanted to charge me 35 USD because I was “2 hours early”. This, despite I had Lounge Invitation printed on my BPs. I had to call ET-manager to access. The lounge is so, so, but they have plenty hot snacks and drinks. Aircraft B787-900 on 1st leg was downgraded to a smaller B737 due to low load in economy. However, that caused 3 biz-passengers to be downgraded. Without being requested, I volunteered to do so and got 250 USD in ET-vouchers as compensation. The check-in staff came to the lounge and were relieved by my decision. I was fine as I still had my special meal and lounge access. I was treated like a king to Addis: despite travelling economy I almost felt ashamed getting champagne and foods from bz-class brought down discretely to row 17. I even got my special meal (red-snapper) but had to additional dishes, veal and beef, all very tasty. Got the menu from business could choose food and drinks from there. Only downturn was the plastic cutlery. They gave me 3 seats for myself despite economy became 75% full. Cloud Nine Lounge in Addis was OK but no showers neither there not in any other lounge in Addis. Tried to cash my vouchers but failed. Both flights almost on time. The 2nd leg on B787-8 was in 2-2-2 configuration in Biz, which is quite cramped compared to Qatar´s much more spacious 1-2-1. That trip was smooth and punctual. Good IFE, drinks, and foods.