Ethiopian Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | I checked a bag into Ethiopian Airlines on my flight from Enugu to Heathrow London on the 16th of June 2018. I have not seen my baggage and I made an official report in Heathrow and they said they will bring the bag. 3 days later, they have not brought my bag. Never knew it is a risk to check in my bag on an Ethiopian Airlines flight. I still have my baggage claim receipt and the proof of my report. I am very displeased.

✅ Trip Verified | Bangkok to Hong Kong. Young, friendly cabin staff. Food and IFE okay. Aircraft although relatively new felt worn out, especially the seat cushions. Plenty of legroom and flight only 1/3 full, including the return flight from HKG to BKK. Bargain price (100GBP for return flight) since I booked the day before, cheaper than a LLC ticket!

✅ Trip Verified | Transited in Addis on my way to Khartoum on 8th June 2018. The airport (T2) is overcrowded, messy, and queues everywhere. Boarding tedious and waiting for ½-1 hour for the bus in overcrowded narrow room at Gate 13. We became >½ hours late departing, but as the plane was full it was almost excusable. As the pax-load was full and the aircraft was a smaller B737-800 they were seizing and checking in hand-luggage for a lot of overloaded passengers, inclusive of myself. I argued that I need to go with my hand-luggage as I was only transiting in KRT and could not retrieve it easily without a visa to Sudan. After some discussion they eventually allowed my two pieces to pass to be taken on board. On board I had one of my best economy flights for years: FAs were fit, well rested, effective, focused, and kind and expedite. Despite the flight was full and the duration were only 1½-2 hours, everything worked to perfection. Two hot meals offered, I chose a fish steak for breakfast. It was so good I had to inquire for one additional. Voila, in 6-8 seconds after I told this to the FA it was on my plate. Drinks offered were plenty including wine and beers. The brands were well selected and tasted very well for economy class. The FAs came around and asked if there were other requests they could assist with. They served us until we landed and there were no stops in service from kick-off till landing. They were so well groomed, professional, and neat. IFE were missing apart from radio/music access. The aircraft appeared new and in good condition despite being an old model. At arrival, two stairways were put up allowing for quick disembarking being taken by bus to the arrival area and then confronted with the harsh Sudanese immigration where huge patience is the strongest weapon to overcome the hurdles.

✅ Trip Verified | Travelled Kigali to Addis 8th June 2018 at 02 a.m. on a small B737-700. Upgraded successfully from economy class by putting my modest bid through their homepage. Check-in was very lengthy as they could not issue the second boarding pass when I was upgraded on the first sector. I could not accept it and stood at the counter almost ½ hour before the second BP came out. Worth waiting for compared to waiting at a transfer counter in ADD to get it. It eventually went through and I then enjoyed the lounge access in KGL and good service on board in the four rows of business class (cabin ½ full). I was disappointed they only served breakfast as I needed dinner. But I spotted from the menu card the dinner served on the incoming flight. I then managed to secure my favourite dinner from that menu, despite it was not on offer and a few hours old, but reheated. Pre-departure champagne brut (“Lallier”) was fine. FAs attentive. Seats extremely well bolstered. Good product.

✅ Trip Verified | Abidjan to Bangkok via Addis Ababa. I now frequently use Ethiopian on trips from Bangkok to Africa as they provide a good business class at reasonable prices and extremely good connections, with relatively short transfer times in Addis. Food is generally quite good on Ethiopian, local wines excellent and service attentive. On my last flight (ET618), instead of the now usual Dreamliner, Ethiopian used an older B767, with a very limited entertainment system, as they only showed African, Asian, Hindi and 4 European movies and no blockbusters or US movies; also, immigration forms were not available, but otherwise, a very pleasant flight.

❌ Not Verified | Addis Ababa to Stockholm. Flights to Cape Town from Stockholm are thin on the ground. You can either choose the major European carriers such as BA, KLM's daylight service or AF (all of which are about €800) or use Emirates or Qatar and make do with the long flights through the Middles East. I decided to use Ethiopian Airlines which was the most cost effective and fastest service (< 2 hours connection times in both directions) Although 3 out of 4 legs were in economy, I'm going to review the business class service which I won through a reverse auction. As a self employed person, the only other 787 business I have flown is Qatar Airways 1-2-1 product. Ethiopian uses a 2-2-2. This means that there is a distinct advantage of taking one of the center seats where both you and your neighbor have direct aisle access. That being said, I really didn't notice the smaller seat width as the proof of the pudding is in the sweat pitch. FAs were excellent and attentive (as good as the Middle East airlines). Food seemed good (though not brilliant) as I took a night flight and just had water and tea. IFE was excellent in terms of screen size and choices. Bed was almost flat but long enough to sleep for most of the flight. Only downside was having one toilet for the whole cabin compared to Qatar which has two for only 20 seats. Lastly, for all the bad press that Bole airport has, whilst it wasn't a dream, it was no worse than I've been to in other parts of Europe for sheer chaos. I wouldn't like to spend 8 hours there. The most worrying aspect was the runway setup which meant that both landing and departing aircraft had to taxi across the runway to get to the gates or line up for take off. A little investment at the East and West entry points could solve this relatively easy.

✅ Trip Verified | London to Blantyre via Addis Ababa. Outbound from Heathrow to Addis on A350 on time and full. Seat room better than most airlines. Food was ordinary and cabin crew efficient. Addis Ababa to Blantyre Malawi - old and quite tatty Boeing 737-800. Plane full and left on time en route to Lilongwe and then finally to Malawi. Flight of 5 hrs plus and no in flight entertainment-drop down screens did not work. Addis Ababa to Lilongwe leg-passenger became ill on route - a medical emergency due to diabetic seizure. Luckily two doctors on board, and the female doctor and the cabin crew administered a drip and patient recovered. Full praise to the doctor and cabin crew who had the necessary first aid kit and were calm and efficient throughout. We were not diverted. Eventually arrived in Blantyre on time - you are not allowed off the aircraft at Lilongwe if in transit. Return leg- Blantyre to Addis Ababa Boeing 737-800 - this was a newer cleaner aircraft. Meal was served which was reasonable but the passenger behind me had a beef stew which was cold and had to be replaced. Addis to London an A350- a newer aircraft, comfortable seats. Configuration a little strange - very large galley area and a large space near emergency doors at rear of the aircraft. I hope they leave this space as it is and not add extra seats. Flight was over 7 hours and they served a snack instead of an evening meal - a dry "chicken roll" which has nearly no filling and was very poor followed by a cereal bar. Before landing there was a "breakfast" which was egg, potato and a synthetic thing called a sausage. This was probably the worst breakfast I have tried to eat in many years of flying and I had to leave most of it. Plane was on time. Cabin crew were without charm but were efficient. The coffee was good throughout these flights - unlike many other airlines.

✅ Trip Verified | Two excellent flights with Ethiopian Airlines. Both flights on time, very pleasant and accommodating crew, good food and beverages, loved the Ethiopian Merlot. Good business class seats, no complaints at all! Only part of the trip I was not happy with? Security at Addis airport, rude, unpleasant, not enough English language skills, did not like it one bit!

✅ Trip Verified | Mekele to Dakar via Addis Ababa. The short flight from Mekele to Addis Ababa was on B737 with good regional business class but very low quality snack was served. On arrival all business class passengers got into minivan, only I was told to take economy class bus as minivan is only for VIP passengers. Older business class lounge in Addis Ababa but fine for 2 hours and with quite good breakfast selection. When I did web checking I noticed that originaly scheduled B787 was switched to B767. I was not alarmed as all Boeing 767 were supposed to be refurbished with lie flat beds. So I was shocked when I boarded to see recliner seats which must have been 17 years old. The seat would be ok for short regional flight but not for 10 hours I spent on the plane (there was technical stop in Bamako). On seat under the pillow and blanket there was left lots of rubbish from previous flights. Only overhead monitors were available and these were so low quality and dark that it was impossible to watch anything. Crew was just OK. They did what they were supposed to do but not very friendly. Food was edible, with the exception of Ethiopian dish which was excellent (you get both western and Ethiopian dish) and it is good that they serve it from trolley, otherwise I would have difficulties to know what to choose. In future if I could be guaranteed that flight would be operated with A350 or B787 and ticket price would be good, I wouldn’t have problem flying Ethiopian again. But knowing that the planes can be switched to this kind of inferior product, I would not fly again with them. When I was leaving Dakar (fortunately on other airline) there was Ethiopian Boeing 737 at airport. I am not sure if it was originally scheduled airplane or there was aircraft change, but this B737 would be even worse for length of this flight than the B767.

✅ Trip Verified | Dar Es salaam to Johannesburg via Addis Ababa. This is the worst experience I've had with an airline. They cancelled my flight and didn’t notify me. I incurred hotel costs and were unwilling to reimburse me. The worst part is their customer service, their agent hung up on me when I trying to request another flight. Please stay away from them. I don’t want anyone to go through what I went through.