Ethiopian Airlines

Went to Addis Ababa round-trip from Toronto for a business trip! Got the opportunity to fly Business Class or should I say Cloud Nine both ways! Plane was a fairly new Boeing 787 Dreamliner. Flight ran an hour late due to ground issues. Food was great. Staff were friendly. Inflight Entertainment could have more choices instead of just 85 channels. But I wouldn't complain as I only used it once and would be on my laptop or asleep for the entire flight. The nice lie-flat seats were my favorite part of the airplane. On the way back it was via Rome another Dreamliner. We left on time from Addis Ababa but for some reason left late from Rome. Wish the flight attendants could fulfil passengers request for turning on the A/C because the plane was smoking hot when in Rome. Same thing as the flight to Ethiopia good food and friendly staff. Ethiopian Airlines never fails to disappoint me with their friendly service! Looking forward to flying them again!

1 Nov 13 EA 501 Washington DC to Addis Ababa on Dreamliner. 29 Nov 13 EA 815 Addis Ababa to Kilimanjaro Tanzania. 10 Dec 13 EA 814 Kilimanjaro Tanzania to Addis Ababa. 10 Dec 13 EA 500 Addis Ababa to Washington DC on “Dreamliner. All travel in Economy. The worst flying experience my wife and I have had in over 50 years. Flight to Addis was a nerve racking 15 hours of shrieking children. Parents made little if any effort to control their children. Flight staff were non responsive and did nothing. Repeated requests to be relocated met with indifference and non-responsiveness. Entire flight staff were unsmiling. Dreamliner was more of a nightmare - the cabin was hot. The power ports for computers did not work. In fact the inflight entertainment system did not work at the start of the flight. Food barely edible. Once in Bole Airport it took 1.5 hours for bags to be off loaded. Flight to Kilimanjaro followed a similar pattern. Provided WITH misinformation sending us to the wrong departure terminal. Had to go through security twice and rush to another terminal to catch our flight. Conditions were chaotic with no support personnel the airline. Another aircraft full of screaming unruly children. Flight back to Addis Ababa was another disaster. The flight we were booked on arrived an hour late and during this time no Ethiopian Airline employee was available to provide any information. Our previously confirmed seats were not available on check in despite having a long-standing confirmed reservation. Arrived late in Addis and had to rush to make our connecting flight to Washington DC. Again no help and were put on the wrong bus. Dreamliner flight back to Washington DC was again a nightmare experience. Even fuller with uncontrolled children. The crew were even surlier more incommunicative and more negative than on the initial flight. Impossible to sleep or relax. Although other seats were available all requests to be moved were refused.

Saudi Arabia Riyadh to Ethiopia then transit to Johannesburg the same route when coming back. I'm very disappointed with ongoing flight cancellations very disorganised unreliable and getting worse instead of improving. No entertainment very filthy with ugly marks on every seat. The airport in Ethiopia is overcrowded with a lot of people pushing each other - not organized at all. I will never use this airline and I would discourage anyone from using it.

For the price the service say is ok. By market standards comparing with the competitors like British Airways Emirates etc the service is way below standard. I took the 8.15pm flight from Heathrow. My destination was Entebbe but we had to go via Addis Ababa. We were meant to leave Addis Ababa at 10.15am but we left at 12.08 implying that were delayed for 2hrs. We got no communication from them about the delay until after 40mins. They just stood outside chatting! Surely if this is the way Ethiopia is leading Africa then it means Africa will never move on.

Addis Ababa - Rome Fiumicino Oct 25 2013. Washington Dulles DC to Addis Ababa Nov 4. Addis Ababa to Kotoka Airport Accra Nov 13 2013. It is a very good experience traveling with Ethiopian from America and Europe to Africa. The airline is very punctual efficient up to standards and above compared to a lot of failed airlines in the world. Fast growing with modern technologies including Dreamliner with smiling flight attendants.

We were supposed to be flying on Ethiopian airlines from the Seychelles on 1st Nov 2013. However due to "a slight mechanical problem" the flight was delayed for 48 hours. They refused to rebook us on other flights and kept us waiting for 2 whole days. No update on the situation was given the staff were rude insensitive no one apologized for the delay even more no one bothered to care. They simply disappeared from sight. On the second day they actually took us back to the airport and let us wait there for 7 hours before telling us that the plane had not been fixed yet. All in all we had to spend more than 20 of those 48 hours at the airport. I guess it's fine as long as there are no problems but they are terrible when things go wrong. I'll never fly Ethiopian airlines again. Why they are a member of Star Alliance is a mystery to me.

ET 619 KUL-BKK 22 Nov 2013 Boeing 767. First and last time I will fly Ethiopian Airways. I choose ET because it is a Star Alliance member. No mobile application for check-in. No self check-in kiosk at the airport. At the counter I got my BP after 10 minutes waiting because of the slow system. On board: broken seat screen under average clean seat and overhead bin not providing arrival card for Thai immigration. Cabin crew trying to be nice but when you ask something they were unresponsive and rude. I asked for coffee after finished my tea and was served the coffee unwillingly. During the taxi all CC were roaming around and they didn't care that some passengers were on the phone. Food was good and tasty even though there was no fork and tissue pack on the tray.

Outbound 03/11/2013 ET701 LHR-ADD 11K. Was flying home very last minute as my mother died very suddenly. The Dnata ground crew were great on check in and gave me a quiet seat as requested. I had to travel with assistance as was meant to start chemo on 04/11/2013 and all was okay until an hour after take off. I went to the loo and found about 20 people waiting the reason three toilets were broken on board leaving only four for over 200 pax! On arrival at ADD no wheelchair and we disembarked via stairs Left on tarmac waiting for bus for 20 mins. At the terminal I was told to find my own wheelchair. On boarding my flight to Ndola ET871 the escalator was broken so was carried down backwards. Lift to plane was broken so had to wait to board and was last on. Again crew were great. 12/11/2013 ET871 NLA-ADD and ET700 ADD-LHR. Flight 871 was fine but again on arrival at ADD no wheelchair. The cabin crew off 871 ended up finding me a wheelchair and wheeling me themselves. After complaining I was allowed me to use the business class lounge for my 5 hour transit. All I needed was to be able to sit in a quiet place. On boarding ET700 I found the seat to be broken and very uncomfortable. The crew were great but in the end they are let down by ageing 767 300ERs that have seen better days. It was like flying in the 80's especially as there was only overhead TV entertainment showing French films to and from London!

Just returned from a trip to Tanzania. All 4 flights were on time excellent service on check-in excellent inflight service on all the flights. Our luggage did not connect with us from ADD to Kilimanjaro but made it on the next flight. Excellent communications between tour company and airline to get our luggage to us. They are completing a new airport in ADD so their claim to be the hub in eastern Africa is on its way.

Flew Ethiopian from Kigali to Paris with the Paris connection in Addis. Upon arriving in Addis I learned that I had been routed through Stockholm with an insane 1 hour stop at 2.30am in Cairo! Despite there being plenty of business class availability on the Addis - Paris direct flight Ethiopian airport staff claimed they could not move me. Quite frankly I have not seen a more inept and unhelpful airport operation in a very long time. They aggressively push their star alliance affiliation but claim to have no ability to access star alliance reservations etc. Infuriating. Business class in flight service as good was fantastic but Ethiopians 767-800 business class seating is terrible - especially for a 9 hour flight with an hour stop in Cairo. Never fly this route on these planes.