Ethiopian Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Kigali to Addis Ababa. The ground service for this flight was horrific. The lady at the desk was rude to me for no reason. It took forever to check in because of all my layovers. Everything had to be written by hand I don't know why It was a nightmare and add the fact that you can't do online check-in. There is no efficiency whatsoever. The flight itself was great, the customer service was amazing. The seats were comfortable, no complaint about anything on the flight.

✅ Trip Verified | As usual with Ethiopian: poor food, IFE that appears stuck 25 years ago, employees that barely speak English (so imagine languages other than Amharic and English). Airplanes might be new or recent but seem centuries old when inside. Flight from ASM to ADD was on an old B767-300 with overhead compartments not closing properly, and half the seats unfit for air travel (seats that do not recline, no belts). The fact that Ethiopian doesn’t seem to care is beyond understanding but Eritrean aviation authorities should check the aircrafts and ground them if they keep treating customers and safety like this. Transiting through Addis is a nightmare (airport stuck in time, few dining and drinking options, not enough seats within the transit area, smoking area that is disgusting, employees literaly force you to reach your gate even if your flight is in two hours and there is nothing around boarding gates). The fact that the airline is monopolistic on so many routes sure doesn’t help them improve their standards. Next time I travel to the Horn of Africa, I’m flying with Emirates, Turkish or Qatar.

✅ Trip Verified | Paris to Cape Town via Addis Ababa. The latest 787s are nice and modern, with responsive touchscreens and a service comparable to global standards. Early 787s and 777s with dirty cabins and dysfunctional IFE. On the Paris to Addis and Addis to Cape Town legs, the screen was not responsive and often had to be rebooted. The aircraft looked very poorly maintained even though they were not that old (less than 10 years old). The cabin crew were nice overall but looked junior. They did not close all the overhead lockers on both flights, prompting a few passengers to do it themselves. I found the food quite bad, a shame considering Ethiopia's culinary heritage. When you add this to the absolute mess found at Addis airport, arguably the worst in the world, I would not recommend ET, though you often have no choice when travelling across Africa. On the plus side, all flights were on time, but I found the airline way below global standards.

✅ Trip Verified | On March 16th I flew from Oslo to Stockholm on Ethiopian Airlines. For me this was a cheap chance to fly this large African airline. The evening flight was quite empty, and I was only one of few passengers on board. After its stop at Stockholm the flight would continue to Addis Abeba. The flight itself was quite uneventfull during its 45 minutes. I was handed out a drink from the cabin crew, and that was the only service provided. The seat was comfortable, but wasn't well maintained. The case of my PTV was hanging lose, so I wasn't able to use the on-off button, so I couldn't use the IFE at all. Also, the touch screen wasn't working. Overall my impression was okay, but I would not fly the airline again because the lack of maintenance on the seat.

✅ Trip Verified | On March 21st, my girlfriend and I went to buy tickets from Cairo to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian airlines website. The first time we went to buy a ticket the card was declined. We went back to try to buy the ticket again with the same card. This time it took us an hour just to fill out information as our names kept being changed, altered, distorted, and deleted. Eventually to find out, the date was changed too. When we went to pay for those tickets, the card was declined again. We went through the whole process again of names being changed and deleted and finally paid for those tickets with a different card. That transaction was declined as well. We contacted this exact email address for help that day and there was no response ever. 2 days later we received a confirmation that tickets had been bought. I had to cancel the order on the second credit card so that we would not be charged for two purchases. Why is a purchase being made from our credit cards after the website has reportedly declined our credit cards and ceased the transaction. On April 20th I look at the tickets and the tickets were issued for Jul 22nd and not April 22nd. I had spent 3 hours being sent from person to person on phone only to be charged an extra $170 to get our tickets changed to April 22nd on a flight with many open seats, as that is how much more they cost on April 20th rather than on March 21st when I initially bought the tickets, for a problem caused by the horrific user interface set up by Ethiopian airlines and their lack of customer support. This experience with Ethiopian airlines has been absolutely dreadful and by far the worst experience of them all. Ethiopian Airlines has provided terrible care for their customers and all I have been given is one email as their appears to be no person qualified to talk to and provide us the care that should be provided. I requested a full reimbursement on and emailed Ethiopian a total of 3 times, with no responses to any of the emails.

✅ Trip Verified | Delhi to Johannesburg via Addis Ababa. Service was attentive, probably helped by the fact that all 4 flights were near empty. However be warned, Ethiopian selectively awards frequent flyer miles in Business Class. They are part of an alliance which was the reason for choosing them in the first place, yet was awarded no miles whatsoever for this trip. The small print on their site does state it, however it didn't occur to me to check it at the time of booking. That's the first and last time they get my custom.

✅ Trip Verified | Muscat to Addis Ababa on Ethiopian in Business Class. Outbound an old B737 with ancient cradle seats that made sleeping difficult on this night flight. Below standard Business Class product which was somewhat rescued by the very friendly and attentive staff and the excellent food. The return started with an annoyance: we arrived at the airport, again at night, only to learn that our return flight was canceled, reportedly because there were not enough passengers. It must have been a spontaneous decision by Ethiopian since the flight was still displayed on the departure screens. The ground staff was more than nonchalant: “We didn’t call or text you? Oh sorry. Come back tomorrow.” My wife almost lost her composure since we both had to work the next day. With the help of the terminal 1 station manager, we finally managed to be rerouted through Dubai and reached Muscat some six hours later than expected. Muscat to Dubai was on a new A350 with excellent full-flat seats and again excellent food and service. The following DXB-MCT was in economy since there were no seats free in business.

✅ Trip Verified | Cape Town to Entebbe via Addis Ababa. Flying with Ethiopian airlines has been one of those best choices. Friends used to ask me why use ET when your in East Africa and going to another East African country or going to another place where you can easily connect. All l could say l like the service and it doesn't matter if l have to go all the way to Addis. This time coming from Cape Town we had only 10mins to connect and for the first time I was 100% sure I would get to Entebbe without my luggage. I don't know how they made it or how they did it we all had our bags and we couldn't believe it how fast they transferred our bags to the flight to Entebbe. We were so happy and overjoyed. Have never missed my luggage or neither have anything stolen . Thank you Ethiopian Airlines for the amazing service.

✅ Trip Verified | Bangkok to Hong Kong. I was on a 787 which was a continuation of a flight from Addis Ababa. Check in was not good. I was the first in line in the Star Gold line, and there were three open desks. But none of the staff appeared to be working. The one desk which was processing customers was dealing with someone who was clearly a difficult customer, and wouldn't be finished any time soon. Since I had only carry on luggage and had checked in online, I decided to skip the counter and verify my documents at the gate. No problem there. The plane was nearly empty--maybe 40 guests on a 787. We all got rows to ourselves. We boarded on time, but left a little bit late. The seats were worn out, this must have been one of the oldest 787s in the fleet. The entertainment system was also a bit beat up, but the selection of both international and African films was surprisingly good. The food was also a pleasant surprise, delivered quickly, tasty and hot. The inflight team had a way to go to live up to international standards. They seemed to be barely able to hide their contempt for their passengers, which seemed strange. But you could see where some of that was coming from, there appeared to be a training attendant who was constantly criticizing them, her face never broke from an angry scowl. I wouldn't not fly them again. But as long as there are other choices, I'd probably look elsewhere.

Not Verified | The flight from Washington to Addis Ababa on feb 28 was in general good as far as leaving on time, flight experience was excellent and entertainment was fair. In contrast food service was poor. I have flow Ethiopian from IAD to ADD numerous times and always raved and appreciated their food service. We were fed at least four times and always bragged about it. However, on this particular flight we were fed only twice. Had Ethiopian had this policy from the get go nobody would have complained, i guess they spoiled us. Ethiopian has grand ambitions of expanding, but as one expands small details get forgotten like cutting food costs etc. I will fly ET again but if things get shrinked as one expands, I might have to think twice about flying with ET again