Ethiopian Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | Once in the air, the flight was pleasant. All the services before and after flight are very weak, operations and workflow are badly managed, staff are insufficiently trained and prepared. They show no initiative (except cabin crew in business as I later experienced). After I read some reviews on Skytrax, I should have seen it coming. So, if nothing goes wrong, you have the chance to have a very pleasant flight. When the slightest problems arise, you will suffer. Our original flight from Brussels to Maputo (via Vienna and Addis) was cancelled and had to fly from Paris instead. No transport was provided, nor alternative flights to Vienna where the flight ADD was still departing. Paris-Addis flight we were downgraded. Old 777 from Paris was not very comfortable, later had new B787-900 on way back to Brussels which is much better. Before the flight, customer service lines were useless. Nobody knew anything. Services in ADD airport are less than satisfactory. And I'm still waiting refund for the missed business class seat, no contact from the airlines or answer to my request.

✅ Trip Verified | Frankfurt to Windhoek via Addis Ababa. Wouldnt recommend it. Planes are worn down even if new. Staff busy with making selfies instead of caring about customers during the flight. We had a delay due to a technical issue with the plane in Addis Ababa. Communication was poor at best, were waiting for 1,5hrs until boarding suddenly started. Airport in Addis Ababa feels like a 3rd world construction site.

✅ Trip Verified | During my whole experience with Ethiopian Airlines I was mistreated, lied to, not enough compensated, flight cost was 800 EUR, and they acted like a low cost airline, showing no respect/costumer service and inefficiency. I had a flight going from Addis Ababa to Paris, guy on the counter told me there was a “change in aircraft” & issued me a “standby ticket” but told me there was nothing wrong & seat would be assigned at gate. My baggage was checked, I then proceeded to do security, and asked two more people, told me there was “nothing wrong”, I did the line, waited to hop on the plane, me together with other 5 were on standby. They told me the flight was full, if there was any seat they’d give it to me - they didn’t, instead, they gave it to the other guys that arrived later. I stayed there shocked, and waited & waited, they told me they were going to put me on plane to another city in Europe and then connect me to Paris and issued a ticket for me to go to Geneva - so after one very stressful hour, took me to the office so they’d re-issue a ticket for the next flight (which was in 24 hours) and give me an economic compensation at this point, information was never clear and all agents seemed unprepared. I arrived to the office to find out my “compensation” was 200 dollars for a mistake they did agent again acted rude. They issued me a boarding pass with assigned flight for the next day and gave me a paper to “cash in” the money in “any ticket office of Ethiopian Airlines” literal words from the agent. Next day I came to the Airport, to cash in my money - surprise, they “couldn’t cash money at airport” “they didn’t have dollars” “supervisor couldnt sign the release paper” were some of the various excuses they gave me. They told me to pick up the money at the Hilton Hotel in the city 30 min drive from the airport. I arrived at the hotel, and they didn't have dollars, so....they told me they were going to “try to get the money”. Told me to give them my number and they will call me with a “solution”. I went away, and at 3:50pm they called me to tell me they had the money, that I had until 5pm to get there (another 30-40 minute drive) and get it - rudeness again was present They told me I couldn’t get it at the airport, since no supervisor was available to give me the money, going to the hotel was mandatory. I picked up the ridiculous 200USD, and thought this was the final chapter of this bad Ethiopian movie. I get on the plane the next day at 11:30 pm Sunday (after spending one day in Addis) battling with Ethiopian Airlines, get on the plane, get seated on my seat and another woman with a baby and I had he same seats assigned, and a very rude Ethiopian Airlines agent demanded I moved, since the woman had also this seat.

Not Verified | Hesitant given complaints by other reviews on tardy departures. My experience was exceptional: On-time flight, great attention to detail, tasty food (nice coffee), and nice lounge (shared with Skyteam, although ET belongs to Star Alliance). Seat was not completely parallel to the floor, but acceptable even on a longer flight (and I'm 6'1"). I would definitely fly Ethiopian Airlines again.

✅ Trip Verified | Zanzibar to London via Addis Abbaba. Excellent choice recommended by our tour organiser. Probably the quickest route to Zanzibar from London. Business class service excellent and at a good price. A350-900 a very modern plane and felt it. Flat bed very welcome. Nice touch is a separate bus at Addis guaranteeing priority boarding. No hesitation in using them again.

✅ Trip Verified | Diass to Johannesburg via Addis Ababa. I have been following up with ET several times with regards to a claim on a damaged bag and unfortunately have been shoved from pillar to post with a no care attitude! All I wanted was for someone at ET was to give me legitimate up to date feedback on what was happening with this damaged bag claim. But since 21 Feb 2018 I have only received useless emails whereby staff have been pushing the responses to different departments with no luck. I even went as far as starting a fresh mail chain hoping this would get a different response but no difference in customer support! Very disappointed and horrified that this is the standard that Ethiopian has claimed their name to...would just like this query to be resolved!

✅ Trip Verified | Mombasa to Toronto with a 3hr layover in Addis Ababa. In MSA they didnt give me the second boarding pass from ADD to YYZ saying their system was down and I would get it in ADD. On arriving in ADD, I was directed to customer service who upon checking my passport and permanent residence card (PR) said that they need to verify with the embassy and i should have a seat as i wait. 45 minutes later (while the lady assisted all other passengers) I stood up to ask her what was going on. She then gave me back my documents without any explanation and asked me to proceed to the gate. At the gate I explained I didnt have a boarding pass and another lady asked me to seat so that she can process my documents. 2 hrs later,and after the call to board I stood up to ask them what was going on. The lady referred me to another person who then told me their system was down. After pleading that I would miss my flight I was given a boarding pass with a different seat number almost at the end. At first I sat patiently both times as I thought maybe something was wrong with my documents. Turns out it was their system all along and instead of communicating with me they were just indifferent to my plight. I wouldn't recommend this airline to any of my friends after what i went through. It was a very long journey and they made it more tiring

✅ Trip Verified | Buenos Aires to Tel Aviv via Addis Ababa. The customer service was the poorest! First, they charged me $300 more than what it shoes on their app - when I called customer service I had to wait more than 40 minutes to get to a representative that hardly spoke English and told me to Email them. When I did, they responded more than a week later saying the currency exchange was wrong and I was charged in Argentinian pesos and not in the local Ethiopian currency. At some point, they stopped responding to my emails. When I got to Tel Aviv I found out that my belongings in the checked suitcase were broken. I took pictures and sent it to the airline support email, I could only send one picture at the time. Although I sent several Email, I did not get a single response. On the day of the flight, I had 19 hours connection stop in Ethiopia, according to their policy I was supposed to get a night in a hotel, at their expense, which I was supposed to get during the check-in. The lady at the kiosk in Tel Aviv was so rude and kept me waiting till the 15 minutes before boarding, saying I could have booked a later flight and avoid the wait, therefore I'm not entitled to an overnight stay on their expense. Needless to say that when I booked the flight there was no such option (to avoid the wait with a shorter connection). After waiting for her to contact the whole airport, and texting a couple of private friends that had nothing to do with my flight, she told me I have 15 minutes to get to the gate or I will lose my flight. At the gate, I spoke with the "supervisor" who told me I should speak to the airline rep in Ethiopia, when I get there. She also screamed at me, saying its my fault for not choosing shorter connection time, even though I explained to her that I was never given the option. The rep's desk in Ethiopia didn't help much as well, but at the very least they were nice enough to plain to me that the kiosk in Tel Aviv could put me on a later flight that same night and shorten my connection to 4.5 hours. They explained that "they should have done it" or at least offer me that option since that flight was almost empty. I had to spend 19 hours at the not-so-traveler friendly airport in Addis Ababa. My one and only, nightmare type experience with Ethiopian airlines came to an end as soon as I landed back in Buenos Aires. Will never recommend this company to anyone!

✅ Trip Verified | Kilimanjaro to Mahe via Addis Ababa. Flight from Addis to Seychelles was cancelled by a phone call 25 hours before. Then the return flight was also cancelled! This time with no warning, no email. No Ethiopian staff at the airport. This is the first time that I have a flight cancelled. And it happened twice in 1 week, with Ethiopian Airlines. So I won't fly again with them. The connection in Addis airport is terrible. Spent 11 hours there. So happy it won't happen again.

✅ Trip Verified | We flew Ethiopian from Los Angeles to Dublin. They changed our departure date to two days later and did not email us to tell us about the change. We only found out the day we were supposed to fly by checking the details on a separate online site. I talked to three supervisors and was not able to get an earlier flight, a compensation, or a bump to business class. We nearly missed a wedding and lost money on pre-booked accommodation and buses. They just kept insisting that the system is supposed to send an email. They also did not give us our pre-requested vegetarian meal option. They only had meat and could not give me a main course. Finally they found one vegetarian left and split it between all the people who did not have their requested meal. She kept insisting that we were not on the list for requested meals. A boy was vomiting on the plane and the attendants did not come when we used the button to call them. Nor did they come later when I needed a customs form. My seat could not fully recline and my onboard entertainment system was broken. This whole experience was awful, I told the employees that if they could not do anything to help the situation, either by booking an earlier flight, providing partial or full compensation, or giving us some sort of bump for the lost time and money that we encountered due to their mistake, that I would never fly with them again and would never recommend them. They did nothing and here we are.