Ethiopian Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | It is hard to split the experience at Addis Ababa Airport from the airline, but I will try. The plane is pretty new, a 787 dreamliner, but looks like a 50 years old aircraft. The carpets are old, looking bad with holes and missing parts at connections. The staff are pretty polite, but we flew from Addis to Sao Paulo with a huge trash bag - transparent - at the staff seat and on landing they fill one bathroom with it. Ethiopian Airlines are the first airline with no pasta choice, just meat or chicken, the food is not good. There is no ice so the beverages and water are at room temperature. The entertainment is ok, not wonderful but they have. On the flight between Addis and Tel Aviv there is no individual screen.

Not Verified | Washington to Kilimanjaro via Addis Ababa. Upon arrival at the airport at 4:30 am, i was notified my connecting flight to Washington Dulles airport had been delayed 5 hours. this would make my connecting international flight to Africa impossible to make. The affiliate airline could not find an alternative on it or any other departure that would make my connection. I called Ethiopian airlines and they did not have any solution. the only resolution was to take the international flight at the same time the next date; however they indicated there were no seats available. My trip was to climb Kilimanjaro, and a 24 hour delay would not permit me to rendezvous with my group of climbers to make the trek. Since they could not offer me a solution that could possibly work, I asked for a refund of my ticket fare and the business class upgrade that i paid for extra. I was on the phone with Ethiopian and their domestic carrier United that day about 2.5 hours, after spending and hour and a half standing in front of the United agent who was not able to help me at all at the airport. I did get some sympathy from the Ethiopian agents but no resolution while on the phone, and they hung up on me twice. In a pickle, I purchased an alternative ticket leaving later that day on another airline (KLM) that would get me to my destination in time to meet my trek guides and other climbers. I notified the airline of my intention to do so, by phone, and then I had to depart to make my trip and the subsequent 28 hours of travel to Kilimanjaro airport. I noticed that I was still being notified of the flights that I was not taking by Ethiopian, but in an effort not to further ruin a lifelong ambition trip, and in consideration of the communication difficulty from my location, i determined I would fight that refund fight after returning. My assistant carried that torch for me during my trip, several times getting on the phone, holding for extreme periods, and then getting disconnected or receiving vague promises to look into it. Upon my return from Africa, we both followed up four more times, but despite getting an eventual promise to refund my tickets, nothing has yet showed up in either an email or a credit (three weeks later). I realize this is complicated by the participation of two airlines (United and Ethiopian) but I purchased my ticket through Ethiopian and United required me to go through them to resolve my dispute. So, i cannot rate Ethiopian on their actual flights, as I did not get to take one, but as for their website and customer service, the website is minimalistic and not up to current e-commerce standards, and the customer service is either over-burdened with issues, or their practice is to try to put customers on hold so long that they eventually give up on their complaint. I had heard good reports on Ethiopian from travelers flying regularly to Africa prior to this, and several of my companions were on the flight that I missed (they flew in to Washington the night before) and they had not complaints. If Ethiopian aims to be a professional world travel airline they need to be prepared to deal with their customers better.

✅ Trip Verified | The flight was punctual and pleasant. The cabin crew were attentive and professional. Our flight back from Lilongwe to London had a 16 hours stopover in Addis Ababa. Once we on-boarded in Lilongwe, a member of Ethiopian Airlines staff handed us a voucher for one night hotel, one meal and breakfast at Addis Ababa. Once at Addis Ababa International Airport, another member of Ethiopian Airlines provided us with a transit visa to leave the airport and spend the night at the hotel. Shuttles were waiting for us and the transfer to the hotel was quick and seamless. The hotel staff were helpful, nice and professional. Our 16 hours stopover ended up in a pleasant stay at Addis Ababa, all thanks to Ethiopian Airlines. We cannot recommend company more for your trips.

✅ Trip Verified | London to Gaborone via Addis Ababa. This airline is the best. The crews are very friendly. Their meals are of high quality and if you need anything and tell them they come quickly. Their professionalism is second to none so I recommend this airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Addis Ababa to Gaborone via Victoria Falls. There is no charging system or entertainment on flight. I was shocked to realize that we had to land in Zimbabwe then proceed to Botswana. This information was never given to me or put on my ticket. The food was close to bad. I would not recommend this airline.

✅ 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.