Ethiopian Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | From the minute I crossed the boarding gate to now I have had a terrible experience with Ethiopian Airlines. Firstly my flight in Oman was delayed by 40 minutes, this meant when I arrived in Ethiopia I had to run to catch my connecting flight. The Addis Ababa airport is an absolute nightmare - a bottle neck of thousands and thousands of people squeezing and pushing trying to all get through security. I nearly missed my flight to Johannesburg. When I get onto the plane I realise I did not have the same seat I booked - when I went through the gate where they scan your ticket I was given a different ticket by the person at the counter but I didn't think anything of it. This person did not even bother to tell me he was moving me from a front row aisle seat to a third row middle seat. When I asked the air hostess why my seat had been moved she said they had a VIP they had to give my seat to. I felt absolutely disrespected - like I did not matter - how could they just move me to a middle back seat without even speaking to me about it? The food on the flight was terrible - I could not even eat it - I had two bites because I was so hungry but left the rest. The food was so dry and tasteless, and really just not good at all. Both of the planes also had really weird smells on them. When I landed in South Africa (after being awake for 37 hours) I stood at the carousal for over an hour waiting for my bag but it did not come out. Thanks to my airtag I could see that my bag was still in Ethiopia. I was so exhausted, dirty and so angry that I just burst into tears - the man at the EA counter did not know what to do with me. He assured me that I could go buy clothes and toiletries for $80 and I could just claim it back from Ethiopia Airlines. Although this was a huge inconvenience because I was leaving for Cape Town 2 days later, I felt better knowing they would fit the bill for the extra things I had to go buy. My bag only arrived 29 hours later and the lock on my bag was also broken. I submitted my claim two and a half months ago and have still not received my reimbursement or any feedback from them. I have sent so many emails following up on my reimbursement and I have had no response. I have also filled out an online form on their website and have sent a message to their Facebook page. I have sent hundreds of emails but they just ignore me. Their service has been utterly shocking every step of the way - this is definitely not Africa's best airline. I will never fly with them again.

✅ Trip Verified | A truly wonderful experience, from punctuality, amazing food to warm smiles. I would recommend Ethiopian airlines over and over again. I recently traveled with my wife and 2 kids from South Africa to Mumbai, on our return flight, we had a 15 hour stop over in Addis Ababa where Ethiopian Airlines offered us an accommodation voucher which booked us into their hotel for the night, this included meals and transport. I was truly impressed and touched as to how thoughtful this was. Thank you Ethiopian Airlines for accommodating us so well and for making our journey an unforgettable experience. Stay well, Fly well.

✅ Trip Verified | We flew from Chicago to Nairobi and our suitcase was damaged with tears and a broken handle. They are refusing to take responsibility even though I showed someone at the Nairobi airport. I then called customer service when we returned to Chicago and was told to go to the O’Hare ticket counter. I did go to O’Hare with the damaged bag and spoke to the manager. He took all my information and said someone from the Nairobi office will be emailing me. It’s been 2 weeks and no one has contacted me. I have sent several emails and keep getting the run around. Also, my kids did not get children meals during our 2 flights to Nairobi. I had requested that over 6 months prior. Please choose another airline when flying to Africa!

✅ Trip Verified | The layover hotel was disgusting. Linen was dirty if the carpet a bit cleaner I would have slept there. Flight attendants were unhelpful and rude. My child was on crutches which were taken away from her even though she told them about Her bad stomach. Plane toilets hadn't been properly cleaned. Below average food, everything half broken, i could go on and on.=

✅ Trip Verified | From the start of my trip, till I arrived in the United Kingdom, I must say I am very impressed by Ethiopian Airlines. I had an over 12 hours layover and was checked into a very beautiful hotel (Skylight) with an airport shuttle and dinner and breakfast were provided. Their staff and air hostesses were very cordial. The flight was on time and the pilots were communicating with us during the flight duration. I must say the airline has improved a whole lot from the last time I flew with them in 2016! 5 Stars for Ethiopian Airlines!

✅ Trip Verified | A seriously underrated airline from Africa. The overall flight experience from Mumbai to Tel Aviv and back was uneventful. The quality of meals served was OK and the airline accommodates passengers in a three-star hotel when the layover is more than six hours. Value for money. Some room for improvement: cleanliness of toilets.

✅ Trip Verified | One of the worst airlines I have encountered. My husband and I were supposed to take a trip from Chicago to Dubai connecting through Addis Ababa with Ethiopian airlines. We got to the airport well ahead of time, checked our baggage and got to the gate for our flight. We were told the flight was delayed but wasn't given any other information. We waited around for a few hours and were told to wait in the lounge. Waited again for a while, and my husband went to the airline counter only to find out the flight was cancelled due to some mechanical issue. We were told to go home and to come back the next day to be put on an 11am flight. We asked for our checked baggage back but Ethiopian airlines wouldn't give it back. We showed up to the airport the next day at 6am only to find out the mechanical issue was still going on and Ethiopian airlines didn't know when it would be fixed. They asked all the passengers to write down their email addresses on a piece of paper and that they would contact us when they had more information. At this point, we had already lost 2 days of our 10 day multi-city vacation. We went to United airlines (as our flight was a codeshare airline) and they managed to cancel our Ethiopian airlines ticket and were able to find us a last minute flight to Dubai. We went back to Ethiopian airlines to get our checked baggage back for the new flight and they refused to give the baggage as they claimed it had cleared security and they didn't have enough "manpower" to unload the luggage. Ethiopian airlines reassured us that that checked baggage would follow us to Dubai. We even let them know that we would only be in Dubai for another 3 days since we would be traveling to another destination after that, yet Ethiopian airlines assured us that our baggage would get to us. We got to Dubai and filed a baggage claim there. We waited for our baggage to arrive and even went back to Dubai airport only to find out the baggage was missing. We had to do a 14 day trip without our checked baggage and spend a good portion of our trip trying to buy a new suitcase, new clothes, etc. I'm very disappointed with Ethiopian Airlines.

✅ Trip Verified | I checked in online for my flight and got my boarding pass well in advance of my flight but when I got to boarding gate they said my seat has been changed. I chose a aisle seat and got moved to a middle seat, not only that my screen wasn't working so for a 9 hour flight. My friend also got a whole glass of juice spilled on him. Horrible experience and I got no reason for my seat change and only got told sorry for the screen, pathetic. This will be both myself and friend's last trip with them.

✅ Trip Verified | This is the worst airline ever. My experience flying with Ethiopian Airlines was awful. From check in at Heathrow airport the staff were rude, service very slow. I had to pay for excess luggage, the agent at the ticket office counter seemed confused and she was very slow. Once we boarded, when dinner was served the only 2 options were either rice and fish or pasta and tomato sauce. As I am allergic to fish the only option for me was the pasta and tomato sauce. I asked for another meat option and I was told that chicken was " finished" . So I had to eat the pasta which was not well cooked with tomato sauce as I was hungry otherwise I wouldn't have eaten it. The airport upon landing in Addis Ababa was another experience, separate issue. I connected to Harare from Addis Ababa. Upon arrival in Harare I got 1 of my checked in bag and the other one was missing. The airport staff advised that it happens all the time "when the plane is full Ethiopian Airlines removes some random bags and they follow with the next flight". Shocking! So my bag was missing, there was no announcement from the crew that some bags has been left behind, no communication whatsoever. I don't live in Harare, I had to stay in Harare overnight so I could return to the airport the following day to check whether my missing bag was on the next day's flight. Fortunately my bag came on that day's flight, however there was still no communication from the airline or apology whatsoever after the inconvenience. Unfortunately I was on the same flight with a friend who also had a missing bag, she got her bag 6 days after arrival. She also doesn't live in Harare!! The inconvenience!! The worst airline ever!! I will never used Ethiopian Airlines again.

✅ Trip Verified | I've flown Ethiopian Airlines as a business class passenger on multiple occasions. There truly has been a major decline on the quality of service provided to Cloud Nine passengers. Furthermore, there always seems to be some sort of delay with their flights. On my most recent trip, such delay caused me to miss my final connection (from Toronto to Phoenix) which resulted in me being stranded for over 14hrs. There was no apologies or any attempt from Ethiopian airlines to get me to my final destination sooner. Needless to say, I won't be flying Ethiopian Airlines again.