[AspirationalFlyer2]

Hello all,

I have a forthcoming trip on the Ethiopian Airlines A350 from Heathrow coming up and I’d be grateful for your advice and tips. I’ve read the recent BT reviews, both of which were interesting and useful. Specific questions:
– how did you find the food and drink? Did you eat in the lounge beforehand or save your appetite for onboard?
– what’s the service like?
– have you been on the 777, as well as the A350? I have a connecting flight so would be interested to know how they compare.
– how does Ethiopian compare to other airlines – for example, BA and the Middle Eastern carriers?
Time permitting, I will try prepare a review and submit it using the Seatplans.com website.

Safe travels and thank you, AF.

[Ian168]

I am not recommending Ethiopian Airlines for the following reasons:

1. Flight service – needs improvement – flight attendants ignore service request when you push the service button, rarely smiles, aloof attitude, they just wanted to get the job done

2. Baggage Handling – major fail – since my arrival in Toronto last Tuesday,9 Jan from my holiday trip in Dubai, I haven’t received my other luggage as it was left behind in Addis Ababa. Despite my contact communications with the Toronto agent, their Baggage Services group in Addis Ababa continue to ignore the emails sent and calls to them requesting for my luggage to be sent to Toronto. I have explained to them that all my prescription medicines are in that bag and it is not easy to get a replacement of these prescriptions. I am shock and amazed on their lack of efficiency and dedication to bring back my luggage as they already have located it in the system. I am considering filing a legal action and I have the email correspondences to prove their inefficiency.

[Andy/Thailand]

I am not a great fan of Ethiopian.
Flew a lot with them from Ivory Coast to Bangkok.
The 777 is not bad, have not done the A350.
I usually eat before I get on the flight, there food is not the best.
The coffee is great though.
Not sure if the new extension for terminal has finished yet (doubt it) then you will not enjoy the terminal far too packed, and don’t ask about the business class lounge, was flying through there for 2 years, and the coffee machine always seemed to breakdown or poured to much coffee in to the small cups.
Nice bar in lounge.
And final straw they stopped Carlsberg and changed to Bavarian.
Staff, i agree with Ian, sometimes they are very lazy and hide in galley as if it’s too much work to cone out and serve you.
I had the chance to fly again with them from Djibouti to Bangkok and decided to go through Dubai.

[Tom Otley]

Look forward to the review.

Ethiopian is having an event at Heathrow next Wednesday and so I will try and find some new information and answers to these questions.

Meanwhile here are the collection reviews

https://www.businesstraveller.com/tried-and-tested-category/airlines/ethiopian-airlines/

I’m also planning to do a short film on booard the aircraft for our youtube channel.

https://www.youtube.com/businesstraveller

[AspirationalFlyer2]

Thanks Tom – sounds great and I look forward to seeing the write-up of your Heathrow visit.

[AspirationalFlyer2]

Hi Tom – did you ever get any useful information/insights from the ET team that are worth sharing? Apologies if I’ve missed any helpful articles/posts on this.

[capetonianm]

Sounds to me pretty typical of an airline that has grown too big and too fast. They do offer some very cheap fares between ZA and EUR in economy and a couple of people I know who’ve used them, and admittedly they are not discriminating passengers or they wouldn’t go for the lowest fares, have said they are not bad in the air but that the Achille’s Heel is the unpleasant and chaotic conditions and poorly informed staff at Addis Ababa Bole airport.

I won’t be rushing to use them but another friend who travelled LHR-ABB-CPT in their business class said it was ‘not the worst business class flight I’ve ever done and it was cheap’. As a very experienced traveller he commented that the adherence to procedures and level of CC training and diligence was below what he would expect.

[Tom Otley]

AspirationalFlyer2 wrote:

Hi Tom – did you ever get any useful information/insights from the ET team that are worth sharing? Apologies if I’ve missed any helpful articles/posts on this.

Hello,

Nothing, I’m afraid. the event was cancelled at the last moment with no notification !

[Author]

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