We had a very bad experience with Ethiopian Airlines for our flight from Addis Ababa to London. It started off with a very rude gate attendant. Every single person was forced to check-in again at the desk. We had already checked in at the Mahe, Seychelles airport, and were just connecting in Addis Ababa. I stood in line with more than 200 other passengers to check-in again, while my husband sat with all of our bags. After more than 45 minutes of standing in line, I finally got to the desk. I handed your employee our passports. He looked at me and asked who I was traveling with. I told him my husband, and he said, "Go get him." I respectfully asked why all of us were being forced to stand in yet another line, and he repeated, "Get your husband." I said, "Look, I’m fine with getting my husband, but can you just tell me why we have to check-in again? I’m just trying to understand." He repeated, "Just get your husband." I don’t know if he was a chauvinist or what, but he was incredibly disrespectful.
Unfortunately, the above problem with Ethiopian Airlines’ service is just the beginning. It gets worse, much much worse!
Our flight was supposed to take off at 12:40AM. We took off about a half hour late, but immediately had problems pressurizing the plane. We had to circle Addis Ababa for 2 hours at 14,000 feet to burn off fuel before we could even land to fix the problem. During this time, every single infant on board was screaming because the pressure problem was causing their ears to hurt, and because it was so hot on the plane. When we finally landed, they said it would take 20-30 minutes to fix. It ended up taking 2.5 hours! The crew and pilot were very resistant to giving updates to the passengers during this time period (despite us asking for updates), and there was no air conditioning or ventilation on the plane the whole time! I voiced my concerns to the flight attendants numerous times about missing our connection in London (for which we were supposed to have a 4.5 hour layover). They kept telling me that they would reschedule our flights automatically if we missed our connection. We ended up landing in London at 11:30AM (4 hours and 40 minutes late), which was after our connecting flight had already departed. As I exited the plane I again asked about our rescheduling, and the attendant told me to talk to whoever was standing outside the gate. No one was standing there, so we ran toward the baggage claim. (When we checked in at the Mahe, Seychelles airport, Ethiopian Airlines would not check our bags all the way through to our final destination, so we actually had to enter England through customs to get our checked bags.) Then we had to leave the arrivals section of the London airport to get to the departures section to check our bags again. Our missed connection was through American Airlines/British Airways. The American Airlines desk attendant told us NO ONE HAD RESCHEDULED OUR FLIGHTS! They were helpful in doing so, but we then had to take all of our checked and carry-on bags through the airport, and onto a train to get to the correct terminal for our re-routed flight. We had to check-in again, and check our bags again.
Ethiopian Airlines did us a great disservice at all points in the air travel process – checking in, handling of our checked baggage, the aircraft malfunction, not keeping their passengers informed, and not rectifying the problems they caused. It was inhumane to keep more than 200 passengers on a plane for 2.5 hours with no ventilation.
After everything I mentioned above, it may be a moot point to add that the seats were very cramped (about 2 inches of leg room, and I’m only 5’6”) and uncomfortable (my neck is still killing me, I think it pinched a nerve), there were no personal tvs for entertainment, the bathrooms did not have any soap or paper towels, and the food was disgusting.
All I can say is NEVER AGAIN! If your itinerary includes Ethiopian Airlines, choose a different itinerary!
![[TFU] Thegoon84](/styles/overclockers/avatars/6.png){kind=avatar}
