It was a great experience for my first time flying with this airline. I will be flying with them a lot more now. Plane crew was amazing.
The following is a review for a flight from Johannesburg to Washington, DC with a connection at Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and refueling landing at Rome, Italy. The flight was provided by Ethiopian Airlines. There were two of us: me and my wife on this flight. Everything was on time. Enough legroom between the seats, I was able to stretch my legs and sleep for at least some time during the 14 hour second flight (19 hours in total for both flights). Very decent meals that included two lunches and one breakfast on the flight from Addis Ababa to Washington and one lunch on the flight from Johannesburg to Addis Ababa. The lunch choices were beef, chicken and fish, I think the vegetarian option was available as well, accompanied with beans. The breakfast was a choice between egg and pancake, accompanied with a fruit salad. The egg breakfast was awesome, it came with a scrambled egg and a sausage. However, my wife mentioned unusual taste of the pancake breakfast meal, by all means those were not pancakes. What wasn't good: Externally initiated commercials on the infosystem screens, you couldn't turn the screen off. These commercials were accompanied by loud and annoying music, transmitted through the entire cabin. Obviously, there was no escape from this music as well. Additional moment: on the flight from Addis Ababa to Washington, DC, we landed at Rome for refueling. This was totally fine and it was in the flight itinerary. But, the flight attendant asked me to straighten the seat while we were at the steady position during the refueling. I can't rationalize this order except that some people just like to be a boss of some kind. Keeping the light lit in the economy cabin while keeping it dimmed in the first class also didn't improve my and my wife's feelings. Overall, the services were very good and the flight, despite its longevity, went on very smoothly.
The crew were amazing. They should improve the inflight entertainment
The plane was old and the luggage racks above us were visibly shaking during turbulence. Water was dripping on our heads during landing. Our flight was over 2 hours late departing but we were not updated or told what to expect as the screen at the gate continued to read “on time”
I had a comfortable seat that makes my trip wonderful. I appreciate the Ethiopia crew, they were very helpful
The hygiene was super bad. Smells bad and air refreshment is highly advisable. The crew made some one else sit in my spot and no one is checking seat number and people are jumping to sit on other people’s allocated seat.
I felt all of the food tasted the same. And we had five meals over the 16 hrs in the air.
The boarding area was too small with only one agent checking passengers into their standing bus
I took 4 Ethiopian Airlines flights on my trip. Each flight was one of the worst experiences I have had flying. The interior was filthy on each flight, the seats, the floors, the bathrooms. All were filthy. At 5-10, my knees touched the seat in front of me. The person in front of me declined their seat, basically making eye contact with me should they look up. My seat did not recline, so I was trapped in my seat, unable to use the bathroom or get up from my seat unless I woke up the person laying in my lap. My tv and seat were broken, as well as my friends seat and tv for our 14 hr flight. The bathroom closest to us was already clogged before we took off, so the backed up bathroom smells wafted out and into our row the entire 14 hr flight. Out of 4 flights, they were out of vegetarian food options for each meal. Flight staff was fairly rude and unapologetic, finally agreeing to give me a second roll and butter instead of no substitute offered for most of the meals. Flight crew had zero control over the passengers, allowing adults to congregate by exit doors and talk loudly during sleeping hours. Children were allowed to be completely ignored as they played outside of their seats and screeched for the ENTIRE 16 hr return flight. Forcing passengers to try and shush the children. Passengers then got up and got their bags the second the flight touched down, ignoring all safety and exit protocols. I will NEVER fly another Ethiopian Airlines flight as long as I live.
I was a good, but long trip. The airline did a good job. I would use them again.
