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.
It was a good experience - too many times checking at the airport - every time had to remove shoes , belt , laptop etc. that was a bit of exaggerated. The seat had a sharp metal plate -- which torn into my jeans.
The Boeing 737 MAX on this route, flown in the middle of the night, is an UTTER FAILURE for business travellers. The whole point of business travel is to arrive alert and recover from travel quickly, and this little aeroplane with its quarter recline uncomfortable business seats does nothing for that. It’s a small step up from economy in that you have decent legroom, but that’s it. Absolute margin at the cost of the traveller.
For Vegetarian Food was very poor. Though we had opted for Asian Vegetarian Food they didn’t serve but only what was available was served. We were offered Smoked Salmon!
The use of a domestic carrier without entertainment was disappointing and a let down
Like: It arrived, Dislike: Boarding was a separate corridor with no counter announcements at the passenger waiting area. Very dirty airplane and toilets, food options were terrible - everything even the vegetarian option was a curry spice. Many other passengers using the toilets would not lock the door and kept door partially open during use - flight attendants would not enforce or direct them to lock it and light turns on, no entertainment options at all, other passengers would be singing and not peaceful. Atrocious flight experience.
There where no ear phones provided and the food needs to improve.
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.
The food could be better, the beef was quite tough. The crew were friendly and helpful on this flight, which has not being my experience on other Ethiopian flights.
