Other Middle East and Africa Frequent Flyer Programs - Ethiopian Airlines in Business Class?

Hi folks,

I'm considering to take ET from FRA to JUB via ADD in December. I have flown ET recently in coach class, so I'm aware of that product and of ADD airport, but I have yet to try them in business. What should I expert in terms of seats, food, IFE and lounges (in FRA and ADD). The flights to/from FRA are on B767 aircraft, while the short hop to JUB is operated by a B737. In addition, I would be interested to know about the ADD stop-over program, I have read on the ET website that the airline offers hotel accommodation for passengers in transit for more than 8 hours. What hotel are they using in ADD?

Any insight would be most appreciated!

Word has it that Madonna flew in to Lilongwe, Malawi on Ethiopian today. I guess if ET is good enough for that diva, you'll do just fine.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jEoTlMXMxNgOj2K5UARVL951A61QD9BI9DJ00

ET's B763 fleet is made up of four different configurations owing to leased in aircraft, with some having personal IFEs and others without. B73Ws which fly you to Juba all have the same ET configuration, with overhead screens in Economy (I don't recall how it is in Business). No lie-flat in Business. For many, attentive in-flight service makes up for what the airline lacks in other areas. As for hotels, while I have not done the layover thing with ET (my final destination is ADD), I have heard of some getting accomodations at the Hilton or Sheraton, while others getting into local government run hotels (3 star-ish) which may not make for a good experience. Perhaps you should ring an ET office and ask about hotel accomodations for those flying in Biz.

Shall we expect a trip report?

ET's B763 fleet is made up of four different configurations owing to leased in aircraft, with some having personal IFEs and others without. B73Ws which fly you to Juba all have the same ET configuration, with overhead screens in Economy (I don't recall how it is in Business). No lie-flat in Business. For many, attentive in-flight service makes up for what the airline lacks in other areas. As for hotels, while I have not done the layover thing with ET (my final destination is ADD), I have heard of some getting accomodations at the Hilton or Sheraton, while others getting into local government run hotels (3 star-ish) which may not make for a good experience. Perhaps you should ring an ET office and ask about hotel accomodations for those flying in Biz.

Thanks a lot, this is extremely useful. The price ET is charging in business is roughly equivalent to what I'm normally paying for CGN - AMS - NBO - JUB (and vv.) on my usual KL/JO combo in coach, while the the schedule, at least on the outbound, is much more convenient, so I may give them a try this time. Having said that, a colleague took the ET flight from FRA to ADD last month and she was less than impressed (old plane, strange food, very limited IFE), but that was in coach.

Shall we expect a trip report?

I really should write one, but then I have yet to get around to writing up ADD - LUN - ADD - JIB - NBO on ET/KQ from last month..

I take the DXB-ADD-DXB ET flights a few times a year and have done this in coach and business class for 8 years. The main point is the ET planes are very old. They make the advertisement that they will be the first African carrier that will have the Boeing 787 Dreamliner but we know this has been delayed now for some time. The service by the FA are OK but the food is nothing to rave about. If its a 767 or 757 they will be the old style seats and for a business class product it is not competitive to other carriers today. On this route I mentioned I can also fly Emirates, but sometimes the connection times in DXB are much longer than if I fly ET.

Forgot to add to my previous post about Ethiopian Airlines that the best hotel in Addis is the 5 star Sheraton as it is a part of their Luxury Collection. The second most popular is the Hilton that has been there since 1969. Location is about 30 min from Bole International Airport. These two hotels are about 10 min apart. The HIlton has an excellent location, but needs to be upgraded hwne compared to the Sheraton which has been open maybe 6-7 years now.

I guess I'll chime in...

The 767s ET uses have several different configurations, all with business class seating akin to that found on Virgin America's first class. By comparison, UAs business class seat (the ones being phased out) is by leaps-and-bounds better than ET's. With ET, the seats recline, but not far enough back to sleep comfortably (I've had 2 types of seats in ET biz: one that reclines and has a (useless) legrest, and one that reclines but articulates with the seat and the legrest (much more comfortable, but still not comfortable, if that makes any sense)). They have PTVs, but they run the same movies over and over. The ET lounge in Addis is okay - much like the KQ lounge in NBO. Maybe a little nicer, actually, with a better selection of food.

The 737s they use on regional flights are typical US-type first class seats, no legrests, adequate legroom (probably 36-38 inches), no PTV.

You'll see references to the 787 all over Addis, from billboards to the spare-tire cover on the backs of SUVs, but as previously posted, when they'll see them is anyone's guess, and I don't think anyone's read an announcement by ET that they'll be upping their game with the biz hardware when the 787 is delivered. They'd be smart do to so, though.

The service in business class is better than on KQ, for example, but it's in a weird order, e.g., champagne isn't served until after takeoff, and then they serve you one glass of it, the end. If you ask for something, it'll come, but there's no sense of urgency in any of the service delivery. If you want more wine with dinner, you need to ask for it, as they're not going to come around with the bottles and refill. I did a write up on my flights, which maybe I'll post to trip reports, even though they were last year IAD-FCO-ADD-JNB and v.v.

With the hotels, I used the Hilton because of status, but with both the Hilton and Sheraton, expect to pay between USD 300 and 400/night. These are really the only 2 acceptable business grade hotels in Addis, and there's not much incentive for these 2 to put rooms on sale. The restaurant at the Hilton was good, and if you get a room that gives you access to the executive lounge, or have status for access, the lounge is quite nice with a nice spread of food for breakfast, lunch, or dinner (if you're feeling cheap), and a pretty darned nice selection of beverages, including Cointreau, a personal fave of mine. The buffet lunch (not bad) runs around USD 25.

Personally I wouldn't look to take ET again unless I had to for budgetary reasons. I took them last year for one of my trips because they were different, and I'd never flown them before.

Globetrotter94941 and TravellinWilly:

Thank you so much for your insights into ET's business class product. As things stand the choice for me is not really ET in business class vs. other airlines in business class (that would be an easy choice), but rather whether to fly to NBO in coach, stay overnight and then connect to Jetlink or similar for the sector to JUB. The fare on ET in business is not much higher and the connection more seamless, than doing the above in coach in December (high season for flights to Kenya).

Having said that, I was not not too impressed by my recent flights with ET in coach. Old planes, seriously outdated IFE (on the B757s) and strange food. Given a choice, I would rather fly KQ within Africa..