Originally Posted by dvs7310

ET and TK both have equally bad customer service, but the airline itself is a fine experience. Don't let the difficulty of reaching them on the US number set your expectations for their onboard service. Your best bet is to call the main number in Addis Ababa via Skype, Viber, etc., they have always picked up straight away when I've called there. I can't recall if ET is one of the airlines that does this or not, but a lot of airlines do lock seat assignments once selected online and can't be changed after that. It's a senseless policy in my opinion, but is fairly common in the industry. TK is the same in that regard also, once selected, seats can't be changed again until check in.

One other point about ET if you don't get your seats changed before check in, I have noticed in the past that very few passengers use online check in and instead wait until the airport to check in, .so if you check in at 24 hours prior, the whole cabin will likely be available to change to.