Ethiopian Airlines
Business Class
SQ Business Class Award
ET673: ICN-ADD (Seoul to Addis Ababa)
22 July 2019
Boeing 787-8 (Two Class Configuration)
ET-AOS
Seat 3D
Departure: 1:05AM
Arrival: 7:10AM
The only reason I chose this flight was due to schedule and routing. I looked into an award on QR, but the flights to ADD depart in the evening and a 12hr+ stop in DOH is a non-starter for me. Additionally, there was no award inventory ex-ICN, so I'd have had to depart from PEK or NRT instead. Not worth it, despite the superior product.
That left me with ET. I knew in advance that the hard product would be woeful, and it was. It's very similar to what I've encountered on TG in the past. The angle flat beds offered zero privacy and a fairly poor night's rest. The bed is particularly bad because there is zero foot room when fully reclined. The soft product was mediocre; I understand the catering out of ADD is better.
I hadn't yet had dinner when I arrived at ICN T1, so I had some bibimbap before heading airside. It was only 10PM, but almost everything at the airport was closed. The Asiana lounge also closed at midnight, which wasn't so bad since our gate was a solid 15 minute walk from the lounge.
Landside Bibimbap
Seat
Seat
Menu
Menu
Menu
Starter (not good)
Chicken
I tried to sleep for a while and got perhaps 6-7 hours of poor quality sleep. Better than nothing, I suppose. Eventually, we neared ADD and it was time for breakfast. It was the same quality as dinner -- mediocre at best. The frittata was tasteless and the meat was greasy. The cereal and fruit was the best part of the meal.
Breakfast
Breakfast
ET-AOS
Eventually, we landed at ADD on time and I headed through to a somewhat convoluted immigration process. It took around 30 minutes to get through, but eventually I was landside. I stopped at the Ethio Tel office to get a SIM card for my phone, which took a solid 45 minutes. Computer issues, apparently. That said, the SIM card cost $1 and I loaded $4 of airtime on it. Not a bad deal, but the process was painfully slow.