Question about Ethiopian Airlines changes/cancellation policy
 

Hi all, I have a friend staying with me who wants to extend his trip. Does anyone happen to know Ethiopian's policy? It seems US airlines mostly allow you to cancel the return and retain the portion as a credit of sorts. European airlines I've noticed tend to need you to immediately re-book the portion you hold for a future date. Does anyone know where Ethiopian stands on this?

You need to check the fare rules of the ticket you are referring to. Comparing to what you know from the US or Europe will get you nowhere. If you can't find the ticket rules, call ET and ask about changing ticket.

Anyway, most likely there will be change fee of USD 100-200 and possible up-fare if the original booking class is no longer available. I believe the new return date needs to be booked immediately but I might be wrong - ask ET if it is possible to cancel but postpone the rebooking of the new date until later. For your information if you do this on a TK ticket, it will be treated as no-show and you need to pay the much higher no-show fee (even if technically didn't no-show for the original flight as you cancelled it before the flight; to avoid this you need to rebook for the new date before your original flight - you can't leave the return date open unless you pay no-show fee ).

ET is usually happy to leave a ticket hanging without rebooking.

Just ask the ET office to put the return ticket on standby. Once your friend decides what date he/she wants to travel, you have to pay a change fee and as previously poster's have said, potential fare difference. Have done it several times, even as recent as a few weeks ago.
ET is extremely flexible when it comes to moving dates, as long as inventory is available. I have many times moved a ticket and paid less in change fees than what it says in the fare conditions, as far as I can see. Often about $ 50-75, even on the cheapest fares.