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Is Ethiopian eliminating Chicago flights 574/575?

Is Ethiopian eliminating Chicago flights 574/575?

Old Jun 22, 2020, 1:02 pm
  #1  
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Is Ethiopian eliminating Chicago flights 574/575?

I am booked and ticketed in September to fly ET 575 from ORD Sept. 12 and ET 574 on Sept. 25 return. These are award tickets in J from UA and will take us to WDH for a safari vacation. We start in MCI. I know this trip is not happening and I will be postponing and rescheduling for May 2021.

When I look at trying to book these tickets either as an award or paid for May 2021, the nonstop ET flights between ORD and ADD seem to have been eliminated for next year. ET flights to/from ORD go through IAH and then to/from Chicago on UA metal. I looked at the UA award chart this morning and the Chicago flights are not there.

Has Ethiopian decided not to resume their flight from Chicago to Addis? Was it not selling well? I can route through Toronto or IAH if I have to but the ORD flight was very convenient for me with far less total travel time. I need to fly outbound on a Saturday and return on a Friday to coincide with the safari tour beginning and ending.

Last edited by susiesan; Jun 22, 2020 at 1:20 pm
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Old Jun 23, 2020, 8:40 am
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May 2021 flights may just not be loaded or may not have award availability released yet... ET 574/575 appears to be bookable early-mid May directly on the ET site.
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Old Jun 23, 2020, 12:47 pm
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Originally Posted by b_magee
May 2021 flights may just not be loaded or may not have award availability released yet... ET 574/575 appears to be bookable early-mid May directly on the ET site.
It must have been my timing when I looked yesterday as I do see ET 574/575 on the ET web site for early May 2021. The flights also show with award seats on the UA web site. I can book award tickets MCI-ORD-ADD-WDH and reverse on UA but I can't buy these flights on the ET web site, they don't show up when I do a dummy booking. ET has a buggy web site and I don't know if I can trust what I am seeing there.

Interesting that my award flights in September are still showing up as a go but if I tried to buy these exact same tickets on the same flights from United they are not available for sale. They do show up on the ET site as going in September. it appears ET 574/575 will start back up in August. The ADD-WDH flights ET835/834 are resuming in September assuming namibia is taking international flights then.
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Old Jun 24, 2020, 5:51 am
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Originally Posted by susiesan
I am booked and ticketed in September to fly ET 575 from ORD Sept. 12 and ET 574 on Sept. 25 return. These are award tickets in J from UA and will take us to WDH for a safari vacation. We start in MCI. I know this trip is not happening and I will be postponing and rescheduling for May 2021.
cant comment on the flights but with regards to Namibia, it looks like Namibia plans to reopen its borders on September 18 (no detail provided)

Link is to the French equivalent of the state department travel advisory website and theyve had pretty up to date and accurate.
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Old Jun 24, 2020, 8:12 am
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Originally Posted by Chuvash
cant comment on the flights but with regards to Namibia, it looks like Namibia plans to reopen its borders on September 18 (no detail provided)

Link is to the French equivalent of the state department travel advisory website and theyve had pretty up to date and accurate.

Here is information in English. I can't read French.
https://allafrica.com/stories/202006220776.html

Since I am scheduled to arrive Sept. 13 this doesn't help me. Plus you have to quarantine for 14 days once you get there and get a covid test before arrival. So no go for me this year. I doubt anyone will visit Namibia under these restrictions. ET will be flying empty planes between ADD and WDH.
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Old Jun 29, 2020, 1:42 pm
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Looks like ET is resuming the Chicago flights in September. The ADD-ORD ET flight now leaves at 10:35pm. ET 834 from WDH gets into ADD at 10:20pm after April 1,2021. ET 834 gets into ADD at 9:20pm prior to then. It must be a daylight savings time change for Ethiopia. So unless ET adjusts the time of flight 834 WDH-ADD I cannot use the Chicago ET flight on my return home. I am rebooked and ticketed on ET552 via Toronto.

Last edited by susiesan; Sep 16, 2020 at 1:08 pm
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Old Sep 15, 2020, 12:18 pm
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Originally Posted by susiesan
Looks like ET is resuming the Chicago flights in September. The ADD-ORD ET flight now leaves at 10:35pm. ET 834 from WDH gets into ADD at 10:20pm after April 1,2021. ET 834 gets into ADD at 9:20pm prior to then. It must be a daylight savings time change for Ethiopia. So unless ET adjusts the time of flight 834 WDH-ADD I cannot use the Chicago ET flight on my return home. I am rebooked and ticketed on ET552 via Toronto.
I have been told the time of ET 834 WDH-ADD arriving at 9:20pm through March 26 then arriving 10:20pm after that date is a schedule glitch from Ethiopian, that this happens all the time. I inquired about this in June and it still has not been fixed. There doesn't seem to be an explanation as to why after March this flight takes an hour longer. So I still cannot change my tickets to use the Chicago flight but am currently ticketed on a roundabout routing May 14,2021 WDH-ADD-VIE-BRU-ORD-MCI with a total travel time of 33 hours. That will be one very long day.
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Old Sep 16, 2020, 1:10 pm
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Originally Posted by susiesan
Looks like ET is resuming the Chicago flights in September. The ADD-ORD ET flight now leaves at 10:35pm. ET 834 from WDH gets into ADD at 10:20pm after April 1,2021. ET 834 gets into ADD at 9:20pm prior to then. It must be a daylight savings time change for Ethiopia. So unless ET adjusts the time of flight 834 WDH-ADD I cannot use the Chicago ET flight on my return home. I am rebooked and ticketed on ET552 via Toronto.
ET appears to be eliminated the Chicago flights next year, in May 2021. They have also cut back on ADD-WDH route to only 3 days a week, M-W-F. I just had to rearrange my whole itinerary to Windhoek for my May 3 safari which has me arriving 3 days prior and the added expense of 3 hotel nights in Windhoek.
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Old Sep 17, 2020, 8:20 am
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Originally Posted by susiesan
ET appears to be eliminated the Chicago flights next year, in May 2021. They have also cut back on ADD-WDH route to only 3 days a week, M-W-F. I just had to rearrange my whole itinerary to Windhoek for my May 3 safari which has me arriving 3 days prior and the added expense of 3 hotel nights in Windhoek.
I see ET575 (ORD-ADD) operating M-W-F-Sa next summer and I also see United awards being offered on these flights during that period. I also see ET835 (ADD-WDH) operating M-W-F-Su in June.

Update: I just checked in May 2021 and I see the same schedules as I posted above.
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Old Sep 17, 2020, 8:45 am
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Originally Posted by cheltzel
I see ET575 (ORD-ADD) operating M-W-F-Sa next summer and I also see United awards being offered on these flights during that period. I also see ET835 (ADD-WDH) operating M-W-F-Su in June.

Update: I just checked in May 2021 and I see the same schedules as I posted above.
I now see ET575 in May. Unfortunate for me I can't use it to get to WDH as ET835 in May goes on M-W-F and the ORD flight arrives ADD T-TH-SA-Su.
I have to be ready to head out on my 10 day safari on Monday May 3 at 7:00am.
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Old Sep 17, 2020, 8:52 am
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Originally Posted by susiesan
I now see ET575 in May. Unfortunate for me I can't use it to get to WDH as ET835 in May goes on M-W-F and the ORD flight arrives ADD T-TH-SA-Su.
I have to be ready to head out on my 10 day safari on Monday May 3 at 7:00am.
I see award flights ORD-WDH on 4/28 and 4/29 on UA in both Y and J (the ADD-WDH legs are in Y).

I am also seeing the ADD-WDH flight at 4 days a week not three (M-W-F-Su)
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Old Sep 17, 2020, 9:06 am
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Originally Posted by cheltzel
I see award flights ORD-WDH on 4/28 and 4/29 on UA in both Y and J (the ADD-WDH legs are in Y).

I am also seeing the ADD-WDH flight at 4 days a week not three (M-W-F-Su)
Well I only see ADD-WDH on M-W-F when looking at the award calendar. I don't know how you get the extra day.

After spending over an hour on the phone getting this reticketed this is the only routing UA could get me that has us in J the whole way:
W 4/28 UA692 MCI-ORD 3:22pm-4:51pm F
UA972 ORD-BRU 5:55pm-9:00am J Polaris
TH 4/29 ET729 BRU-ADD 10:15pm-6:15am J
FR 4/30 ET835 ADD-WDH 8:35am-12:20pm J

We will have a whole day to spend in Brussels, haven't been there in over 30 years. I have to figure out what to do for 3 nights in Windhoek before the safari heads out on Monday morning. It will take us 36h25m of travel time to get to Namibia. This will set the record for me of longest journey to get to a vacation. Can you tell I really really want to go?
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Old Sep 17, 2020, 9:57 am
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Originally Posted by susiesan
Well I only see ADD-WDH on M-W-F when looking at the award calendar. I don't know how you get the extra day.

After spending over an hour on the phone getting this reticketed this is the only routing UA could get me that has us in J the whole way:
W 4/28 UA692 MCI-ORD 3:22pm-4:51pm F
UA972 ORD-BRU 5:55pm-9:00am J Polaris
TH 4/29 ET729 BRU-ADD 10:15pm-6:15am J
FR 4/30 ET835 ADD-WDH 8:35am-12:20pm J

We will have a whole day to spend in Brussels, haven't been there in over 30 years. I have to figure out what to do for 3 nights in Windhoek before the safari heads out on Monday morning. It will take us 36h25m of travel time to get to Namibia. This will set the record for me of longest journey to get to a vacation. Can you tell I really really want to go?
We got lucky on our mid June trip to the Kruger area for a safari. Scored QR J awards using our AA miles. 6 hour connect in DOH on the way over and a longer one on the way back (by design). We want to spend the afternoon and evening in DOH to go the the Souk to check it out, eat dinner and overnight in a hotel. Of course if they don't open up, we will be sleeping in the airside hotel and spending 12 hours in the lounge. Was able to book it all online.
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