Ethiopian 767 Business Class Cloud Nine Addis Ababa To Frankfurt

"On one hand I feel like a horrible person for complaining about the quality of food being catered out of Ethiopia. I should probably be looking at it in more binary of a way — there was food, so maybe they just deserve a “check” mark?"

Ehh. Sort of uncomfortable….

"there was nothing about this flight that I’ll miss"

Yes siree! Do you mean "that I won't miss", or are you just saying that you were so bored you wouldn't miss anything about the flight?

Oh, you mean *that* type of miss. Should you reword it so it says "there wasn't anything on this flight that I'd repeat" or something?

I don't fly as often as you, but still a pretty good bit, and I'm really jealous at all the weird stuff you see what seems to be quite regularly. It's not that I /want/ to see a fat guy's belly hanging out, but it would at least be humorous...

The irony is that you were on ET-ALO, which (together with ALJ/ALP) actually has the best hard product of the various ET 767s! These are ET's directly owned aircraft (and most recent 767 deliveries - albeit 10 years old) so they have all the "latest" upgrades like the new 777-style interiors, PTVs and winglets. Be thankful you didn't have to endure one of the older frames - those can be real nightmares.

I've flown ALO a few times in recent months (including the flight from EBB-ADD just a few hours before you flew her ADD-FRA) and quite honestly I am more comfortable in the exit row economy (row 30) than in the crappy biz class seats. Although the previous evening we had a complete IFE failure (yes, even "Invictus" and "Winnie Mandela" were unavailable) on ET-ALO as well. Thank goodness for kindles and ipods!

I fly ET a fair bit (20-30 flights/year) and the secret to enjoying ET is to view them in comparison to the competition on their core routes - viz. within Africa. I've run airlines in Africa (and in full disclosure, I've worked closely WITH ET on various projects, although never FOR ET) and the challenges of maintaining a reliable operation with a decent supply chain in some of the stations they operate to are immense. ET have not just managed it, but they have mastered it. Even their closest competitor, Kenya Airways, pales in comparison to what ET has accomplished on virtually every front.

ET's product is not competitive on trunk routes where they go head to head with European or Middle East carriers. On these routes they compete pretty much on price alone. They are however the only reliable game in town when it comes to travel within Africa or to secondary markets in Africa. You don't fly ET for comfort or style. You fly them to get to your destination safely, reliably and more or less on schedule. And in Africa, that's not something you can take for granted.

Sean, thank u for the insight. My only comment has to do with an old saying from my mother when i brought home a bad grade(s) from school. I said" mom, all other kids had bad or worse grades". To which she always had the same comment " i care less what other kids had. - i only care what you had. You should too".

So just becouse all other carriers have crappy service, we should still question bad product and complain when we see one.
Endre

@Endre - Is ET's product "bad" though? It is outdated for sure, but in dozens of flights on them I can't say I've ever had "bad" service. Again, the product they are marketing is getting you to your African destination safely, reliably and more or less on schedule. They deliver on that promise very very well. You shouldn't expect chateaubriand when you dine at McDonalds, 'cos that isn't what they are trying to sell! 🙂

Flying Saudia this long weekend and can't wait!

Whoops I put the previous comment by mistake (was going to put it on Lucky's previous post on the chance to win free schwag.)
Nonetheless, I have never flown ET Business but have flown ET in economy IAD-ADD-JRO and felt the service and IFE on the longhaul flight IAD-ADD to be very good. As far as comparing it to other African airlines, the only other ones I've flown are EgyptAir and South African Airways; which are really ET's partners since they're all in Star Alliance. Of the three, I personally prefer flying SAA.

Having flown LH to Addis from Frankfurt return, I think what you experienced was more a reflection of where you were flying from than the airline you were flying on. We flew from Canada to Addis, connecting in Frankfurt, all on LH. The flight from Canada to Frankfurt was what you would expect from LH (in coach/economy), however, the flight from FRA to ADD was like a different airline. No entertainment/power at all, food far worse, even seemed to be less flight attendants, worse seats and clearly older equipment. Like in most things, Africans tend to get treated as second class citizens, at least in my experience (by way of disclosure, I am not African, so have no axe to grind).

Having said that, the "Ethiopian" food you received, outside of the injera, was not recognizable as any Ethiopian dish I have ever eaten! Almost as big a mystery as the main dish that followed it

Sorry to hear that you got the crappy seats. I had them to and from DC (two different crappy seats) and your pictures did a nice job of triggering my PTS syndrome, so thanks! 🙂

Service is not a byword of ET, but nor is it really for any African airline, be it SA or KQ. The only "acceptable" airline in Africa, to me, is British Airways, which is actually Comair (who also own Kulula, one of the LCCs in S. Africa), but they have an incredibly small footprint internationally, and within southern Africa only.

Thanks for the (unsurprising) report - to be honesty, your 787 report is the one I found surprising.

Lucky, for someone so well travelled, I would expect more from you than resorting to tired stereotypes. RE: " I should probably be looking at it in more binary of a way — there was food, so maybe they just deserve a “check” mark". While I realize this was a "tongue-in-cheek" remark, it is still a little offensive for many of your readers. Especially those who can trace their lineage to less than wealthy nations. Love your blog and will continue to support but just figured I would put this out there.

FWIW, while Ethiopia is still an extremely poor country, it has one of the fastest growing economies in the world and is considered the "diplomatic capital" of Africa. The next ten to fifteen years will bring unprecedented change to the country that will hopefully spur more updates to their infrastructure and improve their weak human rights record.

Wait...the captain and the first officer came out to talk to her (as pictured)...and there were two pilots...then at that time who was flying the plane? The flight attendants!?

I guess the CZ 328/CZ 385 reviews aren't the only reviews that you didn't use the word "phenomenal"! 😛

@ Hong Kong Airline News -- They came out to talk to her at separate times.

I fly ET a fair b

I fly ET a fair bit and usually find them "fine." I'm glad, though, that when travel was interrupte by irrops I refused to have my LH biz seat replaced with an ET one to Frankfurt the next day. The flights go around the same time with the LH taking a ground stop in Saudi Arabia. I'll trade that for an angled flat seat overnight. I will commend ET for (eventually---the transfer desk is a zoo!) sending us to the addis Hilton for 24 hr where our gold benefits were recognized and we even earned points for our 24 hr there on ET's dime. The $20 massages at the Hilton are always a nice consolation for an extra day spent in Addis too.

Did you not even stay a day in Ethiopia and check it out? It's supposed to be beautiful and is up there on my list of next places

@ Tyler -- I would have liked to, but was limited to one stopover, so couldn't do that on this ticket due to availability.

I wonder if she was the captain's mother or something. BTW, your last batch of trip reports aren't showing up in the trip report index. Not sure if you just haven't gotten to it, or if there's a glitch, but figured I'd let you know.

@ Elizabeth -- Thanks! These actually aren't my trip reports, but just "previews" I post the day after each flight. The full trip reports are posted upon the conclusion of the trip, which are the ones I add to the index. 🙂

That explains it (and these are nice thorough previews!)! I'll look forward to more on the three-piece neon suits in the full review.

As an Ethiopian and a regular reader I am very offended by your attempt at humor when you referred to the "check mark" for ET having food. I would think that someone as well travelled as you are would be less ignorant in relating Ethiopia with the great famine that occurred in 1984 and many people died as a result. Furthermore, your claim that 69% of marriage comes through abduction is absurd and you fail to site any source for this ridiculous claim. Ethiopia is the among the first countries in the world to adopt Christianity and is a nation filled with history and treasures so please have a little more respect the next time you decide to write about Ethiopia or at least try to have some journalistic ethics and site the sources to your ridiculous claims.

How can someone as well travelled as you be so damn ignorant?

I'm truly surprised that this post from 2 years ago hasn't been edited to remove the racist, and bigoted comment about being surprised they had food on the plane. This is just as offensive as someone telling you that you should get a check for walking around without something plugged up your rear end 24-7 being that you're gay.

You flew on ET-ALO, which was exactly 10 years old. Hardly “ancient”