Review: Ethiopian Airlines Business Class 787 Beijing To Addis Ababa

Review: Ethiopian Airlines Business Class 787 Beijing To Addis Ababa

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Our flight left Beijing shortly after midnight, so we headed over to the airport at around 8PM. I should note at this point that we were exhausted. We had flown in the previous day from Zurich, and gotten up before 5AM for a full day tour of Beijing, including Tiananmen Square, the Forbidden City, and the Great Wall.

We decided to take an Uber to the airport, which was a pleasant experience. While the driver didn’t speak a word of English, he was driving a brand new Audi A6, vs. the average Beijing cab, which has about a million miles on it. And it was only about twice as much as a taxi, which I thought was quite reasonable.

At around 8:30PM we arrived at the airport, just as check-in was opening. There was quite an economy queue, though no one in the business class line.

Once through security we headed to the Air China Business Class Lounge, which I’ve reviewed before. Rather than rehashing that here, just check out my previous review. The only thing worth noting this time around is that there was a shirtless dude in the lounge, which at least made for some free entertainment.

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Air China Lounge Beijing

We headed to our departure gate an hour before departure, and found boarding already well underway.

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Beijing Airport Ethiopian departure gate

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Ethiopian 787

Ethiopian Airlines 605
Beijing (PEK) – Addis Ababa (ADD)
Friday, July 4
Depart: 12:10AM
Arrive: 6:55AM
Duration: 11hr45min
Aircraft: Boeing 787
Seat: 2C (Business Class)

At the door we were pointed left towards the business class cabin. This flight was originally scheduled to be operated by one of Ethiopian’s 777-200s, though last minute got switched to a 787. I guess I was happy about that, since the 787 was newer.

The business class cabin consists of four rows, in a 2-2-2 configuration, for a total of 24 seats.

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Ethiopian business class cabin 787

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Ethiopian business class cabin 787

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Ethiopian business class cabin 787

It’s a shame that the seats aren’t fully flat, but I guess that’s what it takes to cram 24 seats into that space. LOT, on the other hand, has fully flat seats on their 787s, though can only fit three rows in the forward section of the 787, for a total of 18 seats.

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Ethiopian business class cabin 787

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Ethiopian business class cabin 787

We quickly settled into our seats, 2A & 2C, and familiarized ourselves with the seats. What’s interesting is that many aspects were identical to the LOT seats – for example, the center consoles, seat controls, entertainment controls, and “backs” of the seats were the same.

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Ethiopian business class seats 787

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Ethiopian business class seat controls 787

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Ethiopian business class entertainment controls 787

Waiting at each seat were a pillow and blanket — the pillow was rather small and blanket a bit scratchy.

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Ethiopian business class seat 787

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Ethiopian business class seat 787

The back of each seat had a place to hang coats as well as two storage compartments per seat — one near the IFE screens, and another by your feet for shoes.

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Ethiopian business class seats 787

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Ethiopian business class shoe storage 787

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Ethiopian business class storage 787

Each seat had some headphones waiting in the storage compartment.

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Ethiopian business class headphones 787

Interestingly the plane only had overhead bins on the sides of the aircraft — the center section didn’t.

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787 overhead bins

Once settled in the crew came by to offer us pre-departure beverages. They seemed friendly enough, though reserved. The three business class flight attendants were Fassika, the senior cabin crew, as well as Welebe and Gelina.

I had both a glass of water and champagne – Nicolas Feuillatte was on offer – which was a better champagne than I was expecting. And since we had about an hour to go till departure, we had a couple more rounds, until we heard a second bottle pop.

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Ethiopian business class pre-departure beverages

We were alone in business class for about 30 minutes. I tried to engage the crew in small talk, though they weren’t interested:

“So how long were you in Beijing for?”
“One night.”
“Oh, did you do anything fun?”
“No…”

Point taken!

We were also offered amenity kits, which were fairly nice… and red.

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Ethiopian business class amenity kit contents

And then we were offered menus as well.

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Ethiopian business class menu

There was something fun about the cabin. It might have been the boarding music, which was rather exotic. If anyone knows the name of the track they play, I’d love to know!

After about 30 minutes, business class passengers started to trickle in. I believe they were mostly op-ups, since the business class cabin was wide open the morning of our departure, with economy “zeroed” out.

Most of them seemed to be Ethiopian businessmen, and I genuinely loved the way they were dressed. They all had bright suits, suspenders, and top hats (in business class half of the overhead bins seemed to be occupied by top hats).

Eventually 19 of the 24 business class seats were occupied by passengers, along with the 1-2 pilots that were always on break.

At around 12:05AM we began our pushback, a bit ahead of schedule. Then again when you board 75 minutes before departure, I guess that’s easy enough. A welcome aboard announcement was made, informing us of our flight time of 10hr15min.

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Beijing Airport Air Macau A321

The rather sassy safety video played as we taxied to the runway, and at around 12:15AM we were airborne from Runway 1.

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Ethiopian 787 safety video

Interestingly, during takeoff there was one pilot in row four. This flight had three pilots, so while it’s normal for two pilots to fly alone, at most airlines all the “working” pilots will be in the cockpit during takeoff and landing (again, doesn’t make a difference, but found it to be interesting).

Once we passed through about 10,000 feet a second pilot came into the cabin as well. Hmmm, now this is getting interesting…

Shortly thereafter the first officer (by my math, the only person in the cockpit at this point) made his welcome aboard announcement, informing us that we were “maintaining our assigned altitude,” as if that’s supposed to come as a surprise. 😉

As we continued climbing out I started to play around with the entertainment system.

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Ethiopian business class entertainment system 787

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Ethiopian business class entertainment system 787

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Ethiopian business class airshow 787

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Ethiopian business class airshow 787

About 30 minutes after takeoff the service began, starting with hot towels, and then beverages. I should note that I love the way the flight attendants were dressed, especially the one flight attendant dressed differently from everyone else.

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Ethiopian business class service

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Ethiopian business class hot towel

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Ethiopian business class pre-dinner drink

After that the meal service began. The dinner menu read as follows:

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Since this was a late night flight, both the appetizer and main course were served on one tray, and there wasn’t an Ethiopian appetizer course, as there is on other flights, as far as I know.

Service was done from a cart, and consisted of a salad (labeled as “hot snack”) and then shrimp or beef.

I selected the shrimp, while Andrew selected the beef.

The shrimp dish was actually fairly decent. It wasn’t gourmet, but my catering experiences out of Beijing are horrible, so by comparison I thought this was quite good.

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Ethiopian business class dinner

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Ethiopian business class fresh seasonal salad

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Ethiopian business class sauteed prawns

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Ethiopian business class sliced beef

After that dessert was served, which consisted of cheesecake or strawberry mousse. Andrew went with the former, while I went with the latter. It was perfectly edible, though nothing amazing.

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Ethiopian business class cheesecake

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Ethiopian business class strawberry mousse

While Ethiopian doesn’t serve specialty coffees in business class, they did have a very drinkable Ethiopian coffee blend (as much as it kills me to drink anything made with airplane water to begin with, let alone water loaded in Beijing).

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Ethiopian business class coffee

After dinner, water bottles were distributed.

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Ethiopian business class bottled water

After dinner I tried to nap for a bit. Despite having gotten very little sleep the night before I couldn’t sleep, for whatever reason. After a couple of hours I gave up and decided to browse the entertainment selection.

The selection was decent – not comparable to what Cathay Pacific, Singapore, etc., offer – but also not horrible.

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Ethiopian business class entertainment system 787

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Ethiopian business class entertainment system 787

I ended up watching a couple of episodes of The Mentalist, which I love.

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Ethiopian business class entertainment system 787

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Ethiopian business class entertainment system 787

And then listened to Taylor Swift music, as any self respecting 20-something year old male would do, of course.

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Ethiopian business class entertainment system 787

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Ethiopian business class airshow 787

After a few hours I was in the mood to eat something, though to my surprise they don’t have any sort of a snack menu or snack cart on a 10+ hour flight.

Instead they did have some snack mix (which in retrospect I think they were supposed to serve after takeoff with drinks, but didn’t). Between meals the crew never really appeared in the cabin to see if anyone wanted anything, though they quickly appeared once I pushed the call button.

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Ethiopian business class snack

The other interesting thing worth noting is that the bathrooms didn’t have any paper towels, but rather only Kleenex. Odd.

After exhausting the entertainment selection which interested me, I decided to get some work done on my laptop.

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Ethiopian 787 business class cabin view

About two hours before landing the meal service began, starting with hot towels.

The breakfast menu read as follows:

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Breakfast was served on one tray, and consisted of fruit, yogurt, croissants, and the choice between pancakes or an egg dish. I selected the egg dish, while Andrew had pancakes.

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Ethiopian business class breakfast

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Ethiopian business class cheddar cheese omelette

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Ethiopian business class pancakes

I again had some coffee with breakfast.

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Ethiopian business class coffee

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Ethiopian business class airshow 787

As breakfast was finishing up we were going from the Middle East to Africa, flying directly over Djibouti.

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Ethiopian business class airshow 787

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Ethiopian business class airshow 787

About 30 minutes out we began our descent, and we touched down in Addis Ababa at 5:40AM. We had a 10 minute taxi to the gate, where we arrived at 5:50AM — over an hour ahead of schedule.

After being mostly disconnected in China due to the Wi-Fi speed, I was hoping for a stable internet connection so that I could actually get caught up on work.

Ethiopian Airlines business class bottom line

All things considered I was actually pleasantly surprised by Ethiopian. The plane was in great condition (as you’d hopefully expect from a brand new 787) and the food was edible. The service was nice enough though could have been a bit warmer, in my opinion.

I still think it’s a big mistake to install angled flat business class seats on a brand new plane, but compared to the 767 we were connecting to, they were basically heaven, so I guess I should keep that in perspective.

Conversations (25)
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  1. Andrea Scarinci Guest

    I tried the ET 787 in J-class yesterday from Lome to São Paulo. The service seems to have improved. They have more meal options and news sets of cutlery, plates etc. The Ethiopian option was served in addition to the main dish. The crew was extremely nice. The plane, however, is starting to look a bit worn (yes even on a 787 lol).

  2. Nitin Mirani Guest

    Thank u so much...for the review...we are supposed to be flying ethopian airlines business class to congo.

  3. Guni Guest

    So, did you like 1989?

  4. David Guest

    Ethiopian now has flat beds on its 787s. They must have heard you...
    https://onemileatatime.com/ethiopian-airlines-787-new-fully-flat-business-class/

  5. ChetTheJet Guest

    Those pecs need some serious pumping up!

  6. john Guest

    It appears the windows on the 787 are somewhat larger than other aircraft. Were you able to control the tinting so you could leave them open and watch IFE? The flight path looks like it went over Somalia, Yemen, and Pakistan and close to Afghanistan. After MH17 people will pay more attention to the airshow displays and wonder what is going on beneath them.

    1. lucky OMAAT

      @ john -- Unlike on LOT, this 787 had window blinds, so you could pull them up or down.

  7. Greg Guest

    As always, a great and comprehensive review.

    Angle flat seats? There are a few airlines that fly the 787 with those. Do you find the 787 on most airlines does not offer as luxurious of an experience. I see you are in no rush trying to fly all the 787 airlines (compared to your quest to fly all the a380's)

    It would be interesting to see a review of the 787 flights that you have done to dates, together in one review.

  8. In-Flight With Peter Guest

    Perhaps the shirtless guy got the inspiration from your account of taking off your pants in the LGA AAdmirals Club? :P

  9. James Guest

    The lack of overhead bins is due to the crew rest area above. It's the same on other 787 (Norwegian's for example; see my TR on FT).
    One question; on your pic the pillow and the blanket are not packed in plastic. Were they when you arrived? If not that's the reason for it being scratchy... As most chinese airlines; I guess Ethiopian does not wash the blankets between flights...

    1. lucky OMAAT

      @ James -- Nope, wasn't packaged.

  10. FBKSan Guest

    Lucky, would love to hear if you figure out that boarding music. Assuming it's the same, I really liked it, too. I think it's by Mulatu Astatke‬, but I can't for the life of me find the track name.

  11. Robsterny New Member

    Looks similar to the Kenya Airways 787 I just reviewed except KQ has a flat bed: http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/trip-reports/1597724-kenya-airways-787-dreamliner-review-kq113-cdg-nbo.html

  12. SINJim Member

    Lucky, I wonder if the lack of centre overhead bins at the front of the cabin was due to the optional 787 pilot crew rest area? http://www.ausbt.com.au/cool-photos-inside-the-boeing-787-s-funky-crew-rest-loft

    If true, it is more intriguing that the crew chose to rest in the cabin. Giving them benefit of the doubt, perhaps the cabin pilots were dead-heading and there were another two on duty pilots in the bunks. Unlikely, I know.

  13. Francisco C Guest

    Thank you for the informative trip report. I think I'd prefer economy class on a better airline and ambien, and save some miles. Interesting

  14. Alvin | Hong Kong Airline News Guest

    "but compared to the 767 we were connecting to, they were basically heaven"

    At least you got to retreat into the comfort of an ET 767 (as opposed to a Dash Q400...that would make a nice review).

  15. Guillermo Guest

    Great and thorough review as always! Thank you.

    I wonder, did you find anything different in the 787 experience in comparison to other aircraft? Such as the air humidity (as advertised by Boeing) or the cabin noise?

    1. lucky OMAAT

      @ Guillermo -- Was actually looking for that, but can't say I noticed a real difference.

  16. TravelinWilly Diamond

    Ethiopian service has always been lackluster in business class, and they really don't compete with the majors in hardware, either (pending BA's and AF's business class upgrades to fully flat horizontal seats). The only attraction I see is that they price their flights out lower than the competition, however for those who are less price conscious ET won't ever merit consideration, either via points or cash, unless someone had to go to a place that only ET services.

  17. Mark Guest

    "I still think it’s a big mistake to install angled flat business class seats on a brand new HOTEL[??], but compared to the 767..."

    I think you're still a little jetlagged. ;-)

    Great review, as always.

  18. Alejandro New Member

    Good report, thanks Lucky! Just wanted to point out that you have " flat business class seats on a brand new hotel, but", I think you mean plane, not hotel! Trust me I'm no English major either. Can't wait to hear your thoughts on La Compagnie!

    1. lucky OMAAT

      @ Alejandro -- Whoops, nice catch. Fixed, thanks.

  19. CL New Member

    Nice doesn't seem too bad although that color scheme really hurts my eyes - I feel like I'm staring at lecture notes written only in highlighter --- ouch!

Featured Comments Most helpful comments ( as chosen by the OMAAT community ).

The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Andrea Scarinci Guest

I tried the ET 787 in J-class yesterday from Lome to São Paulo. The service seems to have improved. They have more meal options and news sets of cutlery, plates etc. The Ethiopian option was served in addition to the main dish. The crew was extremely nice. The plane, however, is starting to look a bit worn (yes even on a 787 lol).

0
Nitin Mirani Guest

Thank u so much...for the review...we are supposed to be flying ethopian airlines business class to congo.

0
Guni Guest

So, did you like 1989?

0
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