| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) 10:35 - Jul 28 with 2597 views | aston_hoop |
As a well travelled bunch, has anyone here had the pleasure of travelling with Ethiopian Airlines? Doing a trip over to South Africa in October/November and they are looking as very much the cheapest option to get to Joburg via Addis Ababa. Obviously there must be a reason they are cheap but I'm not looking for massive luxury. I do however insist on arriving in South Africa alive. |  |
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| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:43 - Jul 28 with 2559 views | DevonWhite |
They're not the most luxurious (although not as bad as you might expect), but they are safe. |  | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:45 - Jul 28 with 2551 views | Monahoop |
Just updated their fleet to DC3's, so you should be fine. |  |
| There aint half been some clever bastards. |
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| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:50 - Jul 28 with 2533 views | willis1980 |
normally the stop overs on those flights to JHB are pretty long, we usually do the LDN - DUBAI - JHB with emirates if we want to save a little.
although once you fly to JHB direct you never want to do it with a stop over again, it takes about 10hrs direct whereas you often spend about 24hrs in the air and airports on the stop overs. | | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:53 - Jul 28 with 2519 views | aston_hoop |
Cheers all, One of the main draws, other than the price, of the Ethiopia flight is the short layover in Addis Ababa (1 hour 50 minutes) and I can fly on the Friday night after work. What's transiting at Addis Ababa like? | |
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| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:54 - Jul 28 with 2511 views | Isleworthranger |
I have used them from Cape Town to Addis Ababa and found them fine as to be honest as are most African Airlines
The downside is the stop over in Addis Ababa airport which is awful | | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:55 - Jul 28 with 2504 views | six_foot_two |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:50 - Jul 28 by willis1980 |
normally the stop overs on those flights to JHB are pretty long, we usually do the LDN - DUBAI - JHB with emirates if we want to save a little.
although once you fly to JHB direct you never want to do it with a stop over again, it takes about 10hrs direct whereas you often spend about 24hrs in the air and airports on the stop overs. |
Travelled recently the aircraft was dated and the food pretty rank, but is was the cheapest so I did expexct this. Addis Ababa was chaotic , a short stop over like you have I would go straight to the security gate as there is only one and its slow. |  | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 12:09 - Jul 28 with 2356 views | Gloucs_R |
Take your tablet full of films!! |  |
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| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 12:41 - Jul 28 with 2310 views | willis1980 |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 12:09 - Jul 28 by Gloucs_R |
Take your tablet full of films!! |
i went and got the sopranos box set and a portable dvd player for 50 quid from one of those CEX shops, that way you dont worry too much about the thing getting pinched | | | |
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| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 13:33 - Jul 28 with 2233 views | JAPRANGERS |
Just count the number of wings before you get on... |  | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 15:53 - Jul 28 with 2163 views | HantsR |
Traveled on them a few times some years ago and they were ok without being great although I was in Business class. Addis Ababa not so good an airport though.
If you have clear weather, Ethiopian mountains are spectacular - depending on route, you may continue on over Kenya/ Tanzania etc with Mt Kenya/ Kilimanjaro...? |  | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 16:37 - Jul 28 with 2126 views | collegeranger |
I think they have replaced alot of their intercontinental aircraft B787, B777 and Airbus. Also just joined Star Alliance so they meet a standard. More localised aircraft from Addis to Jo'Brg should be OK - wouldn't fly Addis to some other remote African cities and internal cities in Ethiopia. |  | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 16:46 - Jul 28 with 2105 views | kingsburyR |
Flown with them once.
Sat next to a goat. The camel in front of my blocked my view of the screen showing the movie. |  |
| Dont know why we bother. .... but we do! |
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| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 16:52 - Jul 28 with 2097 views | ganjR |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 16:37 - Jul 28 by collegeranger |
I think they have replaced alot of their intercontinental aircraft B787, B777 and Airbus. Also just joined Star Alliance so they meet a standard. More localised aircraft from Addis to Jo'Brg should be OK - wouldn't fly Addis to some other remote African cities and internal cities in Ethiopia. |
Please don't say that last bit....
I'm flying with them in September. London-Addis Ababa-Juba, although Egypt airlines may be an option (cheaper, stay the night in Cairo).
Really want to go to Ethiopia but obviously, a stop off in the airport isn't quite the same thing.
Have heard very mixed views about them, but a mate used them about a month ago and apart from the food being crap, they were apparently very decent.
Kenya airways however is an airline that I don't wish to use again, although suprisingly the short flights (Nairobi-Juba, and back again) felt alot safer.
Suprised the long haul plane was legal. I won't go into it now, but trust me when I say they were not pleasant experiences! |  | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 17:33 - Jul 28 with 2045 views | ted_hendrix |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:54 - Jul 28 by Isleworthranger |
I have used them from Cape Town to Addis Ababa and found them fine as to be honest as are most African Airlines
The downside is the stop over in Addis Ababa airport which is awful |
Talking of awful airports I'd rank Dhaka Airport in Bangladesh as the worst ever and Biman Bangladesh Airlines as the worst airline in the World. One horrific failed landing attempt at Kathmandu airport followed by two further aborted landing attempts in a beat up old rancid Boeing 737 with a blown exhaust convinced me to never again take cheap flights with carriers that I've never heard off. |  |
| My Father had a profound influence on me, he was a lunatic. |
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| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 18:07 - Jul 28 with 2021 views | SussexR |
As an aircraft engineer I can only say that I wouldn't fly on any African airline unless absolutely necessary, except South African Airways. And if I had too only on western built aircraft. | | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 06:52 - Jul 29 with 1896 views | facto |
cant see the inflight grub being up to much! | | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 08:13 - Jul 29 with 1865 views | RS44 |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 18:07 - Jul 28 by SussexR |
As an aircraft engineer I can only say that I wouldn't fly on any African airline unless absolutely necessary, except South African Airways. And if I had too only on western built aircraft. |
I make this man correct
Seen far too much to ever make me set foot on any African camel carrier.
The whole continent should be banned from flying anything other that paper planes.
The aircraft, the crew, the food, the airports they fly to.... All of it... Absolutely woeful |  | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 08:42 - Jul 29 with 1850 views | Metallica_Hoop |
Took 'Nationwide in SA and the plane ran out of power on the runway. They had to bring a generator. Believe me you don't realise how good the air on on a plane is until it fails.
luckily the pilot was ex-SA on his second last ever flight and was great.
The bloke in front stank so bad we started laughing which was good as my friend took her nails out of my arm  |  |
| Beer and Beef has made us what we are - The Prince Regent |
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| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:09 - Jul 29 with 1829 views | aston_hoop |
Thanks all. Think I'm going to go for it, it'll be an adventure if nothing else and then cross my fingers that Addis Ababa airport isn't as bad as it sounds! I'm sure South Africa will provide plenty of its own challenges when I get there anyway! | |
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| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:25 - Jul 29 with 1818 views | robith |
Flew them London to Dar Es Salaam, with a stop over in Addis.
However it turned out it went
London-Rome-Addis
3 hours in the awful Addis airport
Addis - Kilamanjaro - Dar oh no wait, a plane has stalled on Dar runway so we flew back to Kili, and sat on the run way for 3 hours then back to Dar. Where I had missed my flight to Zanzibar and also the last flight that day. EA had shut their office. So I'm 20, on my own and stuck in Dar Es Salaam. Arranged a cab to a hotel, which turned out to be in the middle of proper Conrad esque Heart of Darkness jungle. Arranged for them to come and pick me up in the morning to take me back for my 5am rearranged flight. My then gf who I was coming to visit was like "you didn't pay up front did you?". errrr
So i Stayed up all night trying to remember my way back to the motorway where I thought I would chance it to get back to the airpot. However bang on 4am they knocked on my door and had actually come back. So got my flight over to Zanzibar, and met my gf who I hadn't seen in 9 months. Who then promptly split up with me.
On the way home EA tried to bump me and I informed them in no uncertain terms, it would be the last thing they ever did.
That said, you haven't truly experience The Simpsons until you've seen it in the original Aramahic |  | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:30 - Jul 29 with 1806 views | eastside_r |
Just out of interest to the OP, how much are these flights.
BA fly direct at less than £500 each way. I always consider my flight as part of my holiday (presuming this is for leisure rather than business.)
Is it really worth the hassle and anxiety to save a few quid? |  | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:50 - Jul 29 with 1779 views | aston_hoop |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 10:30 - Jul 29 by eastside_r |
Just out of interest to the OP, how much are these flights.
BA fly direct at less than £500 each way. I always consider my flight as part of my holiday (presuming this is for leisure rather than business.)
Is it really worth the hassle and anxiety to save a few quid? |
For the choice of days I want to travel on, Ethiopian are around £350 while BA direct to Joburg are £1300-ish or £650 via Cape town. I'm flying back from Cape Town later on and have a much better choice of options (Qatar, Emirates etc. all good value). | |
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| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 11:08 - Jul 29 with 1764 views | Isleworthranger |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 08:13 - Jul 29 by RS44 |
I make this man correct
Seen far too much to ever make me set foot on any African camel carrier.
The whole continent should be banned from flying anything other that paper planes.
The aircraft, the crew, the food, the airports they fly to.... All of it... Absolutely woeful |
To be fair I found Kenya Airlines excellent when I flew to South Africa via Nairobi and the food and entertainment was great
The downside was waiting for the connection in Nairobi airport which is without doubt the worse I have ever been to or could do in the future
Full of United Nation African troops lying across any space on the floor and a hundred unofficial duty free shops which resembled an East End market
To cap it all off it is sweltering inside and when I ventured to the bar the staff had the fridge doors open and had their bare arses sitting on the bottles and cans | | | |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 12:31 - Jul 29 with 1723 views | TacticalR |
I asked my colleague at work who is married to an Ethiopian woman...they use Ethiopian Airlines all the time and have never had a problem. |  |
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| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 15:37 - Jul 29 with 1679 views | ganjR |
| Ethiopian Airlines (Non QPR obviously!) on 11:08 - Jul 29 by Isleworthranger |
To be fair I found Kenya Airlines excellent when I flew to South Africa via Nairobi and the food and entertainment was great
The downside was waiting for the connection in Nairobi airport which is without doubt the worse I have ever been to or could do in the future
Full of United Nation African troops lying across any space on the floor and a hundred unofficial duty free shops which resembled an East End market
To cap it all off it is sweltering inside and when I ventured to the bar the staff had the fridge doors open and had their bare arses sitting on the bottles and cans |
It's funny how different people's experiences are.
Kenyatta airport was good I thought. They've obviously improved it after the fire they had there.
On my way to Juba, I thought it was crap as we were all just ushered into a waiting room with an old tv blasting out the Kenyan version of cbeebies, which after a long haul night flight in a plane that had rude staff,none of the TV's worked, seats falling apart, nasty food and broken safety seals was annoying.
On the way back (5 hour wait) it was cool. The restaurant was nice with nice staff. Got the waitresses number, shops were decent. Got 3 dudes numbers and going out with them and some mates next time I go to Nairobi to see my best mates little daughter and family, and met the Burundi national football team.
Kenya airways though were very poor IMO.
As for dodgy African airports, I hear Addis is decent now, try Juba airport! It was chaos and about 40 degrees at 9 in the morning!
Survival of the fittest! | | | |
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