Home > Ethiopian Airlines > Review

Taken January 2006 from Bangkok (Don Muang International Airport) - BKK to Guangzhou (Canton) (Baiyun) - CAN

We flew Ethiopian Airlines return trip from Bangkok to Guangzhou, China on holiday.

We had to take a connecting flight to Bangkok. Right up to boarding the flight to Bangkok I was on the tarmac at the foot of the steps on my cell phone and in panic, speaking to Ethiopian Airlines office in Bangkok.

The airline had given our seats away even though we had booked and confirmed the booking several days earlier: it took us three days of almost non-stop calling to get the phone answered at the Ethiopian Airlines office in Bangkok that first time.

As a result, when we finally spoke to the lady she gave us her name, excused herself that she was working ALONE in the front office and also having to take calls, and said as a result we would NOT need to phone again to reconfirm the ticket.

As it turned out, I decided to make double sure and tried calling the day before the flight, seeing as we had first to fly to Bangkok and it would be a disaster if our seats were not held in fact. I finally got through after calling all day, but whilst on the airport bus to the connecting flight aircraft itself. No, our reservation was not confirmed, and there were no seats available!

I explained the situation to the lady, a different one from before, and gave her the name of the first lady who had promised our seats would be held. On arrival at Bangkok after a very nervous flight where we were wondering if we would be stranded, I phoned her again. She said she had arranged something and we could fly.

With that final relief, our ordeal was not over. The check in at Bangkok took a long time, with large queues and language problems between passengers and staff. We took off about two hours late if my memory serves me correct, which also caused us difficulties at the other end where we had to take a taxi instead of public transport due to the late hour.

The flight itself was a real disappointment, my wife who has never flown on an African aircraft was unfortunately left with a very bad impression. The seats, headrests, fold out tables were very very dirty, with coffee or tea stains, used tissues, and grease from previous passengers. The flight had come from Ethiopia and obviously they had not cleaned up the seats. They could at least have given the table trays a wipe down, replaced the head rest papers, and removed tissues and plastic from previous meals stuffed into the pockets on the seats in front.

I called the steward, who said that he could do nothing as they were too busy on this short flight, but could we find another seat. There were a few other empty seats, not many, but also in the same messy condition, so we stayed put.

On the return trip, we had our little hand luggage and waited in line with a check in that took over an hour in the queue. Others in the queue, with the exception of two Chinese, had not hand luggage with them, but enormous BALES, sometimes even several. These are the types of things you would see people send by cargo, but these passengers were all sending them as checked in luggage!

This appears to be normal, as the Chinese airport staff had a special "packaging" machine to help tie up these big bales so they would not fall apart. The check in staff also found it normal. Clearly these are traders, but using unorthodox and one would think expensive means of sending their cargo.

On the aircraft itself, when we were finally on board (it left very late again, and had even disappeared off the television screen to be replaced by another plane), we had to struggle to get to our seats. The aircraft was full of these traders, all returning to Africa laden with goods which they had apparently "smuggled" onto the aircraft.

Ladies had numerous hand bags around their necks, all stuffed with items such as mobile phones. Around their necks, as many chains and other items as they could carry. Their pockets were stuffed, they wore large dresses over all of this so that they simply appeared as obese, whilst in reality they were of normal body size.

This is not one trader I'm talking of, but at least 50 doing the same thing. Men did not seem to be so laden, since they could not hide things under their dresses, but some were clearly part of a group which included all women. They proceeded to try and stuff these items, including over-sized cases that should not even make it to the aircraft as hand luggage, into the overhead lockers.

Needless to say, there was not enough space in all the lockers and many could not close. We felt pity for the cabin crew who were trying to arrange order out of chaos and simply had to give up. We were still taxiing to the runway and actually taking off before the last of the passengers had seated.

This was our experience as witnessed by myself and several others, including photographs we took in the cabin in bewilderment. In closing, let me say that although it would have been nice if the cabin crew had found time to at least hastily wipe down tables for new passenger, and clear away the rubbish, we pity the crew.

They are clearly overwhelmed, perhaps understaffed, and having very difficult passengers to contend with. The cabin crew are very smartly dressed, perhaps the nicest uniforms of any airline, very polite and gentle. I cannot fault or blame the cabin crew. But I recount this experience because I think unless you are a trader or smuggler looking to carry excess baggage on board, and are not looking for a comfortable and peaceful flight, you should not fly Ethiopian Airlines economy. I cannot speak for "Cloud Nine" which is the first class, nor did I check the price of those tickets. But it seems that economy class on other airlines would get a better overall value given that our experience does not seem to be unique, but a routine on this airline, at least on some of its routes.