A travel nighmare - twice over. . .
Toufic Beyhum writes:
Over Christmas, I booked tickets to Egypt on Ethiopian Airlines for myself and my family (my wife and 3 children, aged 3 to 8), flying from Windhoek. We flew on the 10th of December 2017 in what was meant to be a direct flight to Addis with a short connection before heading on to Cairo.
When we boarded the flight, the pilot announced that we would be stopping at Kilimanjaro. Everyone on the plane looked confused, including the air hostesses. We started stressing that we would miss our connecting flight to Cairo but were placated by the air hostess who said that the plane to Cairo would wait for us.
After a short stop in Kilimanjaro, we arrived at Addis at a chaotic airport where, of course, we missed the connecting flight by 15 minutes. The plane to Cairo did not wait for us.
The Ethiopian help desk was in chaos, completely disorganised and the staff were clueless and unhelpful. We were eventually booked onto an Egypt Air flight at 5 am and told to wait in a cold room where our children were not provided with blankets.
In the morning, we were told that we could not get on the Egypt Air flight (no reason given) and that we would be put in a hotel till the following evening for the next Ethiopian Airline flight to Cairo. We were given our boarding cards for that flight.
We had no access to our luggage so we arrived at the hotel with no clean clothes or toiletries. My children were exhausted and getting sick by that stage. We spent a day in Addis buying items like underwear and toiletries. Beyond that, the food at the hotel was disgusting, so we had to spend more money to eat at restaurants.
We also missed (and paid for) a 1-night stay at our Cairo hotel which Ethiopian Airlines are not willing to compensate us for. I have sent them the receipt.
The next evening, we went to board our flight to Cairo only to find that our names were not on the system! We had to make a big scene to get on that plane.
To add insult to injury, our return flight from Beirut to Windhoek nearly didn't happen too.
I tried several times to confirm our ticket in Beirut by calling the local office and no one picked up. When we got to the airport our names were once again not in the system! After a lot of stress, we managed to get on the plane and come home.
It was our first time flying Ethiopian Airlines and believe me it will be our last.
(Ethiopian Airlines was approached for comment but to date no response had been received. - Editor)
Over Christmas, I booked tickets to Egypt on Ethiopian Airlines for myself and my family (my wife and 3 children, aged 3 to 8), flying from Windhoek. We flew on the 10th of December 2017 in what was meant to be a direct flight to Addis with a short connection before heading on to Cairo.
When we boarded the flight, the pilot announced that we would be stopping at Kilimanjaro. Everyone on the plane looked confused, including the air hostesses. We started stressing that we would miss our connecting flight to Cairo but were placated by the air hostess who said that the plane to Cairo would wait for us.
After a short stop in Kilimanjaro, we arrived at Addis at a chaotic airport where, of course, we missed the connecting flight by 15 minutes. The plane to Cairo did not wait for us.
The Ethiopian help desk was in chaos, completely disorganised and the staff were clueless and unhelpful. We were eventually booked onto an Egypt Air flight at 5 am and told to wait in a cold room where our children were not provided with blankets.
In the morning, we were told that we could not get on the Egypt Air flight (no reason given) and that we would be put in a hotel till the following evening for the next Ethiopian Airline flight to Cairo. We were given our boarding cards for that flight.
We had no access to our luggage so we arrived at the hotel with no clean clothes or toiletries. My children were exhausted and getting sick by that stage. We spent a day in Addis buying items like underwear and toiletries. Beyond that, the food at the hotel was disgusting, so we had to spend more money to eat at restaurants.
We also missed (and paid for) a 1-night stay at our Cairo hotel which Ethiopian Airlines are not willing to compensate us for. I have sent them the receipt.
The next evening, we went to board our flight to Cairo only to find that our names were not on the system! We had to make a big scene to get on that plane.
To add insult to injury, our return flight from Beirut to Windhoek nearly didn't happen too.
I tried several times to confirm our ticket in Beirut by calling the local office and no one picked up. When we got to the airport our names were once again not in the system! After a lot of stress, we managed to get on the plane and come home.
It was our first time flying Ethiopian Airlines and believe me it will be our last.
(Ethiopian Airlines was approached for comment but to date no response had been received. - Editor)
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