Ethiopians ground and air staff are amazing; back office is another story

Our history with Ethiopian Airlines ***********************************

We have flown Ethiopian Airlines since 2015 when visiting Addis, Bahir Dar and Lalibela. We were especially impressed that one flight from Addis to Bahir Dar, when the plane was full, it left early! A first and only ever for air travel :-D We have since flown Ethiopian to India and to Barcelona, and perhaps other times, too (sorry, I cannot remember). My frequent flier # with them is ***.

Our praise for Ethiopian Airlines *********************************

Let us start by stating very firmly that on-the-ground and in-the-air staff of Ethiopian Airlines is on par with the best in the world: friendly and professional. We cannot emphasise this enough.

We can also say the same of the airport renovation in Addis: wow! While the connections may appear to be a bit tight, they always work! Even a 30 minute connection! And not a bag lost! After 4-8 hours common overlay at Doha and Abu Dabai, 1-1.5 hours means door to door. It's truly wonderful.

And going through Addis to Europe, with the short connections, means hours off overall travel time at affordable prices with great service. It's a no brainer!

This is why we keep flying Ethiopian.

Sure, the mobile app drives us crazy, and frequently has incorrect or incomplete data, it still kinda works. And the AI WhatsApp and email chatbots suck so bad! I mean it. They are truly useless for all but the most mundane of tasks.

I like buying tickets on the website because it's easy and I can compare options easily. We also like buying directly from the airline instead of an online or offline broker. but when we had to deal directly with back office sales and support, all of the Good Will built with many years went down a very bad path.

Our recent struggle with Ethiopian Airlines *******************************************

On our last trip, we flew from Cape Town to Barcelona via Addis and Rome. Midway through a 3-week rock climbing trip in Catalunya, my wife had an unlucky fall and fractured her heel on 7 Oct.

After the Spanish ER had put her in a hard slab on 8 Oct, an open cast meant to allow for swelling in order to reduce swelling, she was issued a Fit to Fly certificate.

We looked on the app to see how much it would cost to fly a week early: as much for one person to change as it cost for all 3 of us roundtrip! So we stuck it out another week, and it was suggested that we upgrade her to Business Class so she could put her foot up to reduce swelling. We couldn't figure out how to do that with the app. Either upgrade all of us or not at all. We asked chatGPT what to do, and it suggested the wording "split the ticket".

We quickly called Ethiopian Airlines via the Barcelona airport and eventually got through to Javier at the Madrid office and asked him to split the ticket so we could upgrade my wife's ticket. Javier sent through a link to a medical form which we filled out and returned. We got an automatic reference wf_*** then nothing. We wanted to purchase the upgrade because our insurance had agreed to pay for it.

On 11 Oct, frustrated as to why nothing came back, as we had wanted to purchase immediately, we forwarded the email with the filled form we had already submitted to Javier, someone named Chema who is apparently ***, and also management: ***, ***.

========================================================================================= From 11 Oct until 14 Oct we got not a single response until I did the following out of desperation:

I contacted a former Ethiopian PhD student of mine in Cape Town, who called a friend, who called a friend . . . until we got the WhatsApp number of someone named Meseret. The only time Chema would reply to us was when we texted Meseret first; which happened that day.

Chema told us two days before the flight home on 16 Oct that yes, we could upgrade my wife's ticket for 2000 euros and to please send credit card details. After confirming that our international travel insurance back home would cover it, I sent through the details and agreed to pay for the upgrade.

A few hours later, after I had to ping Meseret again to get Chema to reply, we were told sorry, that fare was no longer available and we had to pay 3000 euros! Horrors! =========================================================================================

I confirmed again that insurance would pay, and then told Chema we agreed. We felt taken hostage due to the pain and suffering of my wife's fracture; no matter that insurance would eventually reimburse us for the upgrade (which they still, haven't by the way, a month later - see our HelloPeter post on Discovery Health).

Chema at Ethiopian Airlines issued the upgraded ticket the day before the flight home, *a full week after* we had first asked to do the upgrade. We find this unacceptable and are not sure whether we will fly Ethiopian Airlines again despite all the wonderful service we have had since 2015 until this single incident.

Needless to say, the flights home, all 3 of them, with wheelchair service at all 4 airports, including Business Class lounge access for my wife, was *fantastic* as usual; even better with escorts through security and immigration.

The main frustration/disappointment points were a) the long no-response times until we WhatsApp'd a manager whose number we obtained through our personal Ethiopian network; and b) the 2000 to 3000 euro price hike a week after we initially asked to upgrade.

Recommendations to improve service: - upgrade the WhatsApp and email bot AI to something useable for customers with breakout to a live agent. - your support staff must respond immediately; not at the prodding of a manager whose number we got through a personal network. - don't hold a passenger hostage to a price increase by creating and/or feigning delays. Can you see why we are so suspicious after waiting a week to upgrade a ticket, and then as soon as we are able to provide credit card details be confronted with a price hike? It came across as exploitative and manipulative; it could even be considered ******ion. - reprimand Chema for not being responsive; and Javier for not following up to issue the ticket when we first called and returned the medical form. - commend Meseret for getting us some joy. - as for ground and air staff, keep treating them as nicely as they treat us.

How to fix this with us? Issue us a proper public apology and refund us the 1000 euro price hike which we will then pass on to our insurance company when and if they reimburse us for the 3000. We agreed to the 2000 first; and then only agreed to the 3000 because we felt we had no choice under the circumstances. You would do it, too, if a similar accident happened to one of your family.

Bill and Lizanne

Ethiopian Airlines reference wf_***