Surprisingly Skytrax thinks the staff service at the New Spirit of Africa, Ethiopian Airlines is great. I respectfully and strongly disagree. I have some advice, please don’t ever try to call the Ethiopian Airlines reservation call center.
After thinking customer service could not get any worse from what I had experienced in Berlin last month after Eurowings, German Airlines, owned by Lufthansa lost my suitcase checked with United Airlines in Honolulu, there is another Star Alliance Carrier that is in its own league. I would give Ethiopian Airlines the top award for worst customer care in the aviation industry.
Here is why. Welcome to Ethiopian Airlines call center and customer service. The airline lists the following US toll-free number 800-445-2733 as their customer service and reservation phone number. Calling this number will connect you to the airlines call center in Addis Ababa.
I will be attending the WTTC summit in Buenos Aires later this month followed by the Arabian Travel Market in Dubai. I am holding a business class ticket. I purchased my Ethiopian airline ticket with United Airlines. I am booked on a flight from Buenos Aires via Addis Ababa to Dubai. Breaking up the long flight and experiencing a little sightseeing in Addis Ababa sounded interesting from a tourism perspective.
United Airlines could change my ticket to reflect a 20 hour stop in Ethiopia without charge, but the airline was unable to give me a clear response on transit visas on arrival.
Therefore my nice and helpful United Airlines 1K agent transferred me to their Star Alliance Partner Ethiopian Airlines. The United Airlines agent was very patient and kept me informed every 5 minutes that we are still holding for Ethiopian Airlines. After doing this for more than 10 times and about an hour later the United representative got back to me and said Ethiopian Airlines just disconnected the phone on her.
I thanked her for her effort and a day later tried to call Ethiopian Airlines myself. I pressed 2 for English and 2 for business class and listened to the ever repeating Ethiopian song over and over again for about an hour before I was also cut off. Strangely after I pressed the initial indication to tell the system I am a Gold Star Alliance member and are flying business class, the system told me there are ZERO in the Q and my wait would be 2 minutes or less. It did this every time I called.
I repeated this process at different times a day about 4 times and finally got an agent from Ethiopian Airlines on the phone who told me their computer system was down and to call back later. I was about to throw my I phone out of the car.
I tried for another 2 days before getting another agent and he had his computer system up and running. He told me Ethiopian Airlines had to arrange my transit visa. When I asked how this would work he put me on another 10-minute hold only to say I needed to call back another time.
Wow! Obviously, Ethiopia doesn’t want tourists but isn’t there a minimum standard for an airline to join and maintain a membership in Star Alliance. How does such customer service attitude reflect to safety and maintenance priorities of such an airline? I am actually looking for other options now to fly from Buenos Aires to Dubai. There is Emirates, but business class is three times as much on this Dubai based carried. I guess money talks, but better safe than sorry.
I am just wondering how Ethiopian Airlines was recognized in 2013 with the Skytrax staff service award? Perhaps Skytrax judging process may be worth to do some research on.
