Ethiopian Airlines Business Class To London: My Experience

For the second to last segment of my quick trip to Paris and Cairo, I flew Ethiopian Airlines’ A350-900 business class on the 7hr35min flight from Addis Ababa (ADD) to London (LHR). I won’t be reviewing this flight in full, but did want to share some thoughts on the experience.

Why I’m not fully reviewing my Ethiopian flight

This is my full trip report series (rather than my initial impressions post that I publish during my trips), so why am I not reviewing this flight in full? Well, in a previous installment, I reviewed my Ethiopian A350 business class flight from Cairo to Addis Ababa.

Long story short, so many of the things about the flights were the same — my flights were operated by exactly the same aircraft (like, not just the same type of plane, but the same tail number), and the menus were even very similar. So there’s no point in basically writing the same thing over.

It wasn’t supposed to be that way — initially my itinerary was supposed to be operated by a Boeing 787-9 on the first segment and an Airbus A350-1000 on the second segment. But Ethiopian is notorious for plane swaps, and both of my flights got swapped to the A350-900. So in this post, I just want to hit on a few key takeaways from this experience.

Even London isn’t safe from Ethiopian plane swaps

Ethiopian Airlines plane swaps tend to happen in one of two ways:

• On regional flights (where the crew works the outbound and inbound flight as a turn), it’s common to see complete changes to equipment, like a 737 being swapped for a 777, a 787 being swapped for an A350, etc.
• On long haul flights (where the crew has a layover), you may find swaps between specific configurations, but less so between aircraft types; maybe you’ll go from an A350-1000 to an A350-900, or maybe you’ll go from an A350-900 with one cabin layout, to an A350-900 with another type of cabin layout

Ethiopian has a variety of business class seats, and London Heathrow is supposed to be one of the destinations to which the airline most consistently offers its A350 business class with direct aisle access. However, even that isn’t very consistent.

Instead of getting the 1-2-1 configuration I was hoping for, the airline instead had the 2-2-2 business class configuration on this flight. Ironically, the A350-900 with the better configuration flew to London Gatwick, which is ostensibly a less premium destination (at least as far as virtually any airline is concerned), and which typically doesn’t get that better layout.

Ethiopian’s incremental long haul amenities

On my flight from Cairo to Addis Ababa, I was impressed that a full set of bedding was offered, along with headphones.

So, what was different on this longer route? Well, each business class passenger was also given an amenity kit.

On top of that, business class passengers were provided free Wi-Fi. Oddly this came in the form of a little code written on a fortune cookie sized piece of paper. Don’t get me wrong, I’m delighted the airline offers free Wi-Fi, but is this really the way the airline officially goes about it? Like, crews are instructed to rip up pieces of paper and handwrite the codes?

Ethiopian’s food selection is fine but boring

My flight was departing at 1:35AM and arriving at 6:35AM, so I was curious to see what inflight service would be like. Admittedly flights timed like this can be tricky, since many passengers want to maximize their rest. At the same time, a vast majority of Ethiopian passengers are connecting, and many have body clocks on different schedules.

I hadn’t flown Ethiopian business class in about a decade, but one thing I fondly remember from my last flight is the delicious Ethiopian food that was served. Well, unfortunately there was none of that on this flight.

After takeoff, there was a light snack service, which just felt kind of random to me. You had everything from “Mexican” chicken soup, to calzones, to salads. There was nothing even remotely Ethiopian on the menu.

I decided to order the celery cauliflower soup and vegetable calzone, and had a negroni to drink. I was impressed that the negroni was a drink on the menu, though the execution left a bit to be desired.

At the conclusion of the meal, the flight attendant just proactively brought me all the dessert options, heh. This included a cheese plate, fruit, and two small cake slices.

Around 90 minutes before landing, breakfast was served, and you can find the menu below.

Since I had ful medames on the previous flight, I decided to go for a more western option this time around, and chose what was described as “chives baked egg with beef sausage, broccoli, and hash brown.” I don’t think that’s exactly what I got. Instead I got little egg bites with salsa, potatoes, and sausage. This was served with a side of cereal, fruit, and a croissant, plus some coffee.

I believe Ethiopian only has the full Ethiopian dining experience on either ultra long haul flights, or those that operate during the day.

Bottom line

Ultimately I was disappointed by my Ethiopian Airlines plane swap, but that’s mostly me speaking as someone who reviews airlines and likes to try different products, rather than there being anything wrong with the flight as such. Even though I know that Ethiopian tries to prioritize its best business class product on the London route, that doesn’t always happen.

The flight was totally fine — it wasn’t great, and it wasn’t terrible either. The crew was well intentioned and friendly, and the meal service was efficient, though not terribly inspiring otherwise. Obviously I intentionally kept this short, so for more details, see my full review of Ethiopian’s A350 business class on the previous flight.

What’s your take on Ethiopian Airlines’ service on an overnight flight like this?