‘Why Ethiopian?'
and I immediately knew why she
asked. I heard the gory stories too; from plane seats that had tear marks from
wear to aircrafts that made a wiggling sound just as you take off and the food;
horrible awful food. In the end of what was a long conversation, she said 'please
leave Ethiopian airlines out of it'. It was at this point I made up my mind to
fly Ethiopian, experience it for myself, see if there was any truth to all the
rumors I had heard.
The rumors began to prove true a good eight hours before my
flight; I tried to check in online and save myself the hassles of airport
queues, but no, the Ethiopian airlines web site kept popping up an error
message whenever I entered my flight details. This was the only time during my
experience with the airline that I wished I had taken my sisters advice.
The airline was nothing like the stories I had heard: we flew in
a very generous Boeing 787. There was very adequate leg room such that I could
stretch and even cross my legs without inconveniencing the person who sat in
front of me. The inflight entertainment was spectacular; the lineup had so many
recent movies that I was spoilt for choice, I eventually settled for Hercules
and Invictus only because I hadn't seen both of them. The music too; really
nice.
None of the warnings people gave me of Bole International
Airport were correct, to my mind it is a very decent looking airport with its
expanse of glass and very high ceilings, everything about it I liked, except of
course the bathrooms which were usually packed full and had wet floors. This is
easily explainable though, it is mostly caused by people performing ablution in
non designated areas. I used the Sheba Miles lounge and I was impressed, I had
coffee, wifi and was comfortable enough to catch up on sleep. My 5 hour layover
was an experience in itself.
The food on board was delicious, better than most bigger, more
expensive airlines. I was served an assortment of long grained rice and really
tender chicken, a bread bun with butter and cheese to compliment it, a generous
bowl of fruit salad with berries and papaya and mango, and a vegetable salad
mainly of beans, carrots, peas. All was really nice.
Most airline related complaints are of air hostesses, but that
wasn't my experience; I did get upset a couple of times when I pressed the call
button and no one answered, but after a few minutes a hostess came by with
apologies, a complimentary gift bag from first class and promised to constantly
refill my paper cup with fruit juice as compensation.
Adejoh Momoh (momoh.adejoh@gmail.com) can be followed on twitter @adejoh
