Review, Ethiopian Airlines, Milan-Addis Abeba / Business Class
Paul‘s Flight Report
Flight: ET739
MXP-ADD / Boeing 777-200 LR
Flight Time: 6 hours 5 minutes
General Impression: 
Before the Flight :
Check-in Process:
Security Control :
Lounge: 
Information:
Boarding @ Gate:
Staff @ these points:
Boarding in Cabin:
Welcome Drinks:
Punctuality:, 11 min delay
, 11 min delay
During the Flight :
Food presentation:
Food quality:
Drinks:
Service Procedure:
Amenity Kit:
Entertainment System:
Seat Quality:
Legroom:
Lavatories:
Cleanliness:
General Atmosphere:
Announcement Pilots:
Announcement Cabin:
Cabin Crew:
After the Flight :
De-Boarding:
Baggage Delivery: In Transit
—-
= bad, a lot of work needs to be done
= poor, you will be busy with corrections
= good & normal, nothing special
= high level, but the icing on the cake is missing
= topnotch, leave me here!
= Half a Point/sheep
—-
On the Ground:
We arrived at Milan Malpensa Airport with a flight on a different PNR 6 hours in advance of our flight.
Luckily the check-in of Ethiopian Airlines in Milan opened 4,5 hours!!! ahead of the departure time.
There was no queue at check-in and the agent was super friendly and super efficient. Check in was done in a breeze and no time.
Thanks to our Business Class ticket we were able to use the priority lane of the security. There was no queue at the Security Checkpoint. Thanks to new scanners nothing had to be removed from the bags. Agents were friendly and efficient.
Once through security and emigration, which could be done at self scanning machines we made our way to the Montale VIP Lounge which is contracted from Ethiopian.
The lounge is quite big in size and there was plenty of seating space.
The lounge is modern and is divided in many different areas.
The lounge offers soft drink and coffee stations. As far as alcoholic beverages goes, only beer and wine were offered.
Food wise they offered some salad, salty snacks, sandwiches and bites as well as a soup and a rice dish.
All in all a good business class lounge experience.
As the aircraft was parked on a open position, we had a bus gate. Boarding started 50 minutes prior departure.
Priority boarding was conducted according procedures but at the end it did not matter as we mixed up in the bus.
Staff at the gate was okay but otherwise nothing special.
At the aircraft door we were greeted by the senior cabin crew member.
The crew was very friendly at the door and was very present in the cabin whilst boarding.
Very soon after boarding they distributed hot towels and then passed with the welcome drink, consisting of orange juice and champagne.
The seats were already equipped with headphones and amenity kits. Soon the crew then passed with the menu cards and also asked for the choice of main and drinks before take off.
On every seat there was also a fluffy pillow and a nice blanket.
Inflight:
The Ethiopian Airlines business class on this Boeing 777-200 was suuuper old.
The seats are okay but the seating layout is from stone age. The 777-200 has a total of 28 business class seats in a 2-3-2 configuration and all seats are fully lieflat.
The middle seats with 3 seats are rather tight and this product nowadays is a better premium economy product than business class. The only positiv on the 3 seats is that they are fully
lieflat.
Unfortunately the seats also do not have sufficient storage space.
You have to stow everything either in the overhead bins or on the middle armrest between the seats.
The seat worked perfectly fine on this flight.
After take off the cabin crew set up the table and started with the service.
The main meal consisted of an appetizer, main meal, a salad and to finish of the offered cheese and a dessert.
There was no tray service. First the served the appetizer, the salad as well as some bread and butter. Once the appetizer was finished they cleared and served the mains. Then they came with
the cheese and dessert trolley.
They also asked several times for drink refills.
Presentation of the food was good and the quality of the food was very nice. Portions of food are on the bigger side and almost to big especially for the time of the day.
A quick hot meal on a tray would have been much nicer instead of a dinner service.
Prior to landing in Addis Abeba a drink, tea or coffee was offered.
The cabin crew on this flight was good. They were super present in the cabin but unfortunately did not interact much with the passengers.
They did their job nice and professional but without care, passion and class. They often forgot to serve items or brought the wrong things.
A little bit more attention to details and interaction would be nice.
Bathrooms were checked throughout the flight and always refilled. They were always clean.
The amenity kit is good and offers the regular content such as socks, toothbrush, eye mask, ear plugs, a cromb as well as a pencil.
The inflight entertainment on this Boeing 777 is simply crap.
The Screens are to small and far away from the seats. Resolution is from 1999 and the handheld did not work and also the touch screen needed to be hammered on to be able to choose something.
The aircraft is not equipped with wifi.
Announcements on this flight were simply said a disaster. You could not understand a single word from the cabin crew not from the flight deck.
The volume was way to low and the speed and pronunciation were bad. Actually it was just a rushing sound.
So now let's see how the transit procedure works in Addis Abeba. Stay tuned.
Our summary:
A very old business class hard product. A 2-3-2 seat abrest is not standard anymore and the IFE would need an urgent update as well. Otherwise and okay seat with and good business class food
& beverage product.
The crew was okay but nothing to remember or say wow.
Let's see how our flight to Johannesburg goes on a new Airbus A350.
Notes:
- Paul the Sheep does not get any benefits from the Hotels/Airlines etc.
- Paul will always pay for the services in order to be able to rate freely and truly about the experiences.
-If you are interested in more details, please send me a private message and I will be happy to share