I flew with Ethiopian Airlines when SAA dropped us and we were stranded in Jhb Intl. Initially I was a bit reluctant, but after the experience all I can say is thumbs up to EA! Friendly service from the hosties and hosts, good food and a pleasant flight overall.
An unusual occurrence happened. While my hand luggage was checked, in transit from Addis, my jacket went through the x-ray scanner. In the process my wallet fell out in the machine. I did not realise this.
While sitting on the aircraft waiting for departure a single employee of EA came up to me and asked me for my boarding pass. Reluctantly I handed it to him, thinking I was going to be harassed as nearly standard practice with SAA crews.
To my surprise he handed me my wallet. With a friendly "have a nice flight sir", and he was off before I could even thank him properly.
I checked my wallet and the US$ 900, 200 Euros cash and 2 credit cards and several other notes were untouched, and nothing was missing!!
So not just was I impressed with their service, but also their honesty and integrity.
They are getting a couple of new Airbus Aircraft soon, and even if the country might be poor and apparently not much of a tourist destination, the stop over in Addis Ababa was good, the beer cold and the people friendly and helpful and the flights were comfortable and pleasant.
Maybe our national carrier SAA can learn something from our smaller neighbours and their carriers about honesty and integrity and just plain and simple offering of good service in general.
So if this says anything about airline and their ethics, maybe it isn’t such a bad place to work for.
