Ethiopian Airways review by Rodrigo 2014-05-30

I had booked a flight from Kigali to Cairo on January 6 2014 with Ethiopian Airlines.
On arrival at the airport in Kigali I was told by airline staff that they could not find my name on the second leg of the trip(Addis Ababa – Cairo), and that they didn’t know whether the flight was full and I was not in it, or whether the flight had been cancelled.
I was told things would be solved in the stopover in Addis Ababa. On arrival at Addis Ababa I was told that the flight had a 24 hour re-schedule. So I could make my connections (Cairo to Tallinn with Turkish Airlines) they put me on a flight to Cairo through Khartoum.
The flight had an “unexpected stopover” in Ethiopia to re-fuel the plane, which caused me to be late to my connection in Khartoum.
In Khartoum my connection was in an Egypt Air flight (bought by Ethiopian Airlines).
I was denied boarding 5 flights altogether by Ethiopian Airlines that would have allowed me to make connections in Cairo. The Airline was not willing to pay for my ticket to get to Cairo. Each time a flight from Khartoum to Cairo was departing I was assured by Ethiopian Airlines ground staff that I would be on that flight. Each time I bought a ticket to connect from Cairo to Tallinn or Australia (my next destination after Europe). Because I kept on buying connecting flights from Cairo trying to match them to what Ethiopian Airlines staff were telling me (in which flights I was “definitely” going to be on), I ended up spending over US$3,000 in flights.
Ethiopian Airlines never paid for my flight from Khartoum to Cairo, its staff had to put money from their own pockets to pay for my ticket from Khartoum to Cairo.
Not only Ethiopian airlines did not take me to my final destination, they only offered a hotel after 10 hours of waiting in a small VIP lounge serving limited snacks. I spent 25 hours in Khartoum exceding the Country’s maximum stay without a visa (24 hours).
The airline responded after 4 months, saying they did nothing wrong.