Welcome to my next trip report, which will recount my springtime trip to Ethiopia, with flights on United Airlines and Ethiopian Airlines and a unique experience in two Ethiopian cities.
Ethiopia Trip Report
For this trip, I booked the following ticket on United Airlines for a cost of $2,634.50:
- Los Angeles – London on United Airlines – premium economy (upgraded to business class)
- London – Addis Ababa on Ethiopian Airlines – economy (upgraded to business class)
- Addis Ababa- Frankfurt on Ethiopian Airlines – economy
- Frankfurt – Chicago on United Airlines – economy (upgraded to business class)
- Chicago – Los Angeles on United Airlines – economy (upgraded to business class)
I purchased a premium economy seat from Los Angeles to London to increase my chances of my upgrade clearing, leaving on Easter Sunday. My upgrade cleared into business class about a week prior to travel. On the Frankfurt – Chicago flight, my upgrade cleared immediately from economy to business class. My Chicago – Los Angeles flight was operated by a 777-200 in the “high-density” configuration, so I paid $299 to instantly confirm the upgrade on that flight, knowing it otherwise would not clear.
The Ethiopian segments were booked into economy class, but Providence smiled on us at London and we were op-upped to business class (which is quite a story in itself). We landed in London in the late morning and spent the entire day in Terminal 2, visiting various lounges.
The purpose of the trip was a church-related…I’ll say more about that in a separate post, but it wasn’t a Habitat For Humanity type trip, but one aimed at equipping pastors with resources to minister to their congregations.
Most of the trip was spent in Hawassa, a city in the Great Rift Valley of central Ethiopia.
I did spend a night at the end of the trip in Addis Ababa and finally got to properly explore the city (and also got pickpocketed…)
Ethiopia is known for its coffee and there was also a lot of great coffee on this trip, though the fellowship was even sweeter.
Here are the segments for this report:
- United Airlines 787-9 Business Class Los Angeles – London
- United Club London (LHR)
- Lufthansa Lounge London (LHR)
- My Op-Up To Business Class On Ethiopian Airlines
- Ethiopian Airlines A350-900 Business Class London – Addis Ababa
- A Customs Mess In Addis Ababa
- Ethiopian Airlines Domestic Lounge Addis Ababa (ADD)
- Ethiopian Airlines Q400 Economy Class Addis Ababa – Hawassa
- Haile Resort Hawassa
- Great Coffee In Hawassa, Ethiopia
- Photo Essay: Hawassa, Ethiopia
- What I Actually Did For Five Days In Hawassa, Ethiopia
- Ethiopian Airlines 737-800 Economy Class Hawassa – Addis Ababa
- I Got Pickpocketed In Addis Ababa!
- Red Terror Martyrs Memorial Museum Addis Ababa
- Adwa Victory Memorial Museum Addis Ababa
- Plaza Premium Lounge Addis Ababa (ADD)
- Ethiopian Airlines Star Gold Lounge Addis Ababa (ADD)
- Ethiopian Airlines A350-900 Economy Class Addis Ababa – Frankfurt
- A German Breakfast In Luthansa Lounge Frankfurt
- United Airlines 787-10 Business Class Frankfurt – Chicago
- United Airlines 777-200 Business Class Chicago – Los Angeles
- Ugh: I Left My Laptop On United Airlines Flight…
This will be a fun trip report. Let me know if you have any questions along the way.
I love Ethiopia. My mother was born there, and my grandfather lived there for nearly 50 years working for the World Bank and Ministry of Education.
I have so many fond memories of multiple childhood trips to Ethiopia, especially to Langano and Sodoray, and eating roadside roasted corn in Addis.
Looking forward to reading your trip report, and hoping to take my family there soon.
Looking forward to the full report!
Chuck Schumer is trying to make America like this place by starving poor black babies by not opening the government.
Imagine a mother not getting her 40% in cash at the bodega for her EBT to buy Newports, 40’s and crack along with some chips and soda for the kid.
What is Chuckles thinking?
Oof. Talk about tone deaf. Matt’s writing about his travel experiences in said country that you are mocking. Not cool, dawg.
You have to wonder why he visits this site at all when the majority of articles here seem to trigger him in some way where he goes off on some bigoted tangent of some kind.
Re: “You have to wonder why …”, probably because he has severe psychiatric and/or addiction problems. Maybe the same reason WHY a dog licks his balls (because he can ).
Douchebag Dave Edwards & Sch*tt Hsuan, proving with your every (too frequent) comments that your nicknames are absolutely accurate and completely deserved and that you have nothing better to do with your pathetic waste-of-oxygen lives than to post abhorrent and revolting comments here over and over again every single day. Thank you for confirming again that you and other MAGAs are stupid hateful racist cretins. Trolling or not, the extent and frequency of your comments are indicative of severe psychiatric and/or addiction problems. Your insults, undoubtedly projection, speak much more to your lack of character than to anyone you attack. You should crawl back under whatever rocks you crawled out from you SHPOSs.
Your comment doesn’t make any sense here and the travel post has nothing to do with your hateful message.
Before you leave thinking you are correct let’s set the record straight. Trump killed USAID, not Schumer. Trump gave $40 BILLION to Argentina, not to SNAP. And it wasn’t Schumer.
Sounds like you might have a case of FAFO.
Who shut down USAID? Not Schumer. Who gave $40 Billion to Argentina instead of to SNAP? Not Schumer.
The Lancet medical journal estimates 14 million preventable deaths will occur because of the lack of USAID. Of those 4.5 million will be children. Again, not Schumer.
And how come you failed to mention health care ? Conveniently left out ?
what did you lose when you got pickpocketed?
come to think of it, losing your phone while abroad would be darn near catastrophic…
I always leave a credit card and some cash hidden in my bag in the hotel just in case something like this happens.
But agree losing phone would be very tough
I’d like to know how you got all those upgrades to clear. These days it seems Business Class is almost always full, Even the option to pay for an upgrade seems rarer than hens teeth. Do you just have a trick for picking flights that aren’t full? I’m not a 1K these days, but I’m a Million Miler on United. Still doesn’t help…
what did you lose when you got pickpocketed?
Stay tuned…
I second John’s message.
How did you get all those upgrades?
Enquiring minds want to know.
@Wolde Ab + John:
On the way out, I paid like $1K extra for Premium Plus, which puts me ahead of everyone trying to upgrade from economy class. Turns out that probably was not necessary, but I wanted a lie-flat bed. For the return, I actaully booked a day later (Tuesday instead of Monday) because the Frankfurt – Chicago flight had PZ (confirmed upgrade) space, meaning I instantly cleared. I would have preferred to fly back via Dubai (DXB-EWR is a longer flight), but I took the PZ where I could find it.
As an aside, forget about domestic upgrades. Mine don’t clear, ever. If I want the front cabin, I buy it.
Agreed that there is no point waiting for domestic upgrades. Those flights I just buy.
But long-haul international you seem to do incredibly well. I always by premium economy seats, but still have had little luck with upgrades. And Lufthansa always tells me that they don’t allow upgrades from premium economy to business regardless of capacity or how much you’ve spent on your ticket.
I think you must be charmed…