How to Change Date on Ethiopian Airlines Flight Ticket
Africa — it’s not exactly a place where one can stick to a schedule or have firm plans. And that’s usually fine. As they say in Swahili, “pole, pole” — slow, slow, take it easy. Years ago some friends and I were traveling from Victoria Falls to Hwange National Park in Zimbabwe when the bus stopped in the little town of Dete to drop off passengers. We saw a treehouse lodge. We had already paid for reservations at a lodge inside the park, but staying in a treehouse? Very cool. So we quickly hopped off the bus. The lodge was actually closed for a few weeks because of feared election violence, but we found the manager and he agreed to open it just for us. He got the treehouses ready. He found a cook for us. He took us on game drives. Hearing elephants heading to the watering hole practically underneath the treehouses in the middle of the night was amazing.
But for all of the flexibility that dominates life in Africa, a major airline there must operate differently, right? Especially the national carrier of the world’s most populous landlocked nation and a member of the Star Alliance, a group of airlines that includes United, Lufthansa, Air New Zealand and Singapore Air? Ethiopian Airlines is the carrier in question. And as I learned, one must be careful with assumptions.
When heading to Ethiopia this month on a National Geographic expedition, I had a lot of options as to carriers and routing. I chose to book a business class ticket from Los Angeles to Muscat, Oman on Lufthansa and then an economy class ticket from Muscat to Addis Ababa, Ethiopia on Ethiopian Airlines. It was the best travel/seat option for the best price. And because of the timing of the flights, I would have a day and a half in Oman on the way home — a chance to see a new country. I booked a hotel there for two nights and a full-day tour of Wadi Shab and Muscat.
Ah, but the best was yet to come. My rebooked flight from Addis to LA was scheduled to depart at 11:59pm on September 27th — the first leg being on Ethiopian Air to Frankfurt. Ethiopian changed the departure to 12:10am on September 28th. No problem — it’s only 11 minutes later. But when I arrived at the airport to check in, I was told that I had been booked on the flight 24 hours earlier and therefore missed my flight! Yes, they changed their departure from late on the 27th to early on the 28th, but their system left me on the 27th — at 12:10am that morning. Nice! Luckily I had a copy of my reservation (from the amazing folks at Cranky Concierge) showing that I was definitely scheduled on their flight arriving into Frankfurt at 6am on the 28th. After roughly 20 minutes they agreed to rebook me (!) on that night’s flight, and all went smoothly after that.
