Late at Night in the Land of Lions
A Sample Itinerary with Ethiopian Airlines
With Ethiopian, we practiced what we preached and booked a paper ticket using a human representative at the New York office. This required access to a fax machine for payment technicalities.
Reasonable fares are by and large because flights are scheduled at odd hours and can have extra stops. The first flight left DC at 8:30 pm on a Monday night, and the plane touched down in Rome on Tuesday morning. At 9 pm that night, we arrived in Addis Ababa. True to tradition, the flight to Kigali was scheduled to leave at 3 am Wednesday morning. A 6-hour layover unto itself is not abnormal, but factors to consider are jet lag and early hours.
EA makes an effort to compensate for its unusual flight patterns by offering hotel and food vouchers. For our layover, for example, a hotel voucher was offered, but we decided to remain in the airport with the meal voucher. In hindsight, this was a wise choice. Our fellow Rwanda passengers remarked that by the time they had to leave the airport, get on a bus, check in, and get back to the airport, they ended up with a about one hour of leisure time at the hotel. We kept busy pounding the marble pavement, as the cavernous international departures lounge had cafes, Internet access, and shops all of which were bustling at 2 am (see TRAVELOGUE).
The last leg of the journey was the flight from Addis to Kigali, which made a brief stop in Entebbe, Uganda. We were wheels down in Kigali at 6:30 on Wednesday morning greeted by a colorful sunrise and a flock of hawks (see TRAVELOGUE).
With Ethiopian, we practiced what we preached and booked a paper ticket using a human representative at the New York office. This required access to a fax machine for payment technicalities.
Reasonable fares are by and large because flights are scheduled at odd hours and can have extra stops. The first flight left DC at 8:30 pm on a Monday night, and the plane touched down in Rome on Tuesday morning. At 9 pm that night, we arrived in Addis Ababa. True to tradition, the flight to Kigali was scheduled to leave at 3 am Wednesday morning. A 6-hour layover unto itself is not abnormal, but factors to consider are jet lag and early hours.
EA makes an effort to compensate for its unusual flight patterns by offering hotel and food vouchers. For our layover, for example, a hotel voucher was offered, but we decided to remain in the airport with the meal voucher. In hindsight, this was a wise choice. Our fellow Rwanda passengers remarked that by the time they had to leave the airport, get on a bus, check in, and get back to the airport, they ended up with a about one hour of leisure time at the hotel. We kept busy pounding the marble pavement, as the cavernous international departures lounge had cafes, Internet access, and shops all of which were bustling at 2 am (see TRAVELOGUE).
The last leg of the journey was the flight from Addis to Kigali, which made a brief stop in Entebbe, Uganda. We were wheels down in Kigali at 6:30 on Wednesday morning greeted by a colorful sunrise and a flock of hawks (see TRAVELOGUE).
posted by LookingGlassLand.com at Wednesday, November 02, 2005
