Dear Ethiopian Airlines,
On July 2 our Lufthansa flight from Frankfurt to Addis Ababa was delayed for some reason in Frankfurt. Consequently we were late making the connecting flight from Addis to Kilimanjaro. My wife Christie & I were among the first to arrive to the Gate in the Addis airport and since we had our seats on the flight from Addis to Kilimanjaro booked for quite sometime I was confident that we would make the flight. Mass confusion ensued & it seemed like there was no rhyme or reason to who was allowed to board the flight to Kilimanjaro. This was confirmed when one of your agents told me that I could board the plane yet my wife had to stay behind in Addis, despite the fact that we both had boarding cards with assigned seats AND as I mentioned had our flight confirmed for weeks. What happened to our seats? Why were they given away? Although I acknowledge that due to no fault of our own the Lufthansa flight was delayed yet we still arrived when the flight to Kilimanjaro was still boarding. After being left, the agent walked away without so much as a word. I walked over to another Gate to ask what was happening with us I was referred to one agent who then put me on to another & yet another. Finally an Ethiopian Airline representative took my wife and I along with 6 other passengers, three Italians, 2 Americans, & this poor young German girl who was crying down to the Ethiopian airlines office. There was a mass of probably a hundred or so people crowded at the office and in front of my fellow passengers the Ethiopian representative promised us that we would be in a hotel with food vouchers and a ride with in his words ‘hundreds of dollars’ from the airlines and Business Class seats for the remainder of our flights within 30 minutes. We waited and waited and waited until finally I walked up to the desk, still crowded with many people and my wife & my passports along with the other 6 in our group, all of our passports were just sitting on a table unguarded with crowds of people all around. I picked them up and again after being passed from one representative to another countless times. We were the absolutely last people left at the gate. By this time my wife & I had been in the air since July 1, we hadn’t eaten in hours and hours and we had no place to go our trip of a lifetime climbing Mt. Kilimanjaro was set to begin the next day. Finally at my demand an Ethiopian Air representative took us through customs to get a ride to the MN International Hotel. As we were leaving what happened I would not wish on anyone. As we were leaving the airport I was stopped at security where they told me that I would not be able to bring my camera with me. They took my camera out of the bag & held it. They told me that I could keep it with them or if I paid them a small ‘tax’ I could bring my camera into the country, I said ‘how much money do you want?’ and he replied ‘don’t talk about money here.’ I refused so they then took my passport and put it in his pocket and told me that I had to pay, leave my camera or return to the airport. There were two men hassling me, I have one on video & despite the other trying to hide his name tag from me I got his name the other customs agent trying to extort me was Gedana Tsegaye. When I turned to the Ethiopian Airline representative for support he said hat I had to leave my camera with them or return to the airport. After much arguing, I ripped my passport out of the agent’s hands since he took it out of his pocket and was holding it away from me so I couldn’t have it. I was disgusted that all the Ethiopian Airlines representative and all he did was shrug his shoulders and say I had to leave my camera or stay. I stayed at the airport despite being in an airport or airplane for the third day.
Finally we boarded the next flight from Addis to Kilimanjaro only to have the flight turn around part way to Kilimanjaro and sit on the airport tarmac. Although I realize certain elements of this ordeal were out of your control this could have been handled in a much better manner. For instance why weren’t my wife and I along with the other 6 passengers given immediate access to the Cloud 9 Lounge immediately while we waited if nothing else to get sustenance and water? Why were we not given a ride and lodging immediately? Why was the promise from the Ethiopian Airlines representative of our group given hundreds of dollars and business class seats for the remainder of our flights with Ethiopian Airlines not realized? If Ethiopian Airlines was unwilling or unable to deliver these promises why did your agent promise this? Is there not a company protocol for such situations? If so why was it not followed? The corruption that I faced with the customs agent is not your fault but some support would have been nice. We are still in Africa & we are still booked with Ethiopian Airlines for some of our trip. Although the hundreds of dollars promised to us would be nice. The simple promise of Business Class seating for the remainder of our flights would go a long way in making this horrible experience have a silver lining and would be a shining example of customer service. I think that that is a fair & reasonable trade off for this experience
I eagerly await your response to when I return from my summit attempt on Kilimanjaro in 6 days time.
Yours truly,
Spencer Sekyer
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