Flight Troubles With Ethiopian Airlines

This trip is proving to be an adventure already!

And I haven't even packed my bags yet!

When I decided to go on this trip, the group was already formed and they already got their tickets few months earlier through a travel agency. The agency quoted me for the flight some $400 more than what the group paid, and $200 more than what I was able to find online. So, I purchased the ticket independently from the group, for the exact same set of flights, through an online travel site. I was going to fly with the group, just my ticket was issued by a different source.

Since then, the site first notified me of one flight changed by the airline, a 30 min difference, and I confirmed with the agency that the group had the same change. When I got another notice of a flight change, few weeks ago, I didn't bother to look closely at it, thinking it will again be the same for the group and I don't need to worry.

Well, today I noticed that the change was to a flight which leaves before we arrive! The flight to Addis Ababa (Ethiopia) would arrive at 7 PM, and our next flight from Addis Ababa to Entebbe (Uganda) is supposed to leave at 11.30 AM, that same day! Ooops! I called the web site agency, and they told me I have two options: take a flight that leaves that evening and arrives at 3.10 AM to Entebbe, or spend 16 hours between the flights in Adis Ababa, probably at the airport, and take the flight at 11.30 the next morning. Both are too adventurous, even for me.

I called the travel agency that the group was using, and they were even not aware of this change until I talked to them. Ideally, of course, I would want to be on the same flight arriving to Uganda as the group. So, now they are trying to get on that flight in the middle of the night, but have trouble getting all the tickets the group needs, and have to wait till tomorrow to know which one they will be on. In the mean time, I am competing for the seats on that same flight, because I don't want them to get the last seats and I get left behind.

In either case, if we are not on the same flight, it would be interesting. Either I would arrive alone at 3 AM to Entebbe, where supposedly somebody would still come pick me up and take me to the hotel. Or, the group arrives on that earlier flight, I get to spend the night at the airport in Ethiopia, and arrive the day after all beaten up from (not) sleeping on the chairs, while the group is already in another city Kampala, 19 miles away.

After talking with fr. Isidore, he advised me to try to get on that earlier flight, which I was just able to do. He also assured me someone will be there at 3am to pick me up, even if the rest of the group is not there. So we shall see. He joked that the hotel is within walking distance from the airport, and that he could show me how Ugandans carry stuff on their heads, but I'd rather not walk alone, in the middle of the night, with the suitcase on my head, on the outskirts of a little town in Uganda. Call me too picky, but that's just how I feel!

And so the adventure continues!

My flights are: Austin-Washington DC-Rome-Addis Ababa-Nairobi-Entebbe. (no plane change in Rome and Nairobi). Leaving 11.42 am Sunday, arriving 3.10 am Tuesday, local time, which is 8 hours ahead of TX.