Adoptive families choose among three main options for air travel from the U.S. to Ethiopia: Lufthansa, Ethiopian Airlines, and British Airways. I'll talk about Lufthansa first, as it was our first experience with flying to Ethiopia, and discuss the pros and cons of the other main choices in future posts.

We flew Lufthansa from the Pacific Northwest through Frankfurt and Cairo to Ethiopia in February, 2004. We booked travel with Susan Parr Travel, an agency that specializes in Ethiopian travel and has a reputation for finding excellent rates. At the time, Lufthansa was the most affordable option, and cost around $1800.

The flight took between 30 and 32 hours each direction, with layovers. It's a long haul, but overall we were pleased with our experience. The food was decent, the seats were as comfortable as could be expected and the service was good.

Traveling to Ethiopia, the flight across the ocean is usually on a big plane, the kind with a 3-4-3 seating arrangement with two aisles. Once across the ocean, some airlines move you down to a smaller single-aisle plane with a 3-3 seating arrangement-- not nearly as easy to stretch your legs and walk around. But the plane we took from Frankfurt thru Cairo to Addis still had two aisles, though the seats were 2-4-2 arrangement. We ended up being at the back of a section too, which was nice because it allowed us to recline our seats as far as they'd go without worrying we were lying on the knees of the people behind us.

The layover in Frankfurt was long-- around six hours. I did not like the way they kept people in a central common area and didn't let anyone go to their gates until it an hour or two before the flight. When I have a layover, I feel antsy until I get to our gate, so I had a hard time feeling comfortable waiting around, killing time, and not knowing how close or far we were from our gate.

There were nice things about the Frankfurt airport, however. First of all, it contains a McDonald's with a playland. On a trip as far as Ethiopia, a place to let kids run off steam is really nice. Another plus is that some of the seats in the main waiting areas have footrests. They need more-- the footrest seats were in hot demand when we were there. But if you are lucky enough to snag one, it feels heavenly to actually stretch out. Also, there are showers. You pay a few dollars for the privilege, but again, on a really long flight it could be nice to get a shower, especially if you had a traveling partner to help juggle children.

Coming soon: details about Ethiopian Airlines and British Airways. Please feel free to comment on this post if you have experience with Lufthansa that you would like to share.

Additional Links:

The Ins and Outs of Booking Airfare

Dealing With Jetlag