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Saturday, November 23, 2024
HomeEthiopiaAddis AbabaEthiopian Cloud Nine Lounge: Bad Lounge After Bad Flight

Ethiopian Cloud Nine Lounge: Bad Lounge After Bad Flight

The Ethiopian Cloud Nine Lounge Review is part of the South America & Africa Points Heist Trip Report.


The rejection theme of access to lounges continues (see Ethiopian Lounge Victoria Falls and Bidvest Lounge JNB). Following the awful flight on Ethiopian’s 737, I found myself in the equally awful Addis Ababa airport. I have been to this airport twice before and thought that it was under construction. If it is, nothing has been done since I was here in 2013. It still has the Sam’s Club feel to it (not even as nice as Costco). This time, instead of sleeping on the lawn chairs that are spread throughout the terminal, I thought I would find shelter in Ethiopian’s Club Nine Lounge. When I went to get my boarding pass for my flight to Nairobi, I was told that I would not have access to the lounge because my ticket was in economy. I tried to explain that it was a voluntary downgrade because of no availability, but the agent wasn’t having it.

Luckily for me, I still had my business class tickets for my flight to Kilimanjaro (at the Smoker’s Lounge in JNB, I made the executive decision to change my itinerary from JRO to NBO). I used those to access the lounge. Th tickets were not scanned so it worked just fine.a room with chairs and tables

The Lounge Itself 

With all the red colors, the lounge reminded me of the Chinese restaurant. Cartwright? Cartwright? It is big in size but there’s nothing special about it. I found a chair in the corner, pulled up another, and went to sleep.a sign on a walla group of people sitting in a room with red chairs a person's feet on a couch in a lobby

The Food
I didn’t see anything appetizing so I passed on the food. The first time I came to Addis Ababa I tried injera, the national food of Ethiopia. I wasn’t a fan then at a restaurant and wasn’t keen on trying it in the lounge.

a plate of food on a table
Injera at an Ethiopian restaurant
a pot with food in it
Injera at the lounge

The Bar 
I had a St. George’s beer for breakfast, something that even Ethiopian Airlines cannot mess up. a bar with white stools and a wood floor

a refrigerator with bottles of beer

Overall
With four hours until my next flight, I’m glad I had somewhere to sleep. ‎Had I been denied entry, I would have been fine on the lawn chair.

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13 COMMENTS

  1. I really am enjoying your blog! First, you passed a bar exam so you can actually hold yourself out as an attorney. Secondly, you have a nice sense of humor and aren’t an entitled brat like Matty Klint. Agree with you about the lounge at ADD it’s pretty craptastic.

  2. How do you claim you have been in Ethiopia, when the only thing you know about Ethiopia is Airport Lounge and taking an ET Flight. You are only fooling yourself.

  3. The fact of the matter is my friend, You have nothing to show for it. Your “blog” is  full of charged rant and raves about an airport lounge and airline when you could say so much more than that …..Having claimed to have been to a place like Ethiopia, a place with ancient culture, history and tradition .

    • Read the title of the posts. They are airline reviews and lounge reviews. It’s not Ethiopia country review. Lounge is awful and the flight sucked.

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