Review: Ethiopian Airlines B787 Business Class

Ethiopian Airlines’ Cloud Nine is the carrier’s long-haul business class product. It operates on its Boeing 787 Dreamliner fleet between Singapore Changi (SIN) and Addis Ababa Bole International Airport (ADD).

The flight departs Singapore late in the evening and arrives in Addis Ababa in the early morning, operating as ET678. The sector covers approximately 5,700 kilometres and takes around 8.5 to 9 hours in the air. It’s a natural overnight route. You board well after midnight and land at dawn on the Ethiopian side.

During our most recent trip to Africa with family, we had a chance to take this African route. Flights to African countries are generally pretty expensive in terms of cash, so using miles for this flight is a pretty good redemption.using miles to redeem for this flight is a pretty good redemption.

Booking

As Ethiopian Airlines is a Star Alliance partner, we were able to book this flight using our Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer miles. We booked this flight before the recent increase in redemption rates.

This is a two-leg flight from Singapore to Dar Es Salaam (Tanzania), transiting in Addis Ababa (Ethiopia). We paid 69,000 KrisFlyer miles and S$127.10 in taxes and fees for the flight.

After the devaluation, it will now cost 76,000 KrisFlyer miles for the same flight. There is plenty of availability throughout most days, so it is very easy to make this redemption.

This route will easily cost us S$2,000 for economy class or over S$7,000 for a business class seat. Therefore, this flight redemption is very high in value for us.

Find out how to use Singapore KrisFlyer miles to book Star Alliance partner flights!

Airport Lounge Access

As Ethiopian Airlines is a Star Alliance Airline, we could use the SilverKris airport lounge in Changi Airport Terminal 2. We have been to the lounge a couple of times previously, but it always seems like it’s constantly upgrading and improving itself.

In this most recent trip, the lounge has been revamped, and some of the seating arrangements have been changed.

You can read more about our experience in the SilverKris Lounge in a previous review post.

Seat Map

The Cloud Nine cabin runs in a 2-2-2 configuration, with paired seat columns down the left, centre, and right of the aircraft. For Boeing 787-8, there are actually two different types of arrangements, Aura Lite and Diamond Parallel. We got the Aura Lite version for our flight.

Both seating arrangements accommodate 24 passengers across 4 rows.

Window seats on the outer 2 sections do not have direct aisle access. Sitting at the window means stepping over your travel companion or the armrest console to reach the aisle.

Premium cabin configurations like 1-2-1 reverse herringbone layouts give every seat its own path to the aisle. To get up independently during the night, an aisle seat or one of the centre-pair seats is the better pick.

For us, since we were travelling as a couple, we took the window seats. The lack of direct aisle access didn’t matter much for us, but it would be a problem when travelling alone.

Seats

The Cloud Nine seats are fully lie-flat, converting into a flat bed for overnight sectors like SIN–ADD. The seats sit in a traditional forward-facing paired arrangement rather than the angled herringbone style, with no staggering between rows. The cabin feels more uniform and open as a result.

On the side of the seat, there is an electronic control for you to transform the sitting position.

One thing that stood out immediately on our flight was the condition of the seat pads. The sitting pads on our seats were out of place, leaving a large gap. This made sitting noticeably uncomfortable for much of the flight. It felt more like a maintenance oversight than a product design issue.

When lying down and sleeping, it’s actually pretty comfortable. As a light sleeper, I still got a good 6 hours of sleep on this flight. That says a lot about the bed quality (or how sleep-deprived I was prior to this flight).

In terms of the hardware accessory, every seat comes with a full charging port and a USB port. For a long flight, this is very appreciated. As this is quite a dated business class product, there are no modern USB-C ports around.

The walls around the seats are not very high, so you will definitely see your neighbors especially if they are tall. Though it still provides quite a substantial amount of privacy for most passengers.

For meal service, you can pull down the table which lies directly over your seat. The size of the table covers almost the entire width of your seat. Therefore, if you are having your meal, it is almost impossible to get out of your seat.

Accessories

Onboard Ethiopian Airlines’ Cloud Nine business class, you get a standard set of accessories. There is a set of slippers which are on the seats before you even board the plane. It is pretty comfortable and you can take it with you after the plane lands.

There’s a set of noise-cancelling headphones that I never really used during the flight.

Every passenger also gets a striking red amenity kit, pretty well stocked with everything you’ll need for the flight. Don’t expect any luxury-branded items though, unlike what you’ll see in Gulf airlines.

In-flight Entertainment

Ethiopian Airlines equips its B787 fleet with the Panasonic Avionics eX3 in-flight entertainment system. It’s one of the more widely deployed IFE platforms on long-haul aircraft today. The system offers a touchscreen display per seat, with access to movies, TV shows, music, games, and a moving map.

Surprisingly, the IFE controls were smooth and responsive. It’s noticeably more so than you’d expect from a carrier at this tier. Laggy, unresponsive IFE is one of the most common complaints on long-haul flights. So it was a pleasant surprise when the system actually kept up with inputs without much delay.

The IFE has quite a good selection of content, ranging from the latest international blockbusters to local African hits.

Bathroom

Business class passengers get three bathrooms: one at the front and two at the back.

The bathrooms are pretty standard in terms of size. You have enough space to move around, but you wouldn’t feel that it is very spacious.

There isn’t really anything special in terms of this bathroom. The crew generally keeps it clean, and there are some amenities for you to wash and lotion your hands.

A baby bassinet sits on top of the toilet seat. If you’re travelling with a baby, you can use it during the flight.

Meal Service

For this 9-hour overnight flight, the crew served us two meals. They started with a dinner service early in the flight, followed by a lighter breakfast service right before landing.

The crew served dinner at around 3 AM, which is 1 hour after takeoff. The entire meal service took some time to reach us, probably due to the turbulence we encountered right after takeoff.turbulence that we encountered right after takeoff.

For starters, we got some beef slices and green salads. There were also some mock char siu at the side, which honestly tasted a little weird.

For dinner, I got the Stir-Fried Chicken while Marilyn got the King Prawn. The food didn’t look that great and looked like something you would get from a typical Chinese restaurant. The taste was not bad and was pretty tasty, though the chicken was a little too salty.

The king prawns and penne pasta also tasted pretty mediocre. The king prawns didn’t look too big as well.

About 1.5 hours before landing in Adis Ababa, the crew served us breakfast again. I got the orange pancakes, which tasted more like Popeyes cookies than the types of pancake that I’m used to.

Service Quality

The crew’s attentiveness was evident from the start. We were among the last to board, but still got the welcome drink service without flagging down any crew member.

Throughout the flight, we felt that the crew members were really professional and took care of our every need.

Summary