Madagascar: £1,186 / €1,401 Ethiopian Airlines Business Class from London

Star Alliance member Ethiopian Airlines offers surprisingly cheap tickets for business class travel from London to Antananarivo, capital of Madagascar. The fare includes all usual business class parks like priority services, lounge access and three checked bags up to 23 kg each.

The quoted fare of £1,186 (~€1,396) is sold by a single online travel agency. Other OTAs sell tickets for £1,345 (~€1,584), while Ethiopian charges £1,575 (~€1,854) on its website.

Our availability calendar highlights all possible flight dates at the lowest price for trips up to 28 days. It will forward you to Ethiopian Airlines with your selected flight dates. You can also check what OTAs have to offer, as they sell these tickets up to £400 (~€471) cheaper.

Flights between Gatwick and Addis Ababa are Airbus A350-900 services. These planes feature lie-flat-seats in a 2-2-2 pattern in business class. Between Ethiopia and Madagascar, Ethiopian switches between Boeing 787 and Boeing 737-MAX8 aircraft. The former also feature lie-flats in a 2-2-2 pattern, while the 737 sports recliners in a 2-2 alignment. You can find a fairly recent review of the product here.

Search & Book

According to the fare rules, these tickets are on sale without a specific sales or travel period. A minimum stay of one night from Saturday to Sunday is necessary to get the lowest fare.

Google Flights helps you find additional flight dates. Since you can save a lot by purchasing tickets from online travel agencies, you prefer buying tickets on kayak rather than the airlines’ website. However, this has considerable downsides.

Why is booking with an airline better than with an online travel agency?

More often than not, online travel agencies offer lower fares than airlines do. We still recommend booking with the airlines directly. There are two main reasons for that:

Better Customer Service
In case any problems like delays, cancellations or missed connections arise, you can communicate directly with the airline. The airline has to take care of you because you have a contract with them.

If a travel agency issues your ticket, you may have to reach out to them first. You also depend on your OTA to forward information like flight changes instead of receiving them directly from the airline. In many cases, you may get a prime exhibition of responsibility shifting rather than problem-solving.

This especially applies to premium tickets. You don’t want to spend more than €1,000 to wind up with some budget OTA’s telephone hotline in case anything goes wrong.

Baggage and Other Fees
Economy fares not including hold luggage are industry standard by now. In most cases, travel agencies charge much higher baggage fees than the airlines themselves. If bags are not included in your fare, airlines are often the cheaper alternative.

This also applies to other things like food services, insurances or priority treatment. In almost all cases, you pay less for additional amenities when booking on the airlines’ website.

Miles & Points

Ethiopian issues tickets for all flight segments in booking class P. Star Alliance frequent flyers can earn the following miles & points:

Destination

For stays up to 30 days, British (and most EU citizens) can apply for visa-on-arrival at Antananarivo airport.

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