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My wife and I wold like to nonrev to Addis Ababa to pick up our new son. Because he's on an Ethiopian passport, we're limited to where we can stop. Ethiopia air has a direct but I can't find what the average flight loads are on their flights. If anyone has any information or advice on how to get it, please let me know.
you can check flyzed.com if you have the code and password for your airline--I'm sure someone from CO can help you--I think there might be one or two nice people here!! Good luck and happy adoption to you and your family!! God bless!
Maybe try their DC office at
E-mail: etusa@ethiopianairlines.com
Phone: 703 682 0569 Toll free no. 1 800-445 2733
Give me the dates you have in mind and I'll check with ET for you. Bear in mind that the flight to IAD stops in FCO. So as always contingencies are in order. You may want to look into connecting via a European city where they don't require transit visas for Ethiopian citizens. You'll just be staying in the transit zone and would have a bigger choice of flights/carriers to you arrival city in the US. Congratulations and all the best with your family
Frapos,
Thanks so much for your willingness to help. Our court date, (the date of the adoption finalization if everything goes well.) After that, it'll be a couple of weeks before we know our embassy date. (That's when we get the visa for him.) We are thinking sometime at the beginning of March. If you would not mind, I'll ask you for loads at that time.
As for the other connecting cities, I have not found any European city that will allow him to transit without a visa. We are still exploring Dubai and Tel Aviv. I have contacted both embassies, but have not heard back from them. Germany did respond and stated it would take 24 hours. That would necessitate us staying in Addis through the weekend. We would really like to head home as soon as possible. If you know of another EU city where a transit visa is NOT required, PLEASE let us know.
thanks so much.
meandfive, may I make the suggestion you check these two sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ethiopian_passport (do not take as gospel)
http://www.delta.com/planning_reservations...rt_information/
The latter site interrogates IATAs Timatic visa information service (more info @ www.timaticweb.com) and you can plug countries in and find out info. For example, I put in Ethiopian passport, travelling to USA via Dubai and the following spat out: Note an issue you may run in to is transiting without visa when you don't have a confirmed seat
National Ethiopia (ET)
Transit United Arab Emirates (AE)
Destination U.S.A. (US)
ALSO CHECK DESTINATION INFORMATION BELOW
United Arab Emirates (AE)
TWOV (Transit Without Visa):
Visa required, except for Transit passengers continuing their
journey to a third country by the same or the first connecting
aircraft within 24 hours and holding:
- tickets with confirmed seats; and
- documents required for their next destination; and
- not leaving the transit area.
Do you know on Delta's ATL - DXB flight, if US pass riders are required to get a pre-arranged visa since they do not have confirmed seats?
Congrats on the adoption!
What do you get on LH or KL?
You could fly on your own airline to FRA or AMS and then get a ZED to ADD from there...
We are trying to pick a transit city where we will have several options of getting on. Looks like London has 2 daily flights to Addis and a ton of flights to Dubai. (DXB has 3 daily flights to ADD) Our concern came when my wife read that unconfirmed seats require a visa or a purchase. Then we noticed that it was a general advisory not exclusive to Dubai. I've looked at loads with KLM and they're pretty full. LH only has flights to ADD on certain days. I think LHR is our best bet.
I'll be bugging everybody for more concrete loads when we get closer to going. The adoption has been finalized and we're waiting on our Embassy date. We think it'll be the first week of March.
please check back and IF I can find various loads on iddeals.com
BTW--we utilized their site several times in Egypt and it was quite accurate for MS and AF flights
On your suggestion, I subscribed to IDDeals. I've been curious about the dependability of it. Good to hear you've had good experiences with it.
So I guess your little one will not get a US Passport right away from the US Embassy in ADD? In which case, the US Embassy must have experience with this situation may be able to tell you which possible transit country missions in ADD will issue your child a transit visa with the least delay & hassle. LHR & DXB have a frequency advantage but if you are a DL emp you have many options: the Schengen, Israel, Egypt, Ghana, Senegal & South Africa. Combined, a Schengen visa would give you most options.
As an alternative you could buy a refundable confirmed tickets from the transit country to US to meet the immigration requirement and refund it when you all get home. Down side is you'd tie up thousands of dollars on your credit card until you get the refund.
I'm trying to get to ADD later this month & it seems the IAD-FCO-ADD direct is very heavily booked all month.
A lot has happened since I first posted. Court took longer than we expected, (it took 3 times to finalize the adoption.) Then the US Embassy changed the timing from 2 weeks to 2 months. We're anticipating going sometime in May. Going to ADD isn't a problem, we think that we have various options on ZEDs. As you stated, the problem that we foresee is coming back. The German Embassy said that we could get a transit visa in a day, and we read last night that they have changed their policy and will all transit w/o a visa. (That's probably for confirmed seats.)
I guess that we're just avoiding the obvious - taking the time and hassle to get that stink'n visa from somebody.
Well, miracles do happen. the US Embassy gave us a date. We have to leave this Friday. I've seen on Iddeals that Delta to DXB is +50. Could someone confirm that for me? Leaving friday evening.
You should make it.Over 60 open and only 12 NRSA right now.Quote:
Originally Posted by mewallace
Congratulations on your new son.