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Update 10/23/14: Commenter Jeremy finds the award space now on aeroplan.com, and I can confirm that the space on these Ethiopian flights is now bookable and is still excellent! (None of the rest of the post has been updated to reflect this information.)
Ethiopian Airlines will begin flying Los Angeles to Dublin to Addis Ababa in June 2015 with a 787 Dreamliner. Ethiopian will have fifth freedom rights, meaning you will be able to fly any single segment of the flight, including Los Angeles to Dublin.
This is an exciting addition to the Star Alliance’s transatlantic routes, especially if the route has awesome award space, since direct award space from the West Coast to Europe is tough to find. (Solution: route via Canada.)
The flight will be bookable with United miles and any other Star Alliance airline’s miles. Crucially, with United miles, you can connect Los Angeles to Dublin with the rest of Europe by using United’s non-alliance partner Aer Lingus.
Right now, Los Angeles to Dublin is showing 4 economy seats and 2 business class seats in both directions from June 2015 and beyond. But there’s a problem…
- What are the flight times?
- How is Ethiopian Business Class?
- Where does Aer Lingus fly within Europe?
- What is the problem with the award space on united.com?
Flight Details
The new Los Angeles to Addis Ababa will operate three times per week in each direction.
ET504 Addis Ababa to Dublin departing 11:00 PM arriving 5:30 AM (+1 day)
ET504 Dublin to Los Angeles departing 6:30 AM arriving 9:30 AM (same day as take off in Dublin, +1 day from take off in Addis Ababa)
ET505 Los Angeles to Dublin departing 11:30PM arriving 6:30PM (+1 day)
ET505 Dublin to Addis Ababa departing 7:30PM arriving 6:00AM (+1 day, +2 days from take off in Los Angeles)
Ethiopian’s Dreamliner has economy and Business Class. Business Class is angled lie flat. Here is a full trip report from One Mile at a Time.
Cost of Award
United charges 30k/70k miles each way in economy/business between the United States and Europe on partner flights. You can connect to Aer Lingus flights in Ireland to the rest of Europe for zero extra miles on a United award. Aer Lingus flies to the following cities from Dublin:
If you fly all the way to Africa on the Ethiopian flight, United charges 40k/80k miles each way in economy/business. From Addis Ababa, you can connect to the rest of Africa. The Star Alliance has the best network in Africa with Egyptair, Ethiopian, and South African.
Award Space
Award space looks perfect on united.com. Four economy seats and two business seats basically every day the flight operates in both directions.
Unfortunately every time I tried to select a flight with award space on the new route, I got this error.
I called United to see if I could book the space by phone. The agent said her computer said the flights were “cancelled.”
I searched on ANA and Aeroplan and found no award space on the new Ethiopian route in any cabin.
It looks like united.com is showing phantom award space. Hopefully award space really will be bookable soon and will be as good as the phantom space on united.com at the moment.
Another Option
Until the Ethiopian flight is bookable, you can use United miles on Aer Lingus’ new flight from San Francisco to Dublin with connections to the rest of Europe.
Flight taxes are super cheap out of Ireland, so a roundtrip is only 60,000 miles + $54.
Eventually this flight will feature fully flat beds in Business Class too.
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Over the weekend, I was able to book two business class awards tickets on this route, with a stopover in Dublin and continuing to Europe for 70K. I have confirmation numbers, so it looks like I got in before it turned “phantom”?
I was able to find the award space on Aeroplan today, so looks like not phantom anymore?
Great!
Are Lingus does not release a single seat in business class on this flight. Sorry, it’s simply not a real-world option. Thanks for playing.
One seat October 29 from SFO-DUB in business, but you are generally right that there is almost no business class space on the flight.
On another topic, change the tone of your comments to be less confrontational or I’ll delete them. I want there to be camaraderie in the comments because we’re all in this together.
Hi, the first shuttle to Dublin airport with Paddywagon leaves at 4:00am Ethiopian Airlines departs 6:15. Has anyone had trouble with this timeframe for check in? Thanks.