Passports - Travel Visa - Airline Tickets - Accommodations - Frequent Flyer Miles - Seat Assignments - Luggage Restrictions - Vaccinations - Health / Travel Insurance - Payment Options
Ethiopian Questions and Answers
Passports: Passports are required to travel outside of the United States. Please make sure your passport has at least six months beyond your intended stay before its expiration date. If not, you will need to have it renewed. Also, please make sure it is signed. Use a blue pen and sign it as your legal name appears on the passport. ↑ Return to top
Travel Visa: An Ethiopian visa is required. There are two ways to do this. Your Visa can be obtained at the airport on arrival in Addis Ababa. How many other passengers on the plane do not have their visa will affect how long it will take to have yours issued. Most families are tired after a long flight and just want to get to the guest house or to their hotel. In that case, you can get your visa ahead of time, either through a reputable visa service or through the Ethiopian Embassy.
The Embassy is cheaper. However, on occasion the visa was mailed back to the client via regular mail and not received in time, causing expensive delays. If you do use the Embassy, offer to send them a prepaid FedEx envelope to send your passports back to you. If you prefer to use a visa service, we recommend Travel Document Systems. They have offices in San Francisco and Washington, DC and have done a wonderful job for us in the past. www.traveldocs.com - ↑ Return to top
Airline Tickets: Please carefully check the itinerary that we send you. Make sure your name is as it appears on your passport and that it's spelled correctly. ↑ Return to top
Accommodations: If you are in need of help with accommodations at the Guest House, those are handled through your adoption agency. We are currently working on getting contracted rates at the Sheraton, Hilton and Ghion Hotel. If you want hotel accommodations, please let us know and we will advise you of the current rates for each of these hotels. ↑ Return to top
Frequent Flyer Miles: Ethiopian Air has their own frequent flyer program called Sheba Miles. If you think you will be traveling to Addis or Africa more than once, you should enroll. Ethiopian Airlines is trying to make this accessible online, but it is not in place yet. You can enroll at the ticket counter in Washington, DC. You would be able to accumulate miles on whatever domestic carrier you would be flying to DC on that particular carrier’s program. Lufthansa Airlines allows you to earn United Miles for all segments flown. British Air has their own program, but usually only allows you to earn 25% of the actual miles flown for any discounted fare on a partner airline or their own program. For other airlines, please ask and we will advise you of their frequent flyer programs. If you are not a member of a frequent flyer program and you would like to enroll, we would be happy to assist you with that.
Many clients ask if they can use their frequent flyer points to get a free ticket to Addis. This usually does not work; the only airlines that have a good success rate of this working are United Airlines and Lufthansa. You must have at least 120,000 miles to accomplish this and it is strictly based on flight availability. Many folks book their frequent flyer awards a year in advance, so that doesn’t leave much left over when you are trying to book two weeks before departure. American Express Rewards is another one that I get asked about frequently. American Express only works with certain carriers on their program and the only one that flies to Addis is Emirates. American Express prefers that the client contact them about using their reward points, since there is confidential information that they ask for to make those reservations. ↑ Return to top
Seat Assignments: Once tickets are issued, we can request seat assignments. We will make sure your child is sitting next to you on your return flight. Sometimes if you are a United Premier Member we can get better seats, so please advise us if you are. It's very rare that the seat map is under airport control, and we cannot pre-assign seats. However, if this does happen we will be sure to let you know so that you can get to the airport early to request your preferred seats. If you are traveling with an infant, we will pre-assign your seats and request the bulkhead row with a bassinet. It is not always available, but we always request it when possible. Ethiopian Airlines only has a couple of bassinettes on the flight. They will not pre-reserve a bassinette. It is on a first-come, first-serve basis upon check in at Addis International Airport. ↑ Return to top
Vaccinations: Many times we are asked what vaccinations are required to travel to Ethiopia. At this time there are no mandatory vaccinations. We recommend that you have your tetanus shot up to date. Another recommendation when traveling to third world countries is hepatitis. This is a series of three shots taken over a six month period. You are not arriving from an infected area of malaria or yellow fever, so these shots are not required. If you have further questions about vaccinations, please check with your local health department or physician. ↑ Return to top
Health/Travel Insurance: We recommend that you take out travel insurance before you depart. It is fairly inexpensive and will cover any medical or travel related issues that occur while overseas. Most US health insurance companies do not cover you overseas. Travel insurance, however, will not cover your adopted child, since travel must originate out of the US to be covered. ↑ Return to top
Payment Options: You can pay for your tickets by check or credit card. Please make checks payable to Susan Parr Travel and send to 1234 East Front Street, Port Angeles WA 98362. If you want to pay by credit card, we will need your signature authorizing the charges on your credit card. We have a form on our website that you can download, fill out and fax back to our office. Here is the link: www.susanparrtravel.com/pdf/ccauth.pdf ↑ Return to top