Print Click Here for a Printer-Friendly Version
Close
Ethiopian Airlines Flight Pass Rules
When you buy a Flight Pass for Ethiopian Airlines to travel on Ethiopian Airlines flights, you enter into a contract with Optiontown and Ethiopian Airlines. The Flight Pass Service is offered by Optiontown Ireland Limited, an Ireland limited liability company, having its registered address at Mespil Business Center, Mespil House, Sussex Road, Dublin 4, Ireland, hereinafter referred to as "Optiontown" or "OT".

Your ticketed booking is governed by Ethiopian Airlines 's General Conditions of Carriage; the conditions in your ticket or itinerary and receipt, any tariffs which apply and regulations. The Ethiopian Airlines, having its registered office and principal place of business at Bole International Airport, Africa Avenue Addis Abeba, Ethiopia, hereinafter to be referred to as "Ethiopian Airlines" or "ET";

Please note that these Flight Pass Rules, together with the Optiontown Terms of Service constitute the entire agreement between You and Optiontown. In the event of any contradiction between the Optiontown Terms of Service and these Flight Pass Rules, these Flight Pass Rules shall prevail.

DEFINITIONS

"Advance Booking" refers to the minimum number of days or hours before your Journey that are required for you to make a booking with Flight Pass.
"Cabin" or "Travel Class" refers to the travel class, e.g. Economy Class or Business Class.
"Customer" refers to one or more persons that have bought a Flight Pass or one or more of the OT Services.
"Passengers(s)" refers to the total number of distinct Passengers who can book and fly by redeeming Flight Pass.
"Fare Type" refers to the type of fare selected for Flight Pass, namely, Promo, Discounted, Semi-Flex, Flex in Economy Class and Promo, Discounted, Full in Business Class. Different amenities and services are available with different fare types, like flight change, flight cancel, No-show, bags, upgrades, etc.
"Flight" or "Flights" refers to the flights operated, marketed, designated or any combination thereof by Ethiopian Airlines. "Number of Flights" refers to the number of one way Flights you can take between selected destinations. Two flights are needed for one Passenger to fly a round trip between two selected destinations. Both one way and round trip bookings are allowed with Flight Pass.
"Ethiopian Airlines Flight Pass" or "Flight Pass" refers to the pass provided by Optiontown in collaboration with Ethiopian Airlines under the Flight Pass Service to its Customers which makes them eligible to book Flights which fulfills the criteria mentioned in these Flight Pass Rules.
"Journey" refers to a segment of Flights that may have more than one Flight (like a segment may have both outbound and return Flights or may have connecting Flights).
"Optiontown" refers to the brand name and "www.optiontown.com" refers to the domain name and website of OT.
"OT Services" comprises of the various services offered by OT, wherein each such service is in general referred to as "OT Service". Flight Pass is one of the OT Services.
"Tax Payment Option" refers to the option to include or not include the taxes in the Flight Pass. The terms "Taxes" or "Tax", or "taxes and fees", here refer to all the taxes, fees and fuel surcharge and other surcharges levied by government, airport, Ethiopian Airlines and other third-parties.
"Travel Period" refers to the time period, whereby You can fly on flights departing during said time period by booking a flight with your Flight Pass.
"Trip Type" refers to the type of booking (one way, round trip, etc.) allowed for a Flight Pass.
"Website" is the webpage on which the Flight Pass is being offered, sold and administered.
"You" refers to a Customer of Flight Pass.
"Travel Zone" or "Zone" refers to destination pairs (cities/countries) for which Flight Pass is valid.

CONDITIONS
1.Purchase of a Flight Pass and subsequent exchange of Flight Pass for ticketed bookings can only be done through the optiontown.com. You will NOT be able to make changes to your Flight Pass, or any flights booked using your Flight Pass, through www.ethiopianairlines.com, call centers or Airport tickets offices.
2.Flight Pass Purchase: Upon completing your Flight Pass purchase:
a.You get the right to book and fly on 'X' one way flights, departing during the 'Travel Period', for the selected routes of the Flight Pass. (Where X= Number of Flights you have chosen while purchasing the Flight Pass). Flights can be booked up to 1 year in advance of the departure date.
b.Trip Type - You agree that a one way booking will consume 1 Flight at a time per passenger, and a round trip booking will consume 2 Flights at a time per passenger. You can use your Flight Pass to book flight bookings, subject to your Trip Type, from/to any airport within your selected travel zone as will be listed in the departure and arrival airports in your Flight Pass, as given below.
One way or Round trip - Customers, who have purchased this option, will able to book either 'one way' or 'round trip' bookings with their Flight Pass.
Round trip only - Customers, who have purchased this option, can book only round trip tickets with their Flight Pass. One way travel will not be permitted.
Flight Pass also allows you to book round trip journeys where you can arrive and depart from different airports within your selected Travel zone. Even if your Flight Pass allows for one way travel, but still travelling to certain destinations may require a round trip ticket. So, you are requested to check the travel requirements of the country you are travelling to and if a round trip ticket is required for travel to a country, then you must ensure that you have a valid round trip ticket and other valid travel documents as may be required including visa, if any. No claim will be entertained for any denial to enter into a country due to no round trip ticket or invalid/insufficient travel documents or due to invalid visa etc.
c.Passengers Name Add time limit - One passenger must be added at the time of Flight Pass purchase. You can add new Passengers until the maximum limit of Passengers is reached;
d.Infant and Children Rule - You agree that Flight Pass is only available for use by adults and children over 2 years of age. You can add infants on the booking after the booking is created by paying the appropriate fares, fees and taxes which may be levied and changed by Ethiopian Airlines from time to time. Flight Pass price is NON-discountable for children. To add Infants, you may do so by contacting the Optiontown for Flight Pass.
e.Special Service Requests (SSRs) - You can add Special Service Requests (SSRs) to your flight, such as for special meals, baggage, special requests like wheel chair, disability assistance or others, by telephone via the Ethiopian Airlines Service Centre. Please note Ethiopian Airlines may levy an additional charge for these additional service requests as per regular Ethiopian Airlines policy.
f.Amenities - You will receive all standard services and amenities associated with your selected cabin in your designated flight which may be subject to change as per normal Ethiopian Airlines operating procedures;
g.Baggage Allowance - You will receive the following baggage allowance when you make a booking under Flight Pass:
Carry-on Baggage - 1 carry on bag and 1 personal item
Check-in Baggage - You will be allowed 2 check-in bags of up to 23 kg each for all routes except Brazil. For Brazil routes, You will be allowed 2 check-in bags of up to 32 kg each.
3.Flight Pass conditions.
a.Flight Pass Change
You can change any one or more of the following Flight Pass parameters as given below, Increase Number of Flights, Extend Travel Period, Reduce Advance Booking, Increase Number of Passengers, etc.
The allowed changes to Flight Pass can be done after paying the applicable fees and fare difference (if applicable) through Flight Pass website only. Changes apply to all flights in your Flight Pass, it is not possible to change a portion of the flights in your Flight Pass. Changes can be done via the Manage My Pass section after login to your Flight Pass account.
b.Flight Pass is NON-refundable and non cancelable once purchased. Any payment once paid is NON-refundable under all circumstances, except in case of exceptional circumstances as mentioned below. No portion of the total Flight Pass price will be refunded in case of any unused Flight credits.
c.Exceptional Circumstances for Refund
If and only if, Ethiopian Airlines stops flying or reduces the flight frequency drastically to all city pair routes/destinations including in your Flight Pass, or a Force Majeure event (like Covid-19) occurs and You have still unused flight credits, then you may request refund for only those unused Flight Pass credits. In this event, Ethiopian Airlines will be solely and fully responsible to refund the amount. Refund request will be at the discretion of the Airline. Optiontown will not be responsible to pay back any refund amount to You in this situation.
In the event that Ethiopian Airlines is unable to facilitate booking reservation for a valid purchased Flight Pass for any reason, then Ethiopian Airlines will be fully and solely responsible to provide the refund of the amount related to unused/unflown tickets. Optiontown will not be responsible to pay back any refund amount to You in this situation.
Contact Optiontown via customercare@optiontown.com to request such a refund and Optiontown team will notify Ethiopian Airlines for such refund requests.
Notwithstanding anything said to the contrary, if the payment amount related to a Flight Pass has been transferred by Optiontown to Ethiopian Airlines, then the complete financial responsibility for refund of total paid amount for said Flight Pass rests solely on Ethiopian Airlines, and Optiontown does not have any responsibility for the refund amount, and Optiontown cannot be held responsible for the refund amount.
d.Flight Pass is NON transferable, and cannot be sold or exchanged for cash. The Journey entitlement under a Flight Pass cannot be altered except as notified otherwise by Optiontown.
e.Once a Flight Pass has been exchanged for a ticketed Flight booking, Flight tickets are NON refundable. In all circumstances, the Flight Pass remains Non-refundable except as mentioned above.
f.For Customers who purchase Flight Pass through the installment option, the deposit amount, and installment payment(s) are NOT refundable in the event that you decide to cancel your booking.
g.Passengers Name Correction - Once you have added a name to your Flight Pass, you can only change a maximum of 3 misspelled characters in your name. Please make sure that you have added the name on the Flight Pass as it appears in your Passport.
4.Unlimited Flight Pass conditions
a.Unlimited flight bookings - Unlimited Flight Pass allows to book unlimited number of flight bookings for regular travel purposes for only the enlisted passengers to included Travel Zone subject to other Flight Pass conditions.
b.All bookings must be made as per the advance booking condition and other terms for your purchased Flight Pass.
c.No extensions or name change allowed - After the purchase, the Unlimited Flight Pass cannot be extended further. Once the passenger name is added, the passenger name cannot be edited or changed to a different passenger name.
d.Unlimited Flight Pass is non-refundable and non-cancellable.
e.Flight Change for Unlimited Flight Pass - Flight Change can be done by paying applicable change fees. If the new flight is outside the Flight Pass parameters, an additional fare difference will be charged.
f.Flight Cancellation for Unlimited Flight Pass - Flight can be cancelled by paying applicable cancel fees.
g.No-show fee for Unlimited Flight Pass
If you are not present at the time of boarding of your flight, then you will be considered a "No-show" for your flight, and there will be a No-show penalty of USD 200 per passenger per flight and additional admin fees.
If any No-show penalty is not paid in time, then You will not be allowed to redeem your Flight Pass to book more flights and all future booked flights will be put on hold.
If you are a No-show for the outbound flight in a round-trip booking or multi-city booking, then you will be considered No-Show for all flights that depart after your said flight where you were No-show. For example, if you are a No-show for outbound journey of a round-trip booking, then you are considered No-show for both your outbound and return journey.
If an unlimited Flight Pass has more than one enlisted passenger, and only some of the enlisted passengers are No-show for any flight, then also none of the passengers are allowed to redeem the Flight Pass until when all the applicable fees for No-show are fully paid for.
h.Maximum limit on concurrent future dated bookings - At any given point of time, You are allowed to book at most 6 concurrent future dated bookings (that consume a total of 6 flights). If you have already booked 6 future dated flights which are not yet flown, then you will not be allowed to make additional bookings till you fly on at least one of your bookings.
i.Restriction against unauthorized usage or abuse - Unlimited Flight Pass is only meant for personal travel or regular corporate/business travel. Its prohibited to use Unlimited Flight Pass for any purpose that falls outside the normal personal or business travel purpose. For example, it's not allowed to use Unlimited Flight Pass by travellers whose main travel objective is to transport baggage for others on passenger flights. Optiontown reserves the right to detect such unauthorized usage and cancel such Unlimited Flight Passes and there will be no refund back to any customer in such a situation.
j.For customers who wish to buy a Flight Pass for transporting baggage through passengers traveling with baggage, or for any other purposes that falls outside the regular travel purpose, you may purchase a Flight Pass with a pre-defined number of flights. For any special requests, you may contact Optiontown at customercare@optiontown.com.
k.Rest of the conditions are same as applicable to other Flight Passes.
5.Flight Pass Booking conditions
a.Seat Availability for Flight Booking - You can book flights with your Flight Pass subject to at least 1 seat available in the flight, subject to other terms of your Flight Pass.
b.Flight Change / Flight Cancel / No Show
*FREE Flight change/ Cancel / No Show allowance - You are allowed to change/cancel/No Show a certain number of your flight at no cost subject to number of free flight change/cancel/No Shows allowed as per the Fare Type of the purchased flight pass. The free allowances are defined below.

CabinFare TypeFree Flight Change allowance*Free Flight Cancel allowance*Free No Show Allowance*
EconomyPromoWith FeeWith FeeWith Fee
EconomyDiscounted10%10%With Fee
EconomySemi-Flex25%25%10%
EconomyFlex100%100%25%
BusinessPromoWith FeeWith FeeWith Fee
BusinessDiscounted20%10%10%
BusinessFull100%100%25%

Number of FREE Allowances are calculated as per the percentage value mentioned above multiplies by the total number of flights in the purchased Flight Pass (and rounded down to the lower integer).
Fees for Change/Cancel/No Show after Free Allowance - After the free allowance, the costs change/cancel/No Show for additional flights are as follows except for the exclusion mentioned below

##Exclusion - No-show fees for unlimited Flight Pass are listed separately in the rules for Unlimited Flight Pass. No-show fees displayed below are only applicable for Flight Pass with specified number of flights, excluding the Unlimited Flight Pass.

RoutesChange Fee after Free Allowance
(per passenger per flight*)
Cancel Fee after Free Allowance
(per passenger per flight*)
No Show## credit reinstate Fee after Free Allowance
(per passenger per flight*)
Ethiopia$10$30$40
North America$200$220$240
Rest of the world$100$120$140

Fare Difference for Flight Change - In the event, if the new flight is outside the Flight Pass parameters an additional fare difference, in addition to the change fee, will be calculated and charged.
Routes changes and passenger name changes are not permitted.
Flight cancellation is only permitted before flight departure. No Show credit reinstatement is permitted no later than 7 days after flight departure.
The Flight Changes can be done online by logging to your Flight pass online. Contact Optiontown at customercare@optiontown.com to cancel your flight or to reinstate your No Show credit.
c.Frequent Flyer Miles - The Ethiopian Airlines Sheba Miles will be allocated as per the booking class assigned at the time of flight booking. The accured Sheba Miles will be applicable towards your tiers.
d.Business Lounge - Business lounge is included for business class customers only.
6.You agree and understand that the real time price may be lower or higher than the regular price displayed, hence the savings may be more or less than the displayed amount. You agree and confirm unconditionally that you have taken the informed decision with the clear understanding and knowledge of the above. You irrevocably and unconditionally agree that you will not hold Optiontown and/or Ethiopian Airlines responsible in any manner whatsoever for any difference in regular prices and/or savings displayed and you cannot cancel the Flight Pass due to this.
7.Tax Payment Option Conditions
a.This option offers choice to either include or not include the taxes in the Flight Pass. Two choices are offered.
Tax Included - Under this option, the taxes are included in the Flight Pass price. So, under normal circumstances, you would not need to pay for taxes at the time of flight booking (exceptions apply). Therefore, the Flight Pass price includes the base fare, airline surcharges including fuel surcharge and all taxes and fees levied by government and third parties.
Tax Not Included - Under this option, the taxes are not included in the Flight Pass and You need to pay for taxes, fees, fuel surcharge and other surcharges levied by government, airport, Ethiopian Airlines and other third-parties at the time of flight booking. The Flight Pass price only includes the base fare.
b.Exceptions to the above condition : In both of the above choices, the following exceptions apply.
In the event if any of the taxes and fees increase after they have been paid for, then you are liable to pay for additional taxes and fees amount before flight departure.
In the event if any of the taxes and fees increase due to any flight changes made to your booking, then you are liable to pay for additional taxes and fees at the time of flight change.
c.If you choose the "Tax Not Included" option at the time of Flight Pass purchase, then later on you can upgrade to "Tax Included" through the Manage My Pass feature.
d.From 21-Sep-2023 onwards, the definition of Taxes will include fuel and other surcharges levied by Ethiopian Airlines, which means, customers who buy the Tax Not Included option will need to pay for all taxes, including the fuel and other surcharges levied by Ethiopian Airlines, at the time of flight booking.
8.Additional fees may apply for payment methods or other services at the time of Flight Pass purchase, flight booking or other changes made to the bookings or Flight Pass. In addition, your bank or credit card company may charge additional fees due to bank charges/ conversion charges/ credit charges etc. as per their policy.
9.Flight Pass prices may vary across different Customers whether booked on the same flight and having the same parameters.
10.Flight Pass bookings are based on last seat availability in your selected fare type. You understand that if a flight is fully booked, and therefore no vacant seats are available, you are not able to make a booking on that flight.
11.Specific policies and rules, if applicable to Ethiopian Airlines, will be displayed under the Flight Pass Rules and would accordingly be applicable to you.
12.The total Flight Pass amount paid will appear in the name of Optiontown. Customers agree that they cannot challenge or dispute a charge if the name appearing on their credit card statement is different than the one mentioned above.
13.To the extent permissible by local law or regulation, these Flight Pass Rules shall be governed by and construed in accordance with laws of New York, USA Ethiopian Airlines and each Customer submits to the NON-exclusive jurisdiction of the courts in New York, USA to resolve any disputes that may arise out of them.
14.If any provision of these Flight Pass Rules are declared void or unenforceable by any competent authority or court shall, to the extent of such invalidity or unenforceability, be deemed severable and shall not affect the other provisions remaining which shall continue unaffected.
15.Optiontown accepts no responsibility for damage or loss resulting from misdirected or incomplete entries arising from computer malfunctions, viruses, bugs or other such causes. Optiontown is in no way liable for the reproduction or indirect access via third party web site or home page access which reproduction misstates or omits any of the information or terms and conditions connected with the Flight Pass.
16.After the purchase of Flight Pass, in the interest of your security and fraud prevention, you may be contacted by Optiontown and/or Ethiopian Airlines to request some documents for verification purpose and in case those documents are not provided then your Flight Pass purchase may be put on HOLD or canceled including any booked flights. Optiontown is the sole official partner of Ethiopian Airlines to provide Flight Pass and is a secure channel that is capable to receive customer's documents for security and verification purpose.
17.Ethiopian Airlines may also ask you to provide payment or other information at the check in counter for verification purpose. If the requested documents are not provided or Ethiopian Airlines is unable to verify you as the customer or your payment information, then Ethiopian Airlines may deny you boarding at your own risk and all your future tickets may be canceled. Optiontown and Ethiopian Airlines will have no liability in such cases and it will be up to the customer to provide sufficient documents as requested by Ethiopian Airlines and Optiontown in order to verify the customer and payment information.
18.Optiontown reserves the right to change these Flight Pass Rules at any time.