SriLankan Airlines

We flew back from Colombo to Dubai and feel completely cheated by Sri Lankan Air. As a special treat we paid for business class seats for my wife’s 30th but got the oldest plane I’ve ever flown on that was not even worth an economy fair. I get that this sounds like ‘first world problens’ but our issue is that we were sold an expensive service by Sri Lankan and they didn’t deliver. If they’d told us that they wouldn’t offer the service advertised then we wouldn’t have paid the extra money for business – we actually would have flown economy with Emirates and got a much better service. We made a complaint immediately to Sri Lankan and it took them 3 weeks to reply – of course they couldn’t offer anything other than a weak response. Terrible customer service, terrible airline – Avoid at all costs as there are much better options to get to Sri Lanka.

Horrendous experience, the airline failed to tell us about a five hour delay until we had checked in, by which time we had passed all security points and were told we could not leave under any circumstances. Airline staff didn’t seem to care, people were upset everywhere, I suppose they already had our money so it didn’t matter. We were told we would be given a meal voucher once we cleared immigration, so with little choice we went . Once we reached the ‘slop counter’ we were told to go to was a grossly inadequate offer of food, I wasn’t sure how long it had been there but I wouldn’t have chanced it on my dog. I decided to talk to the customer desk and ask them to at least provide us with a cash equivalent value for the slop counter, obviously this wasn’t on sale to the general public as it looked inedible, but still I believed I was entitled to something. Customer services didn’t care, neither do their internet team, Sandakumari Ekanayake in particular has made i clear they have no interest in any type of customer service, and has lied directly about the flight details. Colombo airport is one of the most expensive airports I have visited and it was literally 18 USD each for a safe meal. My bottom line is this airline is fine if things go well, but fundamentally if things go wrong you are absolutely screwed, heed my advice unless they are rally cheap book a more reputable airline, my underlining feeling is this is how they treat customers, god only knows how they feel about safety…

Had a bad experience as I did not get free accomodation for a 21 hour layover as stated in the email I received after asking if I was eligible for it before I flew. Emailed them to ask why and received an automated email saying they would get back to me. After two weeks I received nothing and so I sent another email since I was going to take my return flight back and until today , an extra 2 weeks I still haven’t received any email or anything. I’ve checked my junk thinking maybe they sent one although the first automated email came in my inbox but there was nothing in junk either. Very disappointed as I enjoy flying with Sri Lankan Airlines.

Having recently travelled on multiple Sri Lankan Airlines flights I can confirm the other passengers complaints of old and tired planes, disappointing in flight entertainment options and very poor food (both in terms of taste and also rapidly running out of options). However, all of this could be overlooked if some attention was given to improving customer service!! The ticket prices are not cheap, so to find yourself being spoken down to by arrogant and rude staff from check in through to on the plane is simply unacceptable. On every flight we took, we were taken aback by how rudely the staff spoke to us at all times during – it didn’t seem to matter which class we flew either, we were met with short, sharp responses in business and economy! Customer services can really make or break a trip, so if you value being treated well and spoken to politely then I would not recommend booking with Sri Lankan.

CMB-COK, First time flying them, was expecting the worst! but I can tell they are quite ok, and you can tell they are government owned, looooooooots of useless procedures, passport inspection, them again, then credit card inspection, they another person check it all again, seems they employ 3 staffs to do the same job, it`s pathetic. Boarding ok, they call business and priorities first, on board no choices, it`s either spicy vegetarian or spicy vegetarian, flight on time, no AVOD system and the tickets were no cheap, no doubt they are going through some bad financial times.