SriLankan Airlines

✅ Trip Verified | What a joke of an airline. Avoid at all costs! I booked a flight from London to Melbourne via Colombo for November 2022. Before booking, I've noticed there is a 11hr 55minute transit in Colombo. I've called their call centre and they re-assured me that a transit hotel will be provided, and for me to make the booking on their website and call them back. I've made the booking and called them. After a very long wait, the agent bluntly said, since your transit was less than 12hrs, we won't be able to provide transit accommodation. He further said the policy was changed from 8hrs to 12hrs recently and I need to adhere to the new policy. I've tried to convince him that there are many good airlines that fly the route but I've booked this after confirming with his colleague. He just said it would have been a mistake and I will have to just wait 11hrs 55 minutes at the transit area of a 3rd world airport! I've asked whether I can cancel the booking as it was booked under false pretense, but he said it will incur a financial penalty, with absolutely no empathy or common sense towards a (very expensive) paying customer! I would stay away from this joke of an airline, as legendary hospitality seems to be the last in their agendas!

✅ Trip Verified | I booked a flight for November in July. Booked seats, meals, baggage insurance et all. There were non existent choices for food but a 16 hour flight required some nourishment so we made do. It’s a specific visit for a day - for a wedding. A very long distance and time required for such a short visit. But one that can’t be avoided. So I book the flight and book other requirements like taxis, hotels, meals etc. including hair dresser etc cause I have that little time. And they cancel the flight 2 plus weeks later. I was offered a flight the next day. The same time in the night. After the wedding is over. Makes no sense. I explained that and was told I will get a full refund. I scramble around and find another flight an hour later than this was to depart, pay more of it and ask for a refund for the one cancelled by the airline. 12 days now. Nothing. No refund. No response. I’m going bonkers calling a pathetic call centre. There is no customer service. There is zero empathy. Zero understanding of the situation and no refund for a flight that I didn’t cancel the airline did. And forced me to pay more to get another ticket for the same day. It’s a clear situation. They cancelled the flight. And we don’t have an option to go later. It’s not a leisure visit. It’s an event. Never ever going to use this airline ever again no matter the situation or what they offer. This is the first time I have ever come across such apathy and terrible customer service. Such a complete failure of a service provider.

✅ Trip Verified | Customer service representatives in call centers do not even know what customer service is, a horrible experience. It's a nightmare to deal with those representatives and their communication skills are very poor. Airport check-in service was slow as hell. It took more than 30 mins to checked-in the customer in front of me. Departure was delayed by more than 30 mins, with no explanation/ apology to customers (customer service at its best). Fuel stop in India hence delayed the flight duration by more than an hour. Dinner was served while the seat belt indication is ON and at the time flight was not stable (bumpy) at all. If the cabin crew had a little bit of common sense they could have delayed it and served it a bit later. Multimedia system only worked for 2 hours (out of 14 hours) of flight time. Overall my worst experience with a commercial airline so far & It was my first and last time with Sri Lankan Airlines, thank you for providing me worst possible experience!

Not Verified | London to Colombo. We booked and paid, and then tried to find more information on whether we could fly with an infant. Customer service was 2h waiting time and they knew nothing at the end of the wait. So I cancelled within the 24h window of free cancellation. 6 months later I have not received my refund and every time I have contacted them, they tell me it will come soon, and then there is silence. I have sat on their calls time after time, they have 2K of our money, and they are just ignoring us.

✅ Trip Verified | My mum's phone was stolen right before flying with Sri Lankan Airlines and the way they took care of her was absolutely phenomenal. For context, she had turned her back for a moment to throw away some trash and someone swiped it. She was due to fly from Colombo to Melbourne and then from there to Auckland. Her phone contained her electronic boarding pass, all her contacts, and essentially her only way of contacting me (a significant blow since I would be picking her up in Auckland). Naturally, she was beside herself. And due to several factors (that several airlines have to contend with these days) there was significant delay in the initial leg of the journey, meaning that she missed her flight from Melbourne and I had no way of knowing what her alternative flight would be. Sri Lankan Airlines was able to help in several ways. I am so grateful that the staff member in the Sri Lankan Office was able to liaise with the gate crew in Melbourne so that my mum would have my contact info and was reassured that I knew what was going on. I would like to thank the Sri Lankan Airlines staff member who conveyed that message and reassured my mum. They kept me apprised of all the updates including the alternative flight. My mum (and another passenger travelling to Auckland) were assigned an alternative flight. Because this alternative flight was departing late the next day, Sri Lankan Airlines arranged for them to have accommodation at the Holiday Inn in Melbourne. Throughout this entire ordeal, the service provided by Sri Lankan Airlines was top-notch and I can't thank the involved parties enough. I also want to thank the contact centres in Sri Lanka and Melbourne, eternally grateful.

✅ Trip Verified | Flew London to Sydney via Colombo. There is a long wait in Colombo however SriLankan put me up in a pretty decent hotel right on the beach to wait out my 12 hours. If you want a hotel, you have to book it through reservations and once it’s done it’s a pretty straight forward process when you arrive in Colombo. So far as the flights. A330-300 has the herringbone layout with lay flat beds which were quite comfortable and I managed a good sleep on both legs. Inflight service wasn’t outstanding, was a bit hit and miss but was ok. IFE wasn’t outstanding but had a reasonable selection of movies and tv shows sufficient for the journey. Overall, although not high frills, if you want a comfortable, cost effective journey in a pretty reasonable business class give Sri Lankan a go - I will fly with them again.

Not Verified | I had a pretty good experience both ways. First flight was an older plane and it was a bit shabby but acceptable. The food and service was good. Our return flight was on a newer plane and and it was very clean and comfortable. Yes, the outward flight was delayed as they had to refuel in Malaysia due to lack of fuel in SriLanka but there was not much the airline could do about that. My IFE unit didn't work going out. I read my book and slept so not a big deal for me. Overall I was satisfied with the flight. The food was quite good for economy class and staff were pleasant. I would fly with them again.

✅ Trip Verified | Extremely disappointed but expected! When handed the headphones they weren’t working so I told the attendant that I need this sorted as I couldn’t just sit there for 11 hours, he apologised and asked if I wanted to swap seats but I explained that I can’t just move seats, my partner has to as she suffers from severe anxiety however it wasn’t taken seriously. Then I swapped seats with my partner so I can watch something to only find out the seat doesn’t recline and it’s broken. The person in front had her seat far back and even though I asked her to move it as mine doesn’t recline she didn’t. Then I complained again and asked if my partner can have free Wi-Fi for a few hours as the headphone connection wasn’t working and he said he can’t do that so then my partner ended up paying but the Wi-Fi only worked for about 15 minutes even though she bought it for 3hours. I then told her to get a screen recording and proof of how many people are using Wi-Fi and there was 3 people including my partner. I spoke with the flight attendant again and I asked him if he can move us, we got told no as the flight is fully booked, so I asked him if we can upgrade and put us in business class and his response was that they’re not allowed to upgrade us to which I replied that we paid a lot of money and expect the right service. This is the only airline that I’ve been on where they don’t take customer service as seriously as other airlines will meet the customer requirements. I don’t fully blame the flight attendant as he’s following rules however I do think he could’ve done something to make our 11 hours a little bit better.

✅ Trip Verified | Melbourne to Hyderabad via Colombo. Worst airline, delayed for 5 hrs and there is no information to customers. A lack of customer service. Please ignore SriLankan Airlines and no customer support.

✅ Trip Verified | This is my first time about to fly with Srilankan Airlines and so far before even flying with them the experience is a nightmare. On Monday night, I received an email about the airline cancelling my connection with them from Mumbai on Sunday the 12th. My original reservation included another airline which is supposed to fly me from MLE TO Mumbai where I connect to Srilankan with SEZ as final destination. In an attempt to resolve the issue, I called since Tuesday morning and spoke with this agent who promised to put me on their flight leaving MLE to SEZ via Sri Lanka on Saturday night, June 11, around 9PM to arrive in SEZ on Sunday June 12th at around 4AM. I was fine with that as their next flight to SEZ on June 18th would ruin the remainder of my travel back home to the USA with Emirates. She promised to reach out within 2 hours and never did. I emailed several times but all I ever receive are general email acknowledgement responses. I called the Male office yesterday to be told that the 1 person who can assist me was in a meeting. I called back several times afterwards to no avail. Finally, I was told to call at 5PM before their office closes at 5:30. Then, I spoke with the same agent who spoke to me on Tuesday just to be told to email as she is unable to help and rudely hung up. Desperate to know when I'm leaving this island, I went to the airport but Srilankan staff was not there then. Airport information gave me a number that I called and spoke with someone whom again wasn't able to help me. After chatting with him on whatsapp for hours. He finally told me to file a complaint, which I will do in addition to other things but at this point, the priority to me is to continue with my travels planned 3 months ago.