"A terrible airline"
R Masire (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | Worst airline, please avoid. Our flight was cancelled where we had a 3 hour transit time in Colombo. This was changed so our transit time was 9 hours. We asked for lounge access and they made us wait for 3 hours then gave us a hotel to go to 45mins away from the airport. A terrible airline, please do not book.
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Colombo to London |
Date Flown | March 2023 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"Entertainment system is too old"
G Kajarnath (Australia)
✅ Trip Verified |
Food was terrible - fish and noodles. Toilets unclean with damaged seats. Entertainment system is too old that hardly works (keeps buffering). Seat recliner does not work with seats are visibly worn and torn towards its rest. Flight delays due to other connecting UL flights are delayed and the flight to Melbourne waits longer for connecting passengers Currently flights are full as aged parents and loyal locals flying direct flights but future competition will be challenging for this airline. To its merit, customer service in flight is great
Aircraft | A330 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Colombo to Melbourne |
Date Flown | March 2023 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"an unadulterated disaster"
G Mateer (Singapore)
✅ Trip Verified | A very old and odd layout in business class and the food was terrible. About 2 hours into our flight, almost halfway through to Singapore, the flight had to turn around due to some technical issues. Worse, upon landing back in Colombo, the transfer desk was completely unprepared. You would imagine that as soon as the plane turned around the staff at the transfer desk would have been informed and prepared themselves. Not so at Sri Lankan. They had no idea and for the next 45 minutes nothing happened. There was no announcement or guidance provided to all passengers. The transfer desk staff hand wrote files for each passenger, again the thought of preparing a form even if done in Word and printing it 200 times didn’t occur to them. So about 2 hours later we were given a voucher and directed towards the arrival lobby. Unfortunately, the next snag awaited: immigration whose software did not permit anyone whether foreigner or local to re-enter the country within a certain time period presented the next challenge. After another 40 minutes trying to reset the system, we finally made it past immigration. The next stop was the arrival hall where we waited another 30 minutes for a transfer to the hotel. This transfer only actually took place after some fellow passengers started to lose their patience, as opposed to the Sri Lankan staff who were quite comfortable letting everyone wait for some unknown future trigger event to actually organise the transfer. The hotel was 4 star which I don’t think is commensurate with a business class ticket but I’m inclined to forgive that. We were told the transfer bus back to the airport would leave at 5am. Guess what, all passengers stood in attention at 5am but no bus showed up. Only after several calls by the hotel staff did a bus finally turn up at 5.40am. You would expect a Sri Lankan staff to welcome us and guide us, particularly since the promised e-ticket supposedly to be sent by email at night never reached, none of my fellow passengers I asked received their e-ticket. Well, no staff to guide us at the airport either and no instruction what’s to be done without a valid ticket. Onto the check in counter whose staff had no clue about our replacement flight at an unscheduled time and it took some time to explain the situation. At the time of writing this review I am still at Colombo airport and hopeful I will sometime today 24 hours later reach my destination, fingers crossed. So in short, Sri Lankan airlines is an unadulterated disaster. If you value your sanity, avoid it at all costs.
Aircraft | A330-200 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Seat Type | Business Class |
Route | Colombo to Singapore |
Date Flown | March 2023 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"quality of the food is atrocious"
R Marston (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | Staff are friendly and attentive bur let down by the quality of the service they deliver. It took ages for drinks and snacks to be offered. When they did come round it was time to close the doors and they were coming round to collect the drinks they had only just delivered. The quality of the food is atrocious, flying business class you expect better quality and for your options to be available, given this is most likely the smallest availability of business class seats available on a flight I have seen for such a long journey. The business class had 7 seats vacant so it’s not like they were at full capacity. Both dinner and breakfast meals were limited in their choice, with breakfast apparently only having 5 breakfast omelettes available for the whole of business class. The quality of the food is no different to that of economy. The fully horizontal seats are incredibly uncomfortable and tired, the blankets did not keep you warm at night, and a number of customers asked for more.
Aircraft | A330 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Seat Type | Business Class |
Route | London Heathrow to Colombo |
Date Flown | February 2023 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"Worst experience ever"
Azhar Mohamed (Sri Lanka)
✅ Trip Verified | Worst experience ever! At the time of checkin they have charged me QAR 200 for extra 3kg of luggage and confirmed my seat number which I reserved online prior 48hrs. I brought some goods from Qatar Duty free, but they informed that they allowed only 3kg and informed to return to duty free or throw it. Again at the boarding gate without my approval they have changed my seat and the person informed that they have given the seat to someone else and issued a new boarding pass with a different seat. The way they communicate this was not hospitality way. I thing they need more training regarding customer service. This is my last trip with Sri Lankan airlines and never travel again with this and I will not recommend this to anyone.
Aircraft | A321 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Doha to Colombo |
Date Flown | January 2023 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"The service is great"
Channa Gammanpila (Canada)
✅ Trip Verified | The flight was full and cabin crew accommodated all carryon baggage of passengers utilizing first class overhead bins as well. IFE was good and there was lot to choose either music or films etc. Food was great. The washrooms were cleaned from time to time and condition was satisfactory. The service is great and highly recommended to fly with Srilankan Airlines
Aircraft | A333 |
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | London to Colombo |
Date Flown | November 2022 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"clearly they don't care"
Ranmal Goonetilleke (Sri Lanka)
✅ Trip Verified | My wife and I traveled to Malaysia and were scheduled to return on the 28th of November with the scheduled departure from KLIA @ 8.30pm. We checked in 24 hrs earlier on-line and there was no change to the departure. On the day of the flight as I had my flight details entered to my Google calendar, I received a message from Google that morning that the flight was delayed. Subsequently at about 11am another message from Google confirmed that the flight departure was delayed by about 6 hours! All morning and afternoon I was trying to verify this information with the airline with little success! Finally, after several hours I got through to flight info and was informed that it was indeed delayed by about 6 hrs! We NEVER got an email, call or any other form of official communication from the airline, leave alone an apology!! Since there was no communication by the airline, we had to play it safe and get to the airport unsure if the flight was to leave at the original time! After getting to KLIA we found the flight to he even further delayed by an hour making the total delay 7 hours!! Although we are Sri Lankans ourselves, we have avoided using Sri Lankan airlines because of nightmares such as this, unfortunately, because of the economic situation in SL and the difficulty our National airline was facing, we thought we would be patriotic and support our national airline - a huge mistake which we will never make again!! We strongly advise anyone reading this review to reconsider flying Sri Lankan, clearly they don't care about rendering a decent service to those who patronize their services!!
Aircraft | A320 |
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Business Class |
Route | Colombo to Kuala Lumpur |
Date Flown | November 2022 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"Avoid if travelling with family"
N Vishkan (Australia)
✅ Trip Verified | Travelled with my 18month old. I had purchased an extra ticket considering it was a long haul flight. Trip back was hell. Her seat go taken away stating she is under 2 and does not require a seat. That got given to another family with a baby, who didn't pay for the seat. Then they decided to allocate seats for my wife and daughter away from me. I was seated 2 rows behind. I had already paid extra for seats together so how the hell can it be removed and given to someone else. Worst part was that for 11.5 hrs, there was no food provided for my daughter. I had to go back to cabin assistance and ask for baby food. Considering that I had called 4 days in advance and advised that I will have a toddler so please allocate meals accordingly. Both legs of the long haul, we did not have food for our daughter. Avoid this airline at all cost if you travelling with family, even if you get a free ticket. Trust me, you'll be better off not travelling with them.
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Bengaluru to Sydney via Colombo |
Date Flown | February 2022 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"the cabin lights didn't dim"
Ketut Swardana (Kuwait)
Not Verified | I was very tired and i was expecting to sleep during the flight, unfortunately i can't sleep because the cabin lights didn't dim throughout the flight and the cabin crew selling the alcohol in the middle of the flight which is very noisy. Also passengers keep gathering and talking in very loud voice. 1 hour before landing i was felt so thirsty and I contact the cabin crew from my seat more than 5 times, but no one approached me till we landing.
Aircraft | A330 |
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Kuwait to Jakarta via Colombo |
Date Flown | October 2022 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Wifi & Connectivity | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"I am disappointed with service"
S Garkans (United Kingdom)
✅ Trip Verified | I am disappointed with service provided on flight UL503 from Colombo to London (LHR). Our family, myself, my wife, and two our kids have been seated on seats 21D, 21E, 21G, and 21F. Our kids has been seated on 21G, and 21F. When breakfast/lunch serving started, first has been served all kids except our ones. Our kids has been ignored by Cabin Crew, who was serving right hand aisle (i.e. seats 21G, and 21F). When I saw, that right hand aisle cabin crew started to serve adult, I drew the attention of the cabin crew serving the left hand side aisle, that my kids has been ignored. Left hand side aisle cabin crew served my kids immediately. When cabin crew started to serve beverages, my kids again has been ignored by Cabin Crew, who was serving right hand aisle. Then I stand and draw their attention, why they continue ignoring my kids, and serve only rows in front and behind us. They apologise and served my kids with a beverages. Such attitude is unacceptable. Staff on flight UL503 has been unpleased, unpolite, inattentive, careless. Another issue was with In-Flight Entertainment System. Seats 21D, 21E had non-functioning IFE system. I informed about that Cabin Crew several times, they only restarted screens, what doesn’t solve the problem. I said to the Cabin Crew that this action doesn’t help, as I did it many times, and monitors still do not functioning as it should be. They promise to restart IFE on whole 21 row from their side. However it never happened, as well as their promises to relocate us on the seats with working IFE system, as per cabin crew information, they had an empty seats available on that flight. I couldn’t expect such attitude from the cabin crew.
Aircraft | A330-300 |
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Colombo to London |
Date Flown | October 2022 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |