SriLankan Airlines

Not Verified | Our flight UL166 from Kochi, scheduled to depart at 10:20 AM, was delayed until 12 PM. Consequently, we missed our connecting flight from Colombo to London. The staff later mentioned that the flight did not wait for us as other passengers on the flight would miss their connections. Does that mean our time and money are of no value? Are we traveling for free? The customer service at Colombo airport was extremely poor. We were not informed that we had missed our flight. A staff member just asked us to follow him, and we thought he was trying to expedite our transfer to the London flight. He told us we missed the flight only when I specifically asked him. The staff then nonchalantly suggested we wait until the next day's afternoon flight, offering free accommodation and travel as if this was a satisfactory solution. Don’t assume everyone will be happy to accept anything given for free. Our trip was not a leisure visit to Sri Lanka, and this unexpected delay caused us to lose over 12 hours. I was scheduled to return to work on Monday, the 15th, after a three-week holiday due to a family emergency. This disruption made it very difficult at work, as I had to negotiate additional leave. Furthermore, I was traveling with my four-year-old daughter and my elderly parents with health issues, which made the situation even more challenging. After an hour of conversation with the staff, they suggested a flight from Colombo to London via Riyadh. We had to agree to this as it was the only option available. Another solution suggested by the staff was that I could take a night flight if I had to return to work, while the rest of my family stayed until the next day due to insufficient seats. This was an unreasonable and impractical suggestion. The entire journey was made hectic due to this delay. Additionally, the food served on the Colombo to Riyadh flight was substandard, and the flight from Kochi was untidy. This was my first and last travel experience with your airline.

Not Verified | Avoid Srilankan Airlines at all cost. We faced a worst experience on 26th of June when we had to travel from Srilankan to India. On 26th we had a flight (UL 139) at 1.35pm but our seats were given to someone else and they told us that the flight was overbooked and also they forced us to take another flight the following day. After some time we got a connecting flight (Srilankan to Trivandrum via Bangalore - UL 171) at 6.45pm, which was again cancelled few minutes before boarding. Regarding this no any proper response was given from the staffs for our questions and their behaviour was very rude and ignorant. We were told that if we question them (transit staff), they won't let us fly the following day. Many people faced trouble without food and accomodations for days due to continuous flight cancellation. On 27th we had a flight at 8.20am (UL 161) and that was delayed for 5 hrs. Never fly in Srilankan Airlines.

✅ Trip Verified | Very bad service. People are waiting for more than 10 hours in the Airport and they are not giving any food or accommodation. Never ever fly with this airline.

✅ Trip Verified | Things started off badly pre-flight - the lounge you get to access with One World status is without shadow of a doubt the poorest excuse for a lounge I have ever experienced. Tiny (no seats), no facilities and just warm bottled water. And it was dirty. The same way the kept the plane it turned out. The seats were cramped - it was the first time my 14 year old complained about not having enough space. The cabin was old and tired. The food was edible, but not great. The IFE did not work at all for any of the four seats we were in for the entire 12 hour trip. IFE is pretty fundamental when you are traveling long haul and with a family. The crew reset it 6 times and said I would be contacted post flight about compensation. I was not and, upon complaining, I found that the customer service is beyond poor. They did not dispute the lack of IFE or that its existence was pretty fundamental (who would choose to fly an airline without it). After much delay and effort chasing them, I was eventually offered the grand prize of the ability of getting a $20 discount the next time I choose to spend thousands with them. Needless to say - traveling with them again is something that will never happen. I will avoid at all costs.

✅ Trip Verified | Merely contributing to the scores of bad reviews for reason of: Horrible customer service, lost time and funds in attempts to right any wrongs, website functionality, missing flight rewards, failures to honour travel vouchers, but primarily: lack of appropriate (or any) response to legitimate enquiries/concerns. Despite the multiple attempts and length of time, lessons have finally been learned. This was the last occasion on which I, or any of my staff in Maldives will fly Sri Lankan. Conversely, in-person service on actual flights has always been commendable.

✅ Trip Verified | Do not use this airline even if the price is right. Totally unreliable, no communication skills and they just send holding e mails when you contact them. My flight was cancelled late at night until the following day. I missed one day of my trip and was legally entitled to compensation. They refuse to pay and it is now 3 months. I am taking legal action for myself and two friends but it is time consuming. Flight UL 504 27 February 2024 London to Columbo. No UK representative & no UK number to call.

✅ Trip Verified | My recent flight with SriLankan Airlines was an absolute nightmare. As a Sri Lankan citizen and a student in Malaysia, I thought supporting our national carrier was the right move. I show up at the airport ready to go, only to be told my seat was given away because the flight was full. Ended up taking a detour through Chennai with a three-hour layover before finally reaching Malaysia. Not cool, especially when I had booked a direct flight. To make matters worse, the person at the boarding pass desk was so rude and ignorant! Tried to sort things out at the boarding desk, but they couldn't care less. Forced me onto a transit flight without a second thought. To top it off, my baggage decided to take a detour of its own to Chennai! So there I was, stranded in Malaysia without my stuff. Avoid SriLankan Airlines at all costs if you want an easier trip. Save yourself the headache and go with a different airline.

✅ Trip Verified |   The Jakarta to Colombo leg of the flight was delayed by an hour but otherwise great with comfortable seats, good food and a nice personal entertainment device but content library is quite limited. The check-in experience was also quite pleasant and the on-board crew was very good as well. However, the boarding process was a bit of a mess and quite disorganised. However, the Colombo to Mumbai leg was not as comfortable, the aircraft was a leased aircraft and the seats were very uncomfortable - extremely upright with no lower back support and no place to keep your knick knacks like water bottle. The crew and the food was quite good though. It was just about bearable because the Colombo - Mumbai leg is a short 2.5 hour hop but any longer and you would end up with a back-ache for sure.

✅ Trip Verified |   I got an amazing deal on Sri Lankan between Mumbai and Jakarta, and the flights were not bad at all. The crew is very friendly and responsive and the flights were on-time with good food and good leg-room. On the Mumbai to Colombo leg they did not have entertainment but since it is a short 2.5 hour hop, it did not matter so much but the Colombo - Jakarta leg had entertainment screens (though dated) but movie selection is quite limited. Overall the planes do show wear and tear but that did not take away from the experience. The bathrooms were also kept clean throughout the journey, so, overall quite happy with the experience. I did miss a small snack or even a tea/coffee service towards the end of the Colombo - Jakarta leg and they should upgrade their movie library and screens, which are quite dated. You may want to keep in mind that Colombo airport is pretty basic and not the best for a long layover without lounge access, there are very few comfortable seating and charging options, thankfully there was a Priority Pass Lounge which made it bearable since I had close to 7 hour layover.

✅ Trip Verified | My husband and I recently passed through Kuala Lumpur Airport on the last day of our honeymoon. Our flight was booked through SriLankan Airlines but the third and final flight was operated by Malaysia Airlines. We have experienced this many times previously, where we’ve booked through one airline and had multiple flights operated by more than one airline, and never had problems in the past. At the check in desk in Male the Sri Lanka Airlines representative gave us the boarding passes for our first two flights and informed us we needed to ‘pick up the boarding passes for our third flight at the transfer desk in Colombo or Kuala Lumpur’. The rep did not say we weren’t checked in for this third flight, and confirmed our luggage was also due to make the full journey across the three flights without the need for us to collect or recheck baggage. At Colombo Airport transfer desk the staff member told us we needed to collect our boarding passes in Kuala Lumpur, which was surprising as this information differed from what the first Sri Lanka Airlines rep told us in Male. Our flight from Colombo to KL landed around 25 minutes late and it then took around 15 minutes to disembark and reach the transfer desk at KLIA. We immediately went to the desk and got there around 7.40am. We spoke to someone on the right side of the desk (separate to the Malaysia Airlines section), and they asked to see our flight itinerary. At 7.47am I took a screenshot to show the rep. Given our flight was due to be operated by Malaysia Airlines and the staff member had started serving someone else, we then saw there was a separate transfer desk for Malaysia Airlines. We immediately headed to the long queue at around 7.50am. Although the line was long (our estimate is around 30 people waiting), we expected it would move at a reasonable pace. After taking turns in the line to use the restroom, when my husband and I were both in the line waiting together we soon realised it was not moving. There was one staff member serving the huge number of passengers and seemingly requiring 10 minutes or more per passenger. We heard others around us talk of their flight time with the two women in front of us saying their flight was prior to ours. Passengers were pushing in the line with disorder in the queue. Many people jumped the line saying they still needed to check in or had children. There was also a very large group being served in one line and they appeared to be at the front of the queue for almost the entire time we were waiting. By the time we finally reached the front of the line around 9am, the staff member rudely spoke to us and told us we missed check in 25 minutes prior. We told her we were waiting over an hour in the queue to which she unsympathetically said she called our names, and she accused us of not being in the queue the entire time. We corrected her to which she accusingly blamed us for not hearing our flight being called. Other passengers around us said they did not hear our flight / names called and half an hour later a man came up to us and said, ‘they did not call your flight’. Sri Lanka Airlines provided no support at all via phone and there was no one from the airline physically at the airport. They completely disregarded us and just took the money. We will never fly Sri Lanka Airlines or Malaysia Airlines again.