"Srilankan Airlines is very poorly run"
Jayantha Seneviratne (Australia)
✅ Trip Verified | My Qantas code sharing flight 3422 operated by Srilankan Airline was scheduled to depart Colombo on the 25th Dec 12:15PM. We arrived at the airport at 9AM and flight was cancelled at 9:30AM - no advanced notification. Then they gave us a single option of travelling directly to Sydney in their carrier UL606 which we grudgingly accepted (Departure 12:10AM 26Dec). Then they kept us starving in an area with no shops to purchase food/water till 12:30pm. They transferred us all the way back to Colombo city centre and checked us in to a hotel at 2:30PM. Meal was delivered to the room at 3:30PM. We were asked to get ready and wait for the airport pickup by 8pm but the Srilankan airline driver turned up at 9pm! We had no chance of getting to the airport on time in the Christmas traffic in Colombo and we missed 12:10AM flight. Then they offered us another UL direct flight to Melbourne dep 1:20am and a Mel/Syd Qantas connecting flight. We had to rush to that flight too and we are not young any more to rush like that and I was fearful of my wife getting a heart attack. This is my hellish return flight to Australia from Colombo. Srilankan Airlines is very poorly run and this type of delays are reported all over the local newspapers. Bringing passengers back to Colombo on a Christmas Day is total madness!
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Colombo to Singapore |
Date Flown | December 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 |
"absolute pleasure to fly with"
Sam Nair (Singapore)
✅ Trip Verified | An absolute pleasure to fly with. Friendly crew and an experience to remember. Seat comfort is remarkable. Highly recommended to fly with SriLankan airlines
Aircraft | A330 |
Type Of Traveller | Business |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Kochi to Colombo |
Date Flown | December 2023 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | yes |
"the airline is in a sad state"
N Beale (Australia)
✅ Trip Verified | On the day of departure I had a call then e mail saying it was two hours late. Was three hours late. The lounge allocated was a pay type lounge with poor offerings. On boarding economy boarded first. We were left as unwanted far from priority while we just watched everyone go before us. The crew on board however were outstanding- better than SQ even. So warm and engaging. Entertainment was good. The seat back I could feel metal it was so worn. Little storage, earphones rubbish. I used my own but dropped a piece and on trying to retrieve it saw how absolutely filthy it was down under and around the seat. The light blanket they provide was too light and no mattress topper. Leather needs it. The amenity kit was very basic. Food was okay. Large servings but quality lacking. Arrived at 2am along with lots of flights. No priority for the bus to terminal nor immigration. So the staff were nice but the airline is in a sad state.
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Business Class |
Route | Melbourne to Colombo |
Date Flown | December 2023 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"worst flight ever taken"
Anuki Fernando (Australia)
Not Verified | The worst flight ever taken. I had to catch the SriLankan Airlines flight at transit in Singapore and let me you tell you to never fly with this utmost terrible airline. Was so exhausted already after 7 hrs flight from Brisbane to Singapore and then the flight Sri Lankan Airlines flight got 2 hours delayed. It was a nightmare. The customer service was terrible and I had to ask for a blanket 3 times and then only got one. At one of the three times, they said they are out of blankets. It then took at least 45 mins to distribute the meals in the plane and the flight crew was running up and down like hundred times because they weren’t organized enough to use a trolley. They weren’t attentive to customers at all. Also they was a beep tone every 2-3minutes in the flight from start to the end which interrupted most of the sleeping time.
Type Of Traveller | Solo Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Singapore to Colombo |
Date Flown | December 2023 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
“Cancellation four days before take-off”
Peter Sommer (Switzerland)
Not Verified | Really bad airline - they cancelled my flight (4 passengers) four days in advance without giving reason - Not offering any alternative but same flight one week later. Cancellation four days before take-off cost a lot of money if you have to find new tickets. Never again!
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Geneva to Colombo |
Date Flown | December 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 |
"they can't give the boarding pass"
Hanish Melekandi (Australia)
✅ Trip Verified | There were two incidents, one at Kochin Airport and other one in Colombo to Sydney Flight. On 2nd of Feb 2023, my wife, 1 baby, 2 kids and My mother were going to take flight from Kochin to Colombo and then Colombo to Sydney with Layover time 50minutes. During the check-in at Kochin, they only gave boarding pass from Cochin to Colombo and upon requesting for boarding pass from Colombo to Sydney they mentioned first "Seats are full" then my wife was confused as we have confirmed seats with seating numbers and bassinet in our tickets. Upon checking further with Check-in guy, he changes the story and said "Standby Mode" and suggested to get the boarding pass from Colombo, then my wife was not sure what it meant so she tried to explain that my husband who took flight with same route with layover over 12hours got the both boarding pass from Cochin and we took many flights before and we always gets the boarding pass from where we Check-in. Moreover, they need the boarding pass, as the Layover time is only 50min, and all our luggage's are marked as Hot and have 1 baby, 2 kids and my mother to handle, which will put her very difficult to get the boarding pass at Colombo, and very high chances that my family will miss the flight. The guy called other staff to confirm the status of flight and she insisted that they can't give the boarding pass as the status of next flight was "Standby Mode". My wife keeps begging to sort out this with that lady, but they were no use. As she lost hope, she continued with one boarding pass reached the gate to board the flight. While waiting there was another family going to Sydney via Colombo, same flight and route, and they got there boarding pass for both flights. They got served at the same check-in time. Upon hearing this she got frustrated and wanted to check with the Sri Lankan staff again. But the security guys didn't let her go back to check-in area, so she informed the security guys that she want to speak to Sri Lankan staff immediately. One of the guys from Sri Lankan staff arrived at help desk at gate 1 and my wife explained the situation to him, and he was very surprised and shocked that this happened, and he issued boarding pass from the gate. Now my wife got both the boarding passes. My wife was curios and looking for explanation, so she saw the lady staff at boarding gate and asked for explanation. Then she straight away said "Did I serve you?" and responding in very rude way instead of giving explanation, my wife was only looking for explanation from the lady.
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Kochin to Sydney via Colombo |
Date Flown | February 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 |
"rude beyond what I can express"
S Halfina (India)
✅ Trip Verified | Flight UL 178 Hyderabad to Colombo. The air hostess wasn’t giving us water though we asked several times whereas she was giving it to others. When called out on this difference in treatment, she misbehaved and said that she gave us tea/coffee and that should be enough. She was rude beyond what I can express. There were two of them and both treated us the same way but when we called out their behavior, one of them had the courtesy to apologize but the other remained arrogant and indifferent. Airlines are supposed to be a hospitable industry, ensuring that passengers are comfortable during the journey.
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Hyderabad to Colombo |
Date Flown | December 2023 |
Seat Comfort | 12345 |
Cabin Staff Service | 12345 |
Food & Beverages | 12345 |
Inflight Entertainment | 12345 |
Ground Service | 12345 |
Value For Money | 12345 |
Recommended | no |
"a dismissive I don't care attitude"
S Markera (Australia)
✅ Trip Verified | An unfortunate and disappointing experience I encountered during my recent travel on SriLankan Airlines flight UL605 from Colombo to Melbourne. The ground handling staff at the departure gate exhibited a level of rudeness and unprofessionalism that was disheartening. As a loyal customer of SriLankan Airlines, I have always expected and received a certain standard of service, but unfortunately, my recent encounter fell far short of those expectations. Moreover, I was witness to a blatant violation of the boarding procedure. It was disconcerting to observe that business class passengers, including myself, were held back while the family of a celebrity cricketer was allowed to board ahead of us. This not only created an atmosphere of inequity but also resulted in a delay in the boarding process for all passengers. Adding to the dismay was the apparent lack of concern displayed by the airport service manager when approached with these concerns. Several passengers, myself included, attempted to express our dissatisfaction and seek an explanation for the deviation from standard boarding procedures. However, the response we received was alarming. The airport manager of SriLankan Airlines responded with a dismissive I don't care attitude, undermining the valid concerns of paying passengers. Such a callous attitude from the airport manager is not only unprofessional but also tarnishes the reputation of SriLankan Airlines. Passengers, including myself, deserve to be treated with respect and courtesy, and the demonstrated behavior falls well short of these expectations.
Aircraft | A330-300 |
Type Of Traveller | Family Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Colombo to Sydney |
Date Flown | April 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 | yes |
"such a negative experience"
E Kivits (Netherlands)
Not Verified | Avoid this airline all costs. Regularly, cancellations of flights are not uncommon and lot of problems as results of overbooking strategy. The staff is undertrained, unprofessional and rude. They don’t show any empathy and wont listen to you. Never had such a negative experience an airline.
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Delhi to Colombo |
Date Flown | November 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 |
"couldn’t even talk to a rep"
R Hassan (United States)
✅ Trip Verified | This airlines sucks. Air hostess are rude the customer service line does not care. I waited in line at the transfer services for 20 minutes while other people just cut in front of me and when I said something to the representatives they ignored me. I wanted to see if I can get an earlier flight or hotel since my layover was 12+ hours but I couldn’t even talk to a rep they just ignored me.
Type Of Traveller | Couple Leisure |
Seat Type | Economy Class |
Route | Colombo to Dhaka |
Date Flown | November 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 |