SriLankan Airlines Official Reviews 

A third-world air company. I bought better seats but didn't get them on board. I asked company to refund but it's just ignoring me. A 4 HOURS delay with a night flight. Bad onboard service. Just awful. Pure incompetence.

On the 25th February, my return flight from Colombo to London was delayed by 4.5 hours. Whilst I did received emails alerting me to the delays, they were numerous and confusing (at one point the flight time was actually brought forward by an hour!) and made it very difficult to plan travel to the airport. Additionally, I incurred additional costs related to extended hotel stays and changes in UK airport transportation due to the delay. I wrote to Sri Lankan Airlines on my return and it took more than a month to get a reply, despite their website suggesting it would be within 10 days. Unsurprisingly their reply stated "we regret that the Airline has not considered offering compensation to the passengers in connection with this situation. Thus, we regret that the airline will be not be able to accede to your request to offer any form of compensation in this regard.". I subsequently discovered that there have been such serious problems with flight cancellations and delays that the Sri Lankan Government has considered revoking their license to fly internationally (google it if you need proof). As well as reports of staff protests, staff disruption and rats found in the planes! (Again, easy to find info if you google). I strongly advise people not to fly with Sri Lankan Airlines. It's very sad as Sri Lanka is actually a wonderful country.

The worst experience EVER with an airline company!!!!

We booked on their website a flight from Rome to Colombo, with a first connecting flight Roma - AbuDhabi, operated by Etihad and the second one AbuDhabi - Colombo operated directly by them.
The problem is that their flight (the second one) has never departed! We received an email about the cancellation THE SAME MORNING, while we were boarding on the first plane, and then no more info or details.
Once arrived in Abu Dhabi we looked for an info point, where we have been waiting for more than one hour for, at the end, being informed that the plane had some technical issue and so they would have been able to make us fly 2/3 days later. CRAZY!

So that, we've been obliged to book a last minute flight with Etihad AT OUR EXPENSE.
But that's not even the worse part of the story

Now 4 months have already passed, we've been asking for the refund we deserve considering the flight cancellation, our extra money spent and all the troubles caused. You know what? All their contacts (italian office number, whatsapp support and online customers) tell us to reach their online refunds but NO ONE HAS NEVER DARE, EITHER ONCE TO ANSWER, it's like this team is unreal.

What a terrible airline and terrible team that work there. I'm really shocked of their behaviour and i'm going to proceed with legal steps!

No entertainment on outbound and inbound, told there were no aisle seats when there were rows of empty seats despite our tour operator trying to pre book. Many of us were bitten by fleas. Duck tape hold the toilet together and for me, worst of all was being told I could only stand if I was queuing for the toilet. Told it was a safety issue. The seatbelt sign was not on. I suffered very badly with leg cramps after the flight. Hideous, hideous airline.

Flew with Srilankian Airways and Qatar Airways to Sri Lanka from Denmark with my family in February. Worst flight experience ever.Delayed Flight to Sri Lanka of one day because of engine problem. No information of the next Flight at all at the Doha Airportport.Delayed Flight back to Denmark.Got the message by mail a few hours before leaving to the Sri Lanka Airport from the Hotel in Colombo.The Food and service in the Srilankian Flight was fine.But not Qatar Airways. I have a damaged Suitcase again this time (2nd time in the last 2 years) but no reaction from Srilankian Airways office,although the Srilankian Airways office wrote
a form with fotos etc.on arrival at the Sri Lanka Airport. The same happend with Qatar Airways last year.This is the last time I'm travelling with these two Airlines.I hope this will help other Passengers not to choose these Airlines for their next trip.

Our flight Cochin - Colombo was cancelled. We were delayed 24 hours and had to cover all expenses ourselves. In Europe this cancellation would have secured each passenger a compensation of 600 Euro. Our expense of 750 US $ was ignored totally by the airline. Never fly Srilankanske Airlines if you expect better than 3rd world country service.

I have never experienced a flight being canceled and rebooked a day earlier, which meant I had a transfer time of 30 hours. This was the return flight.
To make matters worse, I had a delay of +6 hours when transferring from Bangalore to Colombo, this was the outbound flight. Everything was incredibly messy and disorganized.
The planes are very outdated, and the seats were really uncomfortable, my back was hurting. The only drinks given out are water and orange juice.

I had booked my ticket with KLM, luckily they were able to help me rebook my outbound flight free of charge so that I did not have to wait 30 hours for the next flight. Kudos to KLM for the good service.

Thanks to Sri Lankan Airlines I had 1 day less holiday
I will never fly with this poor airline again

13-02-2024 UL174 inbound
24-02-2024 UL171 outbound

Had a good experience during my flight hours Mel to SL. Not delayed, everything was good. Specifically, thanks to Nishani, Aron, Mohan, Lakshman & Mahesh Other crew members were Jehann, Sajjad & Ishara, UL 605 on 17th January.

I came again to Mel from SL on 9th February 2024 on UL 604. Also, that was good.

Fight to columbo cancelled from London. No help at all and not told what us going on. One person at the desk trying to sort out for a full plane. Now midnight! Will never ever travel thus Irline again

When I see all the negative feedbacks I thought to write this.I have been flying to and from London to Colombo twice a year for many years now. Every time I fly with SriLankan airline. I never have problems.Most of the time it was an airbus named ‘ City of Hasti shaylapura’which is a reasonably good aircraft.Although I am a British citizen I was born in the same city.(Actually it is not a city it is a town)
No big delays, cabin crew is excellent.pilots are very competent,Food is reasonably good.,Entertainment is ok.My baggage allowance is 45 kg is another advantage though I don’t carry so much.

I flew with my family yesterday from Lahore to London. This is best customer service I’ve ever received in my 18 years of flying with different airlines.
Staff is the best in world. Yes plane needs cleaning and update.
My one year son(Ibrahim)was treated like prince. Staff gave him separate meals, book and toys.
Minoli air hostess from Colombo to London on flight UL503 she is JEM of Srilankan airline. Srilankan airline has a true ambassador while Minoli is in plane.
Great service, honest staff, Thank you for everything.

Very poor - a disgrace to the OneWorld brand. We treated ourselves and flew to Colombo in Business. What a disappointment. Elderly cabin, the worst selection of aged films ever, and economy food served in business. As far as I could see, they just take the silver foil off and call it business class (so that it goes cold whilst you are eating a measly starter).
I have a BA gold card, yet was refused access to the first class lounge, a violation of OneWorld policy. In the business lounge, the hot buffet choices were all stone cold, and the staff only found out when I told them.
What a waste of our savings - no treat at all. I emailed both OneWorld and Sri Lankan airlines, but neither have bothered to respond. AVOID!

Cancelled one leg of flight and changed other leg by 3 days! Didn't even tell us, just found out when logged in to see if ok few weeks before. Still no refund / apology / contact.
Avoid at all costs as obviously do not care less about customers.

My friend use to travel for a holiday.She said she will never come back again.The flight staff were rude and abusive ..

They cancelled our flight two hours before the departure and blamed it on technical difficulties but then we found out they cancelled it because the plane wasn’t full enough. If flights get cancelled usually they let you stay in a hotel but not with Sri Lanka Airlines. They let us stay in a hostel that deserves less than 1 Star rating. It was dirty, smelled horrible and the workers where so rude! I am very disappointed with Sri Lanka Airlines. I don’t recommend it.

Avoid this airline!
T.V’s do not work and absolutely no attempt to rectify. This was outbound and inbound.
Air hostess sitting on the floor during take off from Sri Lanka to Maldives. Plane falling apart, you can see all the inside of the seat in front.
Delay in Maldives on the way home resulting in connecting flight leaving without us. No more flights available so put up in a poor hotel in Colombo. Wouldn’t let us pick up our luggage so had to stay in same clothes. No apology.
Finally got a flight home the following day but flight was not serving alcohol and again TV’s not working. They ignore the call buttons (probably weren’t working looking at the state of the interior of the plane) .
Initial complaint when we got home was replied to asking another department (cc-ed in to email) to deal with. No correspondence since, emails totally ignored.

Will never fly with this airline again and my advice will be to book with someone else, accident waiting to happen!
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Liars!!!
I'd give zero stars....
They sent an email on the 31st Jan 24 saying there is a 20% if you book during 1st Feb -4th Feb to fly from Feb -Nov 24. I checked price at 9.30pm on 31st Jan 24 it was £843 for the day I was looking to fly.
8am on the 1st Feb it had risen to £1000!!!
Sri Lankan Airlines where is the 20% discount???
I tried to call their reservation number after holding for one hour gave up no one answers.... no surprises there after reading many reviews.

Both times we flew with Sri Lankan Airlines, something went wrong. Both of the times, our flight was delayed. Both our flights were ten hours long. (Australia to Colombo and then the return flight). For the first flight both of our screens were not turning on , and when enlightening the staff about the issue, they didn't come.up with a solution. For the full ten hours we didn't have access to entertainment. Then, hoping the return flight would be better, everything went wrong again. Our flight was delayed. On-top of that, the audio of the tv wasn't even working. Again,the staff found no solution. So, both the times we flew with the airlines, we didn't even have access to the tv on our ten hour flights. The food was good though

I hope people read the reviews before booking - this is a business that should not make a profit or exist.

My experience - we booked a flight from Chennai to Colombo (return) and also a return flight from Columbo to Male in between. We decided not to travel to Male and therefore cancelled that part of the flight. We had a refund, but obviously it wasn’t for the full amount (as we still had the Chennai to Colombo flights). We had email confirmation of the changes.

A week before the flight, I was trying to log on to download tickets. The reference number wasn’t recognised by the system. I called the UK customer service number. After an hours wait, I eventually spoke to a customer service rep. After a further 45 mins of conversation and him searching, the rep confirmed that all flights had actually been cancelled. The unhelpful advice was to email Srilankan airways. I did, but had no response to those emails. Consequently, I was forced to book with an alternative provider, but due to needing to travel in the next few days the cost was quite high for a short flight (no complaint with the new airline - Whiz Air).

Since coming back to the UK, I have emailed them asking for 2 things;

1. A full refund. More than reasonable given I have an email advising that only a proportion of my flights had been cancelled.
2. Compensation to cover the additional cost of the alternate flights that I had to book at short notice.

I’ve now sent 4 emails and received no reply. I don’t hold out much hope frankly, but I would like to do my bit to protect other customers.

Worst experience ever!
My flight from Trivandrum to Colombo was cancelled and I‘ve been automatically re-sheduled for another airport (Kochi), which is very very far away. So I’ve sent an email to the company to ask to change my date so I am able to fly from Trivandrum. Nothing happened for 5 days. Only an automatic answer. Then I used the online chat function- dates cannot be changed via this platform, also not via the app by myself. I called the provided number of the global call centre in India (with my german number- expensive but no other choice!)- the number has been discontinued. Please call the local office. The first number of the local office in Trivandrum- not valid. At the second number- they cannot help me, please contact the global office. I called the global office in Sri Lanka from India (super expensive)- 5 minutes only advertisement what I can book in addition. Reached nobody personally but paid a lot. Then decided to fill the online refund form- also not possible. What the hell is this! I never had such a bad flight company!!!!Nobody cares or able to do anything, nothing is possible!!! Issue still not resolved, but ticked paid :(