I flew from the Uk to Sri Lanka on Sri Lankan Airlines in Feb 2006 and I have to say it was the worse flight I have ever been on. The plane was dirty and hardly any of the entertainment systems worked and the staff unpolite. For over 5 hours we didnt even see a member of staff! We stopped in the maldives (a stop we werent informed about) and was shocked that despite having over an hour to wait we had to sit on the plane whilst they hoovered around us!
The flight back was when I really began to hate this airline. After being told our flight was delayed and waiting in the airport for hours and being given no more information we decided to ask information desk for information... We where then told that the flight had been indefinietley delayed!!! Thanks for telling us! They sent us to a really poor quality hotel to wait for news of another flight, 27 hours later we got a phone call at 3am to say they had found us a flight, but when we arrived at the checkin they told us it wasnt actually home but to Dubai!! After hours at checkin I started to get angry. I asked why we where waiting so long. Heres a good one... They lost my ticket! Dont ask me how as the girl never left the desk but they did. During this time the staff were very rude and offered no help. They expected me to get onto a plane to Dubai with no ticket to get me to the UK! After some arguing and asking to apeak to a manager, they managed to get me on a flight from Dubai to the UK and gave me a boarding card, but this turned out to be useless.
In the end we made it to Dubai and thats where Emirates took over. It was a welcomed relief to have an intelligent person to talk to with common sense and a polite manner. She managed to get us on a flight to the UK with only an hour to wait in the airport (the one Srilanka offered was another 12 hours!) But there still was the problem of the lost ticket. When it came to getting on the plane they wouldnt let me on, ’no ticket no flight’ where the words. In the end I finally made it home on an Emerites flight two days later.
I would advise anyone NOT to use this airline. There where 12 other people in our party (we got married out there) all flying out on different days and each one had problems with this airline....