SriLankan Airlines Complaints & Reviews

I am extremely disappointed with the complete lack of response from SriLankan Airlines regarding a formal complaint I submitted in August 2024, linked to PNR 6GFJ54.

My group and I faced repeated booking and system errors caused by the airline, which resulted in:
- Unjust cancellation of our tickets
- Additional last-minute flight and hotel costs
- Significant financial loss and emotional stress
I...

To,
The Manager,
(Srilankan airlines),
(1/51 hawwa nagar chakkarapalli ayyampettai thanjavur 614211.)

Date: 21/01/2025

Subject: Complaint about mobile lost at seat

Respected Sir/Madam,

With due respect, I would like to state that my name is M.Mohamed shajahan and I reside at (1/51 hawwa nagar chakkarapalli ayyampettai thanjavur 614211. On 21/01/2025, I flew...

I made a reservation with Sri Lankan Airlines for my cousin to fly from Colombo (CMB) to Toronto (YYZ) on May 01, 2023 with the details as follows:
Ticket purchased: Toronto, Canada
Date & Time of Travel: May 01, 2024, 0325
from Colombo (CMB) Flight No & Route: UL501 – CMB to CDG; Seat 26A UL501 - CDG to FRA; Seat 26A DE2402 – FRA to YYZ with scheduled arrival on 01 May, 2024 at 1800 hrs.
As my cousin was...

I booked my 2way flight via Srilankan airline starting on 25 August from Sydney to Kochi transiting at Srilanka, and returning on 18th September from Kochi to Sydney. The Srilanka airline team kept reminding me that I am eligible for a hotel accommodation since my layover is more than 8 hours for my Sydney to Kochi flight.The flight cost me 1145.70 aud (737 usd). As per the website I am eligible for a 2 way hotel accommodation based on my transit time.

I sent an email to [protected]@srilankan.com and they sent me the below email in response.
“
Dear Sir/Madam,

Thank you for choosing Sri Lankan Airlines!

Kindly note that your hotel accommodation request has been accepted and updated upon the relevant booking. The passenger will be receiving an email confirmation with a briefing of the hotel service within 24 hours of the flight departure.

--
Yours Sincerely,
Shazny Safry.
Sri Lankan Airlines Reservations
”
Upon reaching the airport at the reservation counter, the lady at the counter asked me to step aside and kept pushing the idea on me ‘that I am not eligible for a hotel accommodation as I didn’t receive a confirmation email with an stpc number’. I was not even aware what an stpc number was and I insisted I need a hotel accommodation as I didn’t make any other arrangements since I received the above email.

The lady at the counter was rude and made me wait 3 hours at the counter. And then filled in a form and told me they will give a hotel accommodation. I was sent to the hotel in a vehicle without a proper guard around 1.55 am at night after all that wait. I had to travel close to 30 minutes in a van with fear in an unknown country. I could have been raped and no one would know.

The hotel CATAMARAN was closed and the driver had to wake up the hotel receptionist who was sleeping. The room didn’t have a working tap in the bathroom. The tap came off as I opened the tap.

I barely got 1.5 hour at the hotel to take rest as I had to travel back to catch the international flight to Kochi. No meals or refreshments were provided. When I complained about the experience at the airport, they told it is none of their concern and that I may write to customer care if it mattered to me.

To top it all- My return flight from Kochi to Srilanka got cancelled. My flight time changed from 10.55 pm at night to 10.20 am in the morning. This increased my transit time from 2 to 12 hours.
When I called Srilankan Kochi office, they told me there’s no flight with a transit time lesser than that as I need to catch the next flight to Sydney.

I read the fine prints on
https://www.srilankan.com/en_uk/plan-and-book/plan-for-flight-delay#ContactUs.
And found that they give hotel accommodation in case of flight cancellation and long delays.

1. I made a call to support centre number
+[protected]. The number doesn’t exist.
2. I made 3 calls to Kochi centre on [protected]. They said they are helpless and I need to contact Melbourne office.
3. I then made 4 international calls to Melbourne on +[protected], the last call lasting up to 1 hour. Please be mindful that these calls cost me a fortune. They kept telling me to call them again and then hung up on me. The people I contacted are Yushna Siraj, Sahan Perera and Rakheeb.

In the last call with Rakheeb, he mentioned I’m not eligible for hotel accommodation as I used one hotel accommodation service (despite letting them know the issues I faced trying to avail hotel accommodation). I told them specifically I’m trying to avoid the issue I faced during my last visit to Srilanka.

I sent multiple emails to reservation teams and
[protected]@srilankanau.com.au.

I am unable to understand what I am supposed to do here to sort the hotel accommodation matter.

I need to make an official complaint to the concerned officials in Australia and India raising this safety concern I faced in Srilanka. I cannot leave the matter of safety that I faced in Srilanka as silly and I feel obliged to let people know the importance of this.

I have attached my itinerary number 6ZZ235 before and after revision of the flight timing.

Note: the site
https://www.airport.lk/contact_us/complaints is not working at the last submission button. The phone number
[protected]/[protected]
is not redirecting me to the concerned department

Please assist.

For the las week, I have been attempting to book a return flight to Colombo, on the airline, departing from London in June and returning in July. I have repeatedly filled out the documentation and payment details, only to receive the error message 4620 on each occasion.
I contacted the airline, who said my bank had stopped the transfer. I then went to the bank, who said they did not stop payment, I have the funds and there are no limits or other issues with the account, so the fault must be with the airlines systems.
My son, then attempted to book on my behalf, and got the same message. Please note that he is with a totally different bank, and therefore his card and account are not the same.
I am unfortunately left in limbo, being unable to take my trip, whilst each side blames the other. All i wish to do, is pay the fare and travel as soon as possible, on the airline that I have been told so many positive things about.

Im SADTC Senanayake and yesterday evening I flew from Delhi to Colombo in UL196 and when collecting check in baggage one of my baggage lock was broke and removed

Srilankan airlines is a scam company. They told me i will get my cashback in 3 days. Then after requesting for a long amount of time they told me it will come in 21 working days. After that when i asked where is it they said it will be given in 3 to 4 weeks. Even now they are saying the same. They are thieves they wont return your cashback ever. Never book from this [censored]lankan airlines.

Sir/Madam
This is with regards to my mom named SABIHA ANSURUDEEN aged 70 years had a flight travel on 23rd Nov through Srilankan Airlines from Madurai to Riyadh via Colombo, with BOOKING RESERVATION NO 6MQMYX, and E Ticket no 603-[protected] .
The ticket was booked on 17th Nov 2022 itself, with a plan that she will accompany another person (my Friend) who was also travelling from Madurai to Riyadh in the same flight, so we planned to travel from our home town Coimbatore to Madurai by taxi. Upon reaching the airport on 23rd and my mom got her security and immigration done as usual, being aged and with travel earlier she was made to wait for flight delay, the flight authorities did not inform regarding the delay.
My mom got all her immigration and security check and waiting for boarding, we were informed about the cancellation half an hour to 40 miniutes after the scheduled departure time, They did not give any proper reason and said its technical fault,
The airlines authorities had not offered her any consolation by asking her to stay in hotel which was obligation of the airlines to book hotel till the next schedule flight. She was left to wander without any help from the authorities, till late night. Until taxi was booked by us for her.
The airlines gave an option for another flight after two days, Which was not viable in her aged days to travel again from Coimbatore to Madurai again affecting her health.
As mentioned, she had come from far of place from Coimbatore around 236 KM with 5 hour travel time via road and we had spent for her local travel and she had to book another taxi to go back home again due to cancellation .
We have incurred lot of expenses for my travel to and fro, . Also she had to undergo health issues and had to led to lot of stress.
Also since she had to travel urgently, we booked from an alternative flight on Friday from Cochin
I would like compensation for the cancellation and the stress she had undergone and the financial expense we took because of this uninformed cancellation. Which is totally under Airlines responsibility
I have briefed the list of expenses incurred
Taxi travel from Coimbatore to Madurai 23/11/22 INR 6000
Lunch and dinner expenses INR 200
Taxi travel from Maduari to Coimbatore 23/11/22 INR 7500
Taxi travel from Coimbatore to Madurai 25/11/22 INR 8500
Flight ticket from Cochin to Riyadh on 25/11/22 in INR 32800
Total INR 55, 000

Hi there,

I always prefer Srilankan airlines, but I had really a bad experience this time Last Sunday.
My original flight was from Melbourne to Delhi, (UL 605 & UL191), on 4th Dec 2022, via change over in Colombo, but the flight from Colombo was cancelled and the new flight given was Air India(AI284), for Colombo to Delhi.

As I had to go even further and had another flight booked from Delhi to Amritsar with gap of 4 hours after the initial flights, but the the cancellation messed up my plans.

The new flight was supposed to fly at 2:40 5th Dec, 2022 from Colombo and suppose to land me in Delhi at 6:00, according to which I should still have 2 hours for getting the next flight.

Air India was also got delayed by more than 45 mins which started flying at 3:15 instead of 2:40, and landed me in Delhi at 6:45 instead of 6:00, which means I had only 15 min to do my immigration, get my luggage and go to Vistara domestic flight to do my baggage drop. trying hard requesting everyone at so many checkpoints and breaking the queues, I reached at Vistara counter at 7:20, where they refused to take my luggage as they had closed the counter. they asked me to talk to Air India staff but Air India didn't take their responsibility, the person sitting there said to me we cant help you. and gave me excuses about the flight cancellation. I think that was harassments. After asking few people, I managed to get a bus and had to sit for another 8 hours, after long flight and mental stress, to reach my destination. I had other problems.

Because of first flight cancellation I had all these problems and missed my flight from Delhi to Amritsar, with frustration and mental stress, which continued even in the bus until reached home.

I should be compensated for all the problems I had due to this.

Regards,

Bupinder Singh

I have booked a flight from New Delhi to Paris in Sri Lankan airlines. However they have changed the itinerary from 13th December to 16 December. We changed the plan as to match flight timings, and today again they have changed the itinerary.

When called, they have no response to this.

I had a flight from Singapore to Mumbai via Colombo on 2nd oct, 20:10 pm. I had an active PNR but was still denied boarding even though I had reached the airport at 5:30 in the evening. At the check in counter I was in communication with two people, Shankar ( SRI LANKAN AIRLINES) and Krishnamala ( DNATA CSO). Both these people confused me all together and didn't issue boarding passes giving random reasons. At 7:30 pm I went to the ticketing counter and talked to Mr. Ming Chuan of Sri Lankan Airlines. He told me that my ticket was genuine and I should have been issued a boarding pass. The following are my flight details:
UL-309- SINGAPORE- COLOMBO
UL-141- COLOMBO- MUMBAI
PNR - 6RYRFO
I have been caused great loss to this and would like to aplly for a refund and compensation. There was a fourth person who was with us i.e Hemant Kachariya, who didnt have any problem travelling, but the three o[censored]s were denied boarding.

01/09/2022
Bangalore airport

I travelled from NZ to Bangalore and arrived Bangalore airport at 2.30 am this morning on UL 173. (AKL-MEL, MEL-COLOMBO, COLOMBO-BANGALORE)
I did not receive both my checked in baggage. I complained at the airport and when they escalated, they said they already had the information that my baggage is still in Melbourne. They promised me that it will arrive in the flight tomorrow evening.

I called them to confirm this again this afternoon. And then initially told me they have not placed my baggage yet. I explained what was informed this morning. And then they say that they have placed it, but cannot confirm the date when the baggage will arrive. This is worst experience I have ever had.

Already instead of providing me with all the boarding passes at the origin country, I had to get a boarding pass, literally before boarding at each of my stopover. They had no clue what to do at the Colombo site. They printed some random information on a loose sheet of paper instead of giving me a boarding pass. I had so many questions at the immigration in Bangalore.
On top of it I asked the Sri lankan airlines employee if an upgrade is available and she had no interest telling me about this. My overall experience was really bad and this topped it off

We booked tickets with Srilankan Airlines in March to travel from Melbourne to Kochi on 10/09/2022. We also booked our seats as well, as we are travelling with small kids. Now we noticed that all our seat reservations have been removed without informing us. We contacted airline offices at Melbourne and Srilanka to fix this and unfortunately both customer service officers were extremely unhelpful and rude and simply said they cant do anything about it. We understand there is a schedule change in the flight from Melbourne to Colombo, but the seat reservations for other flights have also been removed and now they are booked by some one else. We don't understand what sort of customer care and guarantee you are providing us. Now we have to wait until 48 hours before travel to book seats which is also not guaranteed, making lots of stress to fly long 14 hours with two small kids. We have original E tickets issued to us with seat numbers which is of no use now. We hope the airlines can do something about it. Looking forward to hear from you.
Booking reference- 56KB2P- AYINIPULLY SUKUMARAN
Kind regards
Bincy & Sudhish

I was travelling to Seychelles on 27August 2022 on UL707. My Baggage did not arrive. When I contact Baggage section in Sri Lanka directly; they did not have any idea about an approximate date of delivery for my baggages. I have no clothes and stuf[censored]ntil I get my baggages.

There were around 60 - 70 passengers who faced this issue in the flight I came. And this is not the first time experience with Sri Lankan Air Lines.
br...

I dont get a single reply from Srilankan Airlines with regards to my refund status. Their refund policy is to give a reply on the amount entitled within 3-5 working days and full settlement should be in 14 working days. However, after one month submitted my refund (submitted on 21 July 2022) and until today (22 August 2022) i dont even get a reply on the amount entitled for refund.

Refund Ref is : UL/RR/146568, UL/RR/146569, UL/RR/146570

I purchased travel tickets from Melbourne to New Delhi via Colombo for 4 passengers. The airline cancelled the tickets from Colombo to New Delhi. I called the customer care and asked them if i cancel my tickets will i get a full redund as its the airlines fault. I was assured that i will be given a full refund. It has been almost 3 months and they only refunded the amount of one passengers ticket. I have tried getting in touch with them many times. The contact centre says they cant discuss about the refund and so does the chat support. The only email available for refunds does not respond.

I Nikita Jaggi am an Australian Citizen and had been flying Srilankan Airlines first time in my life. I boarded my flight from Melbourne on 7th July 2022 for Mumbai via columbo. I was very happy with service I received by the officer at the customs even though I was disappointed with the delay in the flight from Melbourne as it was delayed by 3 hours. I had an excess of 3kgs and on request since I was traveling to meet my parents first time...

Hi,

Refund reference Number is UL/RR/145102
More than 1 month now still not received the amount
I emailed several times no response

In April my client was denied boarding due to an overbooking. He was offered a voucher for a free flight to a destination within the connections of SriLanka Airlines. He accepted that voucher under these conditions.

Now he wants to redeem the voucher and it says the voucher is only valid for one sector Male-Sri Lanka. This is not the condition that has been promised to my client as he lives in Spain and can't make use of this voucher. He would not have accepted the voucher under this circumstances.

Therefore we are either asking for a voucher valid for a free flight of SriLanka or a financial compensation as it should be normal. My client couldn't make it to his destination due to the denied boarding, had to pay for the hotel at that destination as it was non-refundable. And now he is without an adequate compensation. This is not acceptable. Flightright calculators say, compensation is up to 600 EUR, we'd like to solve it quicker without having to give this case to lawyers. What's the best you can provide?

EMD[protected]
LOC-53ULF3

Hi team,
My name is Ruhi Kapasi and on the 14th June I was travelling from Mumbai to Melbourne flight number UL144 and my ticket number is 6XEMIE. I reached the Mumbai Airport to check in 3 hours prior as required just when I reached I was one of the first 4 people to check in and upon reaching the counter there was some technical issues and was made to wait for 1 hour and check in never began in Mumbai airport, after 1 and a half hour the check in began and there were more then 30 people in the queue.I reached on the counter the baggage was put on the scale and I was well within my carry allowance and I told the staff to weigh my baggage again as the weighing scale on the same side of the other counter was showing my handbag weight as 6kgs and the other counter where I originally checked in as 8kgs and I
Was telling your staff the Baggages cannot be so different in weight on 2 different scales and I was made to pay $400 and I kept telling your staff there is something incorrect about the weighing scale and they made me also measure my laptop bag which I felt I was discriminated as no one else’s laptop hand carry was measured and it was so unreasonable even though my laptop bag had nothing but a laptop and perhaps they did not weigh any other womens or passengers handbag .This is truly discriminating even though I had no other hand baggage.After 2
Hours of frustration and I was made to remove stuff from
My handbag I was still made to
Charge $400 .I reached Melbourne and a a long tired and frustrating wait time for 5 hours for my bags to arrive which is clearly unacceptable even though I was wrongly and falsely charged to pay$400 for it and my baggage did not arrive and afterlong flight waited at the Melbourne conveyer belt for 5 hours it was me being penalised first of all to wait long hours in mumbai at the check in counter and then realised when I reached Melbourne I was penalised
For charging falsely $400 which was very dodgy as 2 counters cannot have 2 different weight and when I reached Melbourne I was waiting
With one of the co-pilot who stayed back with me
Until I got my bags, I am an Australian citizen and i have been cheated by your ground staff and frustrated with the service and the experience your airline has given me I m seeking for your help and support to look into this matter as it’s clearly a cheat and a fraud and racial discrimination for the behaviour I have experienced which left me with such a disappointment and I need you to help me
Organise a refund for all
That I have been through with no fault of mine this
Experience has left me feeling cheated, disappointed and frustrated and if nothing is done about this than I will
Truly never choose toTravel by your airline it nothing is done about this as I have known good things about your airline and experience I have had I hope to have a fair resolution and I am hoping to hear from your side to
Resolving this issue
You can email me on [protected]@yahoo.com.au
Disappointed and unhappy customer
Ruhi Kapasi