I have travelled on at least 30 different long and short haul airlines including budget airlines but the only one I will never ever fly again is Sri Lankan Airlines.
I flew Sri Lankan Airlines from London to Malaysia in July 04. First of all we were told to reconfirm our flight but the phone lines were either continually engaged or if you did get through you were put into a queueing system for a long time. At Heathrow there were only 3 check in counters serving the entire flight hence check in really did take 2 hours of queueing . The flight was completely full hence the cabin staff could not cope and were highly stressed and very rude. The entertainment control units are housed in large boxes which are placed under every other seat, hence if you are not lucky you will get extremely little leg room. After complaining about this, the head stewardess suggested I place my legs in the aisle and almost immediately a steward walked past and stepped on my foot!
All my flights with this airline were delayed by at least half an hour.
The worse is yet to come, on my return to London my luggage did not arrive. It was delivered to me the next day but it was almost unrecognisable -- one handle was completely broken off, the bottom of the bag was broken, the canvas was torn in numerous places and it was covered in black oil.
Worse still, Sri Lankan airlines has no customer support service whatsoever. I was given a number to report the damage to and after many rings someone would just pick up the phone and leave it on the side without answering it. After a day of trying I managed to get through only to be given more phone numbers to call to report the damage. I was sent on a wild goose chase (they gave me British Airways numbers to call) and then finally BA gave me the same Sri Lankan number I took a day to get through on.
At the end of my thether, I called the customer services department for Sri Lankan Airlines and it is a continual loop of answering machines! It doesn't exist! I called the ticketing number ( the only number you can speak to a human on) and they believe it or not they told me to call customer services. I of course told them they didn't have such a division and they gave me another name and number to call to lodge my complaint. Got an answering machine again!. Message was to leave name and number and someone would call back. Left my name and number twice in 3 days but have yet to hear from them.
The website also has a feedback/complaints section where you can write in and they will respond to your query/complaint. Have written in twice but of course have not got a response.
Meantime was still calling the baggage claims number and 5 days later, someone answered the call ( they apparently work only 3 hours a day - to meet incoming flights). They said that I wasn't supposed to call BA ( they couldn't explain why the person who answered the phone before sent me on such a wild goose chase) and that all I needed to do was to fill out a form and they would send it out immediately. Surprise surprise, I have yet to receive the form.
In summary I will never ever travel Sri Lankan again and if you can avoid doing so I strongly advise it.
Update (Oct 04): I received the claim form several weeks and phone calls later and prompty filled it in and sent it off recorded delivery (to make sure they received it). About a month later, received letter apologising for damage to my luggage and that although it cost more than 80 pounds their maximum compensation was 40 pounds! To get the 40 pounds I still had to sign an indeminity form and return it and the cheque would be sent to me after 2 weeks. Anyways I have finaly received the 40 pounds 4 months after my bag was damaged.
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Aug 7th, 2004
(Jan 21st, 2005)
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