SRILANKAN AIRLINES Business Class Seat reviews

SRILANKAN AIRLINES BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   AIRBUS A330-200 / A340-300

LHR-CMB-MLE-CMB-LHR. Overnight flight to CMB in new-style cabin in A332 with lie-flat beds, very comfortable, good food, attentive service and on-demand IFE. CMB-MLE with lie-flat seats, but no IFE as such a short flight. Overall impression on MLE-CMB was shabby and several of the seats were broken with plastic trim missing. Flight was largely empty in a huge business class section, so we could move seats. CMB-LHR was on the old-style A343 with cradle seats - OK since it was a daytime flight and we knew in advance there would not be lie-flat seats, but not comfortable and recline of passengers in front made it difficult to see the TV screen. IFE not on demand and had poor quality picture/sound. Several people could not get theirs to work and a couple of passengers were given a personal DVD player instead. We had to ask twice for them to fix ours - service generally was worse on this leg with few drinks offered and night cabin setting despite a daytime flight. Our "priority" bags transferred from MLE on the return leg were the last to be delivered on the belt at LHR. In all recommended if you get the bed, but the overall quality was not worth the extra money.

SRILANKAN AIRLINES BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   AIRBUS A330

Seat has plenty of legroom. Seat can be a little hard on long journeys but generally good once you find the right sleeping pattern. Plenty of storage for shoes, magazines etc.

SRILANKAN AIRLINES BUSINESS CLASS SEAT REVIEW   :   AIRBUS A340

New flatbed very comfortable, spacious and classy. The cabin interior has also received a major facelift, reflecting some ethnic elements. Another feature is the big TV screen. The only gripe will be the new TV control a tad difficult to use, unless you are a blackberry owner, it has this little button which directs the cursors on the screen. There was no printed guide to help passengers to familiarize with the new seat features.

Seats are really old with an historic approach to Video-On-Demand. You choose a film from a menu and get a HI8 cassette that you insert into the armrest. If seated on row 2, if the passenger in row 1 reclines, your screen moves down to about knee-height. Avoid row 2.

Had read that they were changing the business class seats, but not seen it yet. Old style cradle seat was not very nice, and should be avoided for a long haul trip. Recline is not good, the legrest is too short and does not come up high enough. IFE was okay but out of date compared to most airlines in this part of Asia. A real disappointment.