Mrs999 and I had two unpleasant experiences at CMB last year so perhaps I’ll contribute them to the discussion.

Our arrival into Sri Lanka was unremarkable. After a week in the highlands, we returned to Colombo the night before our departure. We were booked to fly out around midnight to KUL on MH in J. In the morning I did the OLCI but there was a glitch in printing our BPs. At checkout time we left the hotel for a full day of activities with a hired driver but we found the weather oppressive and we decided to go to the airport early, around 7 o’clock. I thought I would go to the MH service counter to sort out our BPs and then we could go through to the lounge. Unfortunately, the MH service desk couldn’t / wouldn’t do anything. They insisted our only option was to wait until the normal check-in opened, three hours before departure. That meant we had two hours on the plastic chairs in the entrance hall on a tropical summer evening. When the checkin desk opened, we got through fairly expeditiously and got to the Serendip lounge, which was completely OK. Part of the blame for our two hours in purgatory falls on us, for not knowing that we wouldn’t be able to get through. But I have to ask: in such a situation, what’s the point of offering OLCI?

Later in the summer we were back at CMB, this time for a transit on separate tickets. We came in from KUL on MH in J and flew out on CX to HKG in J. We had a long layover between the flights, something like 12 hours, but this time I did my homework, double-triple checking that there actually was airside transit at CMB. We thought that if we felt like it we could go into town for the day or we could just hang about in the lounge instead. When the online check-in for our CX connecting flight opened 48 hours in advance, I went to the internet and completed the form. Instead of being given our boarding passes, however, I received a document which began: ‘You have successfully checked in. Get your boarding pass at the airport.’

Turned out that we were tired when we arrived on the flight from KUL and it was hot so we decided to just remain ‘in transit’. At this point it’s something like 1 p.m. We went to the (airside) transfer desk to get our CX BPs. There came the first surprise: they could not print our BPs; we had to wait until the CX checkin opened … three hours before departure — or, about eight hours from then. They suggested that we go through pass-control and leave the airport but after our experience on the plastic chairs landside the previous time, we weren’t too keen on that. We decided to go to the Serendip lounge, explain the situation and ask if we could wait there until our BPs were available. I might add that in addition to flying CX J that day we are both OWE. The Serendip dragon said ’No’. Not only would she not let us in without the BPs in hand, she claimed there was another rule, which I think she made up, that even with the BP pax are not allowed in until three hours before the flight. I have seen this kind of time limit in effect at some third-party and subscription lounges but never at the flagship lounge of any member of a major alliance. But that was that.

Next, I remembered from the Oneworld lounge finder page that CX actually had a contract lounge at CMB, which for J pax was the Araliya. We went there and told our story again … and this time we found a sympathetic ear. The lady at the desk said ‘I’m not supposed to do this but … OK … go ahead.’ She did cover herself by making copies of our passports, our itinerary showing the CX flight that night and the ‘You have successfully checked in’ document. We didn’t mind that at all; we were in the lounge — or, a lounge, anyway. The Araliya is palpably inferior to the Serendip but under the circumstances we were relieved.

So there we sat, and ate and read and drank and dozed through the afternoon and early evening. Every time supervisory staff walked past we got a bit nervous, afraid we were going to be turfed out but that didn’t happen. Finally, around 9 o’clock we decamped to go back to the transfer desk to get our BPs so we could go to the Serendip. At that point, though, the story just got weirder. The transfer desk agent took our passports and the ‘you have checked in’ paper and rang up the CX desk. After a brief conversation she told us that she had to go to the (landside) CX check-in to get our BPs. She showed us some chairs and asked that we wait. This is now about 9:15.

An hour later, at approximately 10:15, she returned. She gave us our passports and told us to go to the Lotus Lounge, where the CX staff would bring us the BPs. We went to that lounge, explained the situation to the lady at the desk and went inside; we expected that the BPs would be delivered in a few minutes. But when 45 minutes had passed with no sign of any CX agent, at 11:00 I went back to the transfer desk and spoke again to the lady there. She rang up the CX desk and after a brief conversation told me to go back to the lounge, repeating that the Cathay Pacific staff would bring the passes to us there. I returned to the Lotus Lounge and we continued to wait.

Another half-hour passed with no BPs. At 11:30 I knew that the departure gate would be open and I began to suspect that we would never see the CX agent and our BPs in the lounge. At midnight, the lounge lady announced that our flight was boarding — while we were still waiting for the CX agent to appear with our boarding passes. I reminded the lounge lady of our situation and she rang up the CX desk. After a brief conversation she told us to go to the gate, that we would get our BPs there.

We had just spent almost three hours — 9:15 to midnight — for something that really should have taken no more than a few minutes. We were promised twice — at 10:15 and 11:00 — that the passes would be brought to us in the lounge. Did the UL transfer desk lady lie to us or did the CX ground staff lie to her? In any case, we were made to wait in vain. We could have thought of better things to do during that last pre-departure time, especially since the Lotus lounge is basically the same as the Araliya and a far cry from the Serendip.

When we finally got our BPs at the gate, we asked the man who appeared to be the head of the detail why we had been told to wait in the lounge for nearly two hours, only to eventually get the BPs at the gate at the last minute. To add insult to injury, he said literally not a word in reply, completely ignoring our question as we hurried to board the plane. Come to think of it, if he was the supervisor, he may well have been the one behind us being fobbed off for those hours.

Not much fun. The bottom line is that we’re thankful we will probably never again have occasion to see CMB.