arfaczar

Wow ..... this is probably the worst third party lounge that CX contracts with for their biz class passengers. Supposed hot buffet without warmers .... ice cold fried rice and chilli chicken, cold biryani and they apparently ran out of the yogurt raita that goes with it. The cooler was not functioning and therefore the beer cans were only slightly warmer than the buffet.
Overcrowded because it serves multiple airlines, the staff don't bother cleaning up tables left behind by departing passengers.
I wonder if Cathay specifies minimum service requirements for its contract lounges? Definitely not on par with other contract lounges around the world.

380Flyer

If have oneworld elite status (Emerald) and are traveling in Business Class, you can access Sri Lankan Airlines Serendib Lounge at CMB.

However, those travelling purely on J class ticket with lower elite level in MPO or oneworld equivalent, then it's better to stay at the third party lounge as the other SriLankan Airlines lounge (Serendiva) which is accessible for oneworld Sapphire members is located on Level 1 next to Emirates lounge is probably worse than the contracted lounge.

In conclusion, if you are not oneworld Emerald and cannot access the Serendib Lounge, then what CX and other airlines are providing is the best out there.

Mafai

for one flight a day, do you expect CX to build an Ilse Crawford lounge? Since this is Sri Lanka's home turf, the onus is on UL.
I've had hot food plenty of times and personally haven't experienced overcrowding.
I've certainly been to many worst lounges by AA and UA, and generally with no hot food.
For many of us, CMB is a quick back to back anyways....😀

LHSEN

Not the worst but definitely bad. If you can access the UL lounge, you should.

Fly Me To The Moon

To be fair, I don't think the OP said that... But the standards that the OP described are indeed quite sub-par.

jagmeets

Are you sure?

I've not been to CMB in a few months, but till then, oneworld J bp => Serendib (though UL would try to send you to the operating carrier's designated lounge).

Frequent flier status based access => Serendiva
(Both of these being UL operated)

Not flown CX ex-CMb on a Long while, but they had the Lotus Lounge as the designated 'First' lounge and Araliya as the designated biz Lounge (both being airport operated, -and accessible via Priority Pass).

Imho
Serendib>Lotus>Araliya/Serendiva.

Serendib is acceptable-decent till it gets very crowded just before UL's 'longhaul' departure bank.

Last couple of times that i flew in economy, I found Lotus to have improved a little bit on the F&B, and with a lot less crowding than in the past.

https://www.flysmiles.com/about-flysmiles/lounge-access

https://www.oneworld.com/ffp/lounge-access/-/loungeaccess/CMB

With the runway resurfacing starting for 3
Months, expect things to be worse yet on the crowding aspect.

jagmeets

(Deleted- dupe)

Rami Tamimi

This is wrong. J cl BP with or without status will get you to Serendib, Ycl+OWE/OWS will get you to Serendiva.

cysyuen

I've travelled with UL a couple of times in the past year and they are not bad -- love their A330-300s cause the seats are like CX/QR in business and you get legrest with every seat.

The Serendib Lounge is good -- it provides a good view of the tarmac and a selection of hot food. Serendiva does simillar thing but it is smaller, squared and has no windows

Never been to any 3rd party lounges at CMB.

P.s. UL's lounge guide did say they will tale insrant pictyres but it us no longer available

P.p.s. UL is a great way to maintain status!

Dr. HFH

While I quite like UL J class onboard, most everything at CMB is pretty bad, IMO.

cysyuen

It's alright. Suppose it's not ideal to compare it with HKG for example.

You can at least eat at burger king

G-CIVC

I have never been to CMB lounge but to put it in perspective, even for some of the most premium and high yielding outports (I'm looking at you BOS and ORD), the offerings are indeed very subpar. Well, not like QR/EY et al have better options at some of these places too, however.

Ausriver

If you consider there are still a lot of people in the country that are still hungry, you would be thankful to those ice cold fried rice.

Col Ronson

I think the CX lounge in PVG is pretty pitiful.

mxr

MLE also really isnt anything special!