SriLankan Airlines: booking check, Time to Think and Colombo

How to look up a booking on SriLankan Airlines

1. 1On srilankan.com, open Manage My Booking from the main menu to view, change or pay for a booking.
2. 2For online check-in, enter the last name, the email address and either the booking reference or the ticket number.
3. 3Check the Colombo connection: SriLankan describes transit via Colombo within 12 hours to its other destinations.
4. 4If you used Time to Think, pay through Manage My Booking by card before the hold ends; it cannot be extended.
5. 5Flying out of India? Plan to collect the boarding pass at the airport counter even after checking in online.

Time to Think versus a flight reservation

SriLankan calls its paid hold “Time to Think”. Book more than seven days before departure and the booking and fare are held for 48 hours; book two to seven days out and the hold is 24 hours. It cannot be bought within two days of departure, and it cannot be extended.

The fee is described as a “small fee”, charged net per passenger, not deducted from the fare and not refunded; the amount is not published. Time to Think covers SriLankan-operated flights only, on online bookings “throughout the network”, and payment is by card through Manage My Booking. The page still carries COVID notices from 2021, so confirm the terms on the day you book.

A two-day hold is the right tool when you have picked a fare and need the weekend to decide. For a Schengen or Australian application filed at a VFS centre in Chennai or Bengaluru, the decision rarely comes within 48 hours. A flight reservation shows the planned SriLankan flights for the submission day instead.

Boarding passes in India: collect them at the counter

SriLankan’s online check-in opens 48 hours before departure and closes two hours before, and airport counters close one hour before. For passengers boarding in India the airline adds a rule: the boarding pass must be collected at the airport counter, “as per Airports Authority & Emigration requirements”, and a home-printed pass is not accepted. From Gaya, online check-in cannot be done at all.

The same page still shows notices from 2020 and 2021, so whether every line is current is not confirmed. Until SriLankan says otherwise, treat the counter as part of the plan at Chennai, Madurai or Tiruchirappalli, and arrive with time to spare even if you have checked in online.

Changing planes in Colombo

SriLankan says transit via Colombo is possible within 12 hours to any other SriLankan Airlines destination, and that getting the transit or destination visa is the passenger’s responsibility. Whether Indians can stay airside in Colombo without any document is not set out in what we read, so treat Sri Lanka’s own visa rules as the safe reference.

Sri Lanka’s ETA site lists a “Transit visa (for 2 days only)” as “Free of charge”. From 25 May 2026 Indians are also among the 40 nationalities given a free 30-day tourist ETA, though it is still an online ETA to be obtained before travel. A long Colombo layover, or a few days in Sri Lanka on the way to the Maldives, therefore costs nothing in visa fees but does need the online application.

SriLankan added an interline with Maldivian in 2026, alongside resumed Kuwait flights and more Saudi connections. For a Maldives trip, check the Maldives’ own entry conditions as well; a Sri Lankan ETA does nothing for them.

SriLankan’s India network

SriLankan serves Chennai, Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram, Madurai and Tiruchirappalli. Its SATTE 2026 release, from around March 2026, says Ahmedabad will become the tenth Indian destination, without a confirmed start date, and that more India frequencies are planned during 2026.

The same release puts India at about 30 per cent of the airline’s traffic, its largest market. For South Indian travellers, Madurai and Tiruchirappalli give a one-stop route through Colombo without a domestic connection via Chennai first.

SriLankan Airlines questions, answered