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CMB Lotus Lounge

CMB Lotus Lounge

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Our flight arrived at Gate 6, the closest to the terminal.

And right next door to the contract Lotus Lounge, a Priority Pass lounge.  Since my last shower was the day earlier in London, I decided to freshen up and shower. I had been here before but never for a shower. 

 Showers come in all sizes but this one had to be smallest and most rustic lounge shower I've ever experienced.  No sink, no toilet, no room for anything except a shower.  Indeed, after the shower, I moved to the men's lav to shave and change clothes.

An outstanding serve yourself food and beverage spread.

And comfortable but dated seating areas.

Back in the concourse, I stopped at the transit desk to get my boarding pass for this evening's CMB-MLE flight before clearing immigration and heading toward the exit and my driver/guide for the day, past an array of duty-free appliance shops.  I guess it's a popular thing for locals when they return.

 

 

February 2013

 

Bandaranaike International Airport (CMB)
Colombo, Sri Lanka
Surprising amount of activity at 4:30AM. We headed toward immigration and the exit, not quite sure what the drill was for transiting passengers.

One of Sri Lanka's most famous exports... former Miss Sri Lanka and Bollywood star, Jacqueline Fernandez. Doesn't sound very Sri Lankan though.

At the end of the concourse, immigration is on the left and transfers are to the right with a transit service center in the middle.

Since we were already in the departure concourse for our EK flight, there was no need to clear immigration, and apparently no need for our visas, although we might have had trouble checking in at JAI without the documentation.

The first order of business was to check in for our EK flights and get boarding passes. Since the EK lounge didn't open for another two hours, we went to the SriLankan Airlines Transfer Desk, as they are agents for most airlines that serve the airport. Lovely agent checked us in but could not issue boarding passes due to a computer problem. She said she would call the EK lounge and explain that we still need our BPs.

Unfortunately, the EK Lounge only opens three hours before each departure, so 0650, or nearly two hours from then. As we had passed two other lounges in the walk from our gate, we back-tracked and used my free Priority Pass card (from Amex Platinum) at the Lotus Lounge.

Not the nicest lounge but it was quiet and had fast internet service.

But it did have quite an impressive array and food and beverage, especially for 5AM.

And a small Business Centre.

At around 5:30AM, in one of the most amazing displays of customer service I've seen in years, the SriLankan agent who was having trouble printing our boarding passes, found us in our corner of the lounge and gave us both our CMB-DXB and DXB-LHR boarding passes. Apparently, when she discovered the EK lounge was closed, she started looking for us in each lounge until she found us. Wow.

At around 7AM, we bid adieu to the pleasant lounge dragon and headed off to the impressive Emirates Lounge.

 

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