Anyone who has gone through Dubai will be aware that the transit area is stuffed full of food, shopping, etc, and that western credit cards are universally accepted. The staff at the airline desks all appear to speak English, which is more than can be said for many other transit points around the world.
Emirates have three 777 flights a day from Dubai to Colombo. Some might of course already be fully booked but they do have the frequency to get out of this situation.
Connecting flights are a well-known risk in travel, but there is of course an alternative daily Sri Lanka Airlines flight nonstop from London to Colombo which avoids any such risk. Of course, you can probably save a few quid by taking a connection through a third country. And yes, it can be physically challenging to be delayed for many hours sat in a place you have never been to before when it seems the middle of the night and you are grossly fatigued. But that sort of routing, regardless of carrier, was your choice.
Last edited by WHBM; 5th Jan 2017 at 10:17.