Is kiwi.com ok to book with?

russbailey

My wife's father became ill (on his deathbed) while we were on vacation so my wife bought tickets through Kiwi.com for an early return home from Miami. She was a bit distressed apparently and didn't realize that we had to go through immigrations and customs in Brussels and check back in with 90 minutes to do so which is impossible. Should the flight be on time it would be impossible let alone if there are any delays.

We cancelled the tickets immediately (well within the 24 hour grace period written in US law) and were told it would take 30 days to get a refund. After 45 days I contacted them - supposedly they forgot. They refunded 144.32$ out of 986.23$ and are telling me that I have to deal with the airlines.

There are too many good booking agencies out there to deal with rather than crooks. Ended up buying tickets through Expedia - a bit more expensive but there is a real company behind the sale.

I fully recommend that no one use Kiwi.com!

russbailey

If anything goes wrong you are screwed.

Caz3121

russbailey wrote: »

(well within the 24 hour grace period written in US law) and were told it would take 30 days to get a refund. After 45 days I contacted them - supposedly they forgot. They refunded 144.32$ out of 986.23$ and are telling me that I have to deal with the airlines.

It sounds like the refund you received was based on the fare rules of the ticket which may be some taxes only (less any agents fees)
was the ticket booked for more than 7 days in the future for the 24 grace period to apply?
https://www.kiwi.com/en/helpcenter/article/cancellations-&-refunds/is-my-flight-eligible-for-the-u.s.-24h-grace-period-rule

avnire

Absolutely crap service, do not bother. You are stuffed if your flight delays and you miss your connection. Kiwi's insurance policy is a bluff, purely words, worth nothing! Dealing with their customer service is the worst kind of self-inflicted wound I had to endure. Money makers, zero and incompetent customer service.

I flew from London to Anthens via Kefalonia with Kiwi. The flight was last minute and cost me £146. I was going to have a 3 hours layover at Kefalonia and a connecting flight to Athens 3 hours later. Well, it sounds great, but in fact due to fog above Kefalina airport, my flight was redirected to another Greek island and then after a log delay (7 hours) when the fog cleared, I landed in Kefalonia. Needless to say that connecting flight was missed.

I kept calling Kiwi customer service and they were the most incompetent people to deal with. They managed to book a replacement flight for me from Zakinthos for the day after with an overnight stay in the middle of nowhere - purely the wrong Greek island on a wrong day. I had a medical procedure the following morning in Athens, I stated it numerously that I had to arrive to Athens asap, they did not seem to care. After 4 phone calls equalling to around 2-3 hours, 6 emails and various tweets, I was told that they could not help and they in fact offered me a replacement flight, so they were done. Ahham. I was in Kefalonia, not Zakinthos. They told me that there were no flights from Kefalinia to Athens - there were! Given time pressure, I booked the last Kefalinia-Athens flight, which cost me 153 Euros and flew to Athens the same night. If I had not I would have been abandoned there without any flights or accommodation.

All together, the single flight to Athens with Kiwi cost me around £400 !!! I could have had a direct business class to Athens for this amount!!

I applied for refund; I was awarded £67, not even the half of my extra expenses. They keep sending me exactly the same template email, word by word as a response to my complaint letter. They simply do not bother and do not give a flying f**** about their customers. They do not want to pay my extra expenses. Period. Absolutely disgusting company. They make me sick.

Caz3121

avnire wrote: »

The flight was last minute and cost me £146. I was going to have a 3 hours layover at Kefalonia and a connecting flight to Athens 3 hours later. .

the problem is that you did not have connecting flights on a single booking (as you would have had if you had booked direct with an airline or reputable travel agent) kiwi cobble together separate flights as this can be 'cheapest' and if you were looking by price I assume they came up as cheapest.
Have you booked with them previously? did you do any research before booking? (even typing "kiwi.com reviews" into google should have given enough warnings of the risks)
Hopefully you will now consider how you book travel...cheapest rarely means best and it is up to you to choose who you give your money to.

Westin

Did you save much money booking this routing via Kiwi over booking a direct flight to Athens with a reputable agent?

lesleystrawson

I show below an extract from my booking for flights with Kiwi.com (via Kayak), which was sent to me less than 2 hours after I had booked my flights with them. As you can well imagine, I did not 'pay the difference' and went elsewhere...

Airline Price Change

Unfortunately, the carrier changed the price of your trip and we couldn't process your order.

The original price was GBP 434.27 and the new price is GBP 1987. The difference of GBP 1552.73 needs to be paid if you'd like to keep the booking. If you don't want to pay the difference, we'll provide you with a refund of GBP 434.27.

Low-cost seats are limited and carriers change their prices at very short notice. These changes are not made by Kiwi.com. If you'd like to keep your booking, click Pay The Difference. We advise you to do so as soon as possible to avoid further price changes.

Lesley

Westin

You have had a lucky escape.

alexpeppermint

You can listen to the sponsored bloggers on how Kiwi have cheaper tickets on connections, but I have a real life nightmare happened 2 days ago to tell you how Kiwi end up costing me way much more for a simple direct flight booked more than two months before departure.

** Long story short **
Kiwi never completed my booking but never notify me about this and guess what, they charged me anyway, at booking and till this day!!! For over 2 months, kiwi failed to notify me and refund me the money for a job they never done. I was lead to think this is just a normally processed booking because Google travel sent me an email saying the reservation is confirmed and this trip is clearly in my google travel app, only found out at the airport that my boyfriend and I didn't have tickets!!!! After spending hours of international phone call with Kiwi, they acknowledge their mistake and offered me to refund the money. I was going nuts at that moment, I couldn't believe my ears! For all the trouble they caused me they were only going to refund me the money there were never supposed to charge at the first place!!! I was furious! In the end they offered me about 400 euro compensation for two failed but charged booking, but this is not nearly enough for even one ticket home for the next day.

At that point I couldn't continue anymore. I'd either burst a vein in my brain or just end the conversation.

No one should be in that kind of situation. No one would have that kind of capacity to play that kind of game in that kind of situation, and if you travel reasonably, you know situations always happen. This is just not what you want for a vacation and thousands of miles away from home, no matter how much you think you saved, it will be very likely to cost you more in the end -- money, time, and your health.

** For those who have couple more minutes to read **

Here is the analysis:
Kiwi is incompetent -- didn't book a simple direct flight right, didn't send a notice for the failed booking, didn't refund money for failed booking, didn't stop booking partner from sending misleading email. I talked to 3 representatives; no one could explain what happened. Ok, fine, system glitch I guess. But what's more...

Kiwi is dishonest -- when what they failed to do cause people so much stress, money and time, they were trying to get away with it for just refunding the money they were never supposed to charge at the first place. They also tried to blame this on me as if it's customers' responsibility to doubt and investigate for a booking that is charged, and emailed with the word "reservation confirmed", and what's more, never ever receive an email notice for booking failed. When I pointed out the obvious and inconsistencies in the laughable arguments, they had another offer...

Kiwi is straight scoundrel -- after paying hours of international phone call. Each time a different person answers the phone they came back with seemingly different offers that essentially making me pay for new flight on my own. It's pathetic how they present them as different offers, they are insults of basic intelligence!

After they ran out of tricks their final offer was 400 euro compensation for 2 failed booking. This is not nearly enough to get even 1 ticket next day home!!! Let alone the phone bill, transportation, one night hotel, and absence from work. "That's the final offer", they said. No explanations. I was about to burst a vein in my brain that moment. It's either I damage my health or just hang up.

Kiwi doesn't just make mistakes; they are unethical in responding to their mistakes. If you are a decent person who values your time and yourself, you will end up losing to companies like Kiwi.

This is my first time booking with Kiwi. I didn’t think much even though this is not a popular site I normally use. I thought there should be basic assurance that a company at this level can do a simple booking. If for some reason not, at least don't charge me. If a mistake is made at least correct it. I offered Kiwi just cover my new flight home and one night hotel for 50 euro - this is the basic of basic of what they should do for screwing things up this badly. Kiwi came back said no. There are so many levels and steps Kiwi could do to prevent a mistake and if not correct a mistake, they chose the most disappointing approach each time.

So in conclusion, you don’t want to go through what I went through, truly. STAY AWAY! YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN KIWI!

Caz3121

did you not check your booking on the airline website at any point? did you attempt to check in online in advance?