Kiwi.com giving fake PNR & reservation numbers

wjkharris

Dear Money Saving Expert, A long post. Thought it would be better to give the full picture.

I booked 3 tickets from Manchester to Armenia to travel on the 18th of December & return on the 4th of January 2021 to see our son who is a 3rd year med student & we have not seen him for a while due to covid & also as we did not have the money to travel for the past 3 years. We saved for the past 3 years & booked early.

 

We are going on Ryanair from Manchester to Ukraine & then on Ukraine International from Ukraine to Armenia. Sadly the return from Armenia to Ukraine got cancelled. I have been on the phone with Kiwi.com for more than 20 times & sent over 30 emails & each email reply states that they cannot help in doing anything as it is the airlines fault.

I then sent an email with our names, date of travel, flight number & with copies of our British passports requesting Ukraine International to rebook us on the next available return flight which is the 5th of January.  Ukraine International promptly replied with a free reschedule to the 5th of January. So I am halfway there sorting this issue myself without whatsoever help from Kiwi.com. This is where I am stuck at the moment.

I contacted Kiwi.com stating that Ukraine International has rearranged the return flight from the 4th to the 5th & if they could liaise with Ryanair to get the onward return also changed from the 4th to the 5th. No way. No help at all. All they want me to do is pay for a new ticket both ways on Ryanair which I refused as they were clearly breaking EU law here.

I then contacted Ryanair direct & was told that the PNR number plus the reservation number given to me by Kiwi.com was totally fake. They have a practice of giving fake PNR numbers, customer details including phone number, address & email address to the airline so that the customer cannot go directly to the airline. This is also the reason so many people cannot get refunds from the airline as they have to go through Kiwi.com & they hold the refund even after the airline has refunded. Once the refund is processed, they hold the majority & give the passenger a very small amount.

Although I am financially squeezed, I even dont mind paying for a new return flight via Ryanair if I dont have a choice. But I dont want to pay these Kiwi.com crooks who want to cancel the complete booking & ask me to pay again for a new booking while withholding my refund for any cancellations.

Is there anyway to get the correct PNR number & booking number? I have emailed Ryanair just as I did with Ukraine International who was able to trace my booking from my name. But for some strange reason Ryanair cannot do this & has not replied to me yet.

I went on Ryanair website & used the online "Customer Verification Form" to get a refund for both ways so that I can purchase the Ryanair flights again. But as I entered the details given to me by Kiwi.com, it threw me out stating "Invalid request. We're sorry, we could not find your booking. Please check the details provided and try again.

Is there anyone who can help me in anyway to sort this issue out as I have no other options or knowledge?

Caz3121

wjkharris said:

I went on Ryanair website & used the online "Customer Verification Form" to get a refund for both ways so that I can purchase the Ryanair flights again. But as I entered the details given to me by Kiwi.com, it threw me out stating "Invalid request. We're sorry, we could not find your booking. Please check the details provided and try again.

unless the Ryanair flights have been cancelled by the airline you will not be able to get a refund 
you will need to ask Kiwi for the Ryanair reference to allow you to self manage your flights - I think they will charge a fee for this
Also worth comparing the costs of the fees to change the flight - will be change fee + fare difference v's the cost of a new ticket. Ryanair flights are all one-way and kiwi cobble together separate tickets so you may be best just buying a new ticket direct from Ryanair for the flight on the 5th. (the 'kiwi guarantee' on separate flights on same booking is pretty useless anyway)

Westin

“...they were clearly breaking EU law here.”

Which EU law do you believe they are breaking?

bagand96

I’d be interested to know why Kiwi.com wouldn’t help you reschedule your return journey in the first place?

Alternative itinerary 

When you still want to travel. 

When your trip or a part of it gets canceled by the carrier(s), we’ll offer you one or more alternative itineraries, which you can choose instead of the refund. You can pick one of them up to 24h after the departure of the original canceled part of your trip.

Please note that after you choose an alternative, you won't be able to claim a refund for your original, affected trip. We don't offer refunds for replaced flights.

The price will depend on the situation. If you have the Kiwi.com Guarantee, we'll cover as much as we can for you.

Check the current travel regulations before you decide to rebook. New restrictions might be introduced at any moment.

You can also change your trip if it hasn't been canceled by the carrier(s). It's possible to change it up to 48 hours before the scheduled departure and the price will depend on your fare type.

Which EU law do you believe they are breaking?

Unfortunately you’re not the first horror story I’ve seen on this board regarding Kiwi.com and their cobbled together itineraries. Their website talks up the “Kiwi.com Guarantee” but it always seems useless. 

Other than getting back in touch with Kiwi.com and demanding your Ryanair PNR I’m not sure what to suggest. Or maybe demand they help you with the itinerary under their guarantee? Although now you have rearranged with a Ukraine International directly, I’m guessing kiwi will wash their hands of you (although they did that anyway it seems!)

Thrugelmir

The earliest return date is the 8th from the Ukraine.  There's not a daily service. 

CKhalvashi

Belavia Belarusian operate a daily overnight service, not sure if KBP-MSQ-EVN would be any use to you if you can get them to change it? Ukrainian law virtually mirrors EU law, and you will be entitled to a refund for this sector due to the change. If you need a hotel overnight/for the afternoon for this, there is one about 7km from Minsk National airport that offers good facilities that offers a transfer service.

Be aware that Belavia use Terminal D, Ryanair use (or at least did last May, I usually use Wizz as IEV is more convenient) Terminal F, so you will need to enter Ukraine, but would have had to anyway with a UIA connection. I believe you get 48h to transit under the current rules, but may need a specific insurance policy from a Ukrainian company. If entering Belarus, you will need to carry written evidence of travel insurance (my HSBC policy has always been sufficient), but it can be purchased at the border at a booth on the left, just before immigration desks, if needed.

Edit: Just re-read the post. I haven't had the 2nd coffee yet and thought the 2nd flight was the problem.

Kiwi should re-book you onto the Ryanair flight the day after (although I'm not sure how often these flights actually operate, I know that STN-KBP was only a few times weekly). I think UIA's flights have stopped to MAN now, but I'd argue that it's Kiwi's job to hotel you for the night in the event of their change.

Pollycat

bagand96 said:

Unfortunately you’re not the first horror story I’ve seen on this board regarding Kiwi.com and their cobbled together itineraries. Their website talks up the “Kiwi.com Guarantee” but it always seems useless. 

Other than getting back in touch with Kiwi.com and demanding your Ryanair PNR I’m not sure what to suggest. Or maybe demand they help you with the itinerary under their guarantee? Although now you have rearranged with a Ukraine International directly, I’m guessing kiwi will wash their hands of you (although they did that anyway it seems!)

Thousands of complaints about KIWI on the Air Travel board of Tripadvisor.

Unfortunately, that doesn't help the OP.

CKhalvashi

Pollycat said:

bagand96 said:

Unfortunately you’re not the first horror story I’ve seen on this board regarding Kiwi.com and their cobbled together itineraries. Their website talks up the “Kiwi.com Guarantee” but it always seems useless. 

Other than getting back in touch with Kiwi.com and demanding your Ryanair PNR I’m not sure what to suggest. Or maybe demand they help you with the itinerary under their guarantee? Although now you have rearranged with a Ukraine International directly, I’m guessing kiwi will wash their hands of you (although they did that anyway it seems!)

Thousands of complaints about KIWI on the Air Travel board of Tripadvisor.

Unfortunately, that doesn't help the OP.

Sadly, the problems tend to come when people don't book a flight themselves.

Seeing these, it makes me happy that I'm even happy to pay a bit more in order to be able to deal directly with the airline, especially on (currently) risky connecting tickets.

Pollycat

CKhalvashi said:

Sadly, the problems tend to come when people don't book a flight themselves.

Seeing these, it makes me happy that I'm even happy to pay a bit more in order to be able to deal directly with the airline, especially on (currently) risky connecting tickets.

The warnings are out there if you just do a search.

Despite the number of links advising people to book direct with the airlines, people still use KIWI.

And not just KIWI. eDreams. Travelgenio. mytrip. And lots more.

Ryanair don't like passengers booking with 3rd party websites.

Most airlines won't deal with you if you've booked through a 3rd party because you are not their customer.

The 3rd party is their customer.

So the OP has been lucky in that Ukraine International have actually helped.

However, this is not getting the OP's problem sorted.

But it might just stop other people booking flights with all of these shonky 3rd party companies.

CKhalvashi

Pollycat said:

CKhalvashi said:

Sadly, the problems tend to come when people don't book a flight themselves.

Seeing these, it makes me happy that I'm even happy to pay a bit more in order to be able to deal directly with the airline, especially on (currently) risky connecting tickets.

The warnings are out there if you just do a search.

Despite the number of links advising people to book direct with the airlines, people still use KIWI.

And not just KIWI. eDreams. Travelgenio. mytrip. And lots more.

Ryanair don't like passengers booking with 3rd party websites.

Most airlines won't deal with you if you've booked through a 3rd party because you are not their customer.

The 3rd party is their customer.

So the OP has been lucky in that Ukraine International have actually helped.

However, this is not getting the OP's problem sorted.

But it might just stop other people booking flights with all of these shonky 3rd party companies.

That's why I've given a route I know is operating for OP to take a look at. Not sure if it helps them, but worth a go.

I travel a lot for work, but it mainly is to CEE region. In flights that have/should have taken place since March, Belavia, LOT and Wizz have been fine (even after Wizz left me stranded in Georgia, the follow up process was painless, I haven't dealt with a cancellation with the others), Motor Sich (who I'm sure here noone will ever need to fly with but I'm a plane geek and their fleet reminds me of childhood) were excellent when a self-connection was cancelled. Ryanair (who I now refuse to fly with at all) and SkyUp have been the worst, but I did get the money back eventually.

All were booked directly, and dealing with a third party would have made the process a lot more difficult for sure. Bringing a middleman into the event outside of a package is just asking for trouble IMO. The best we can do is to bring this to OP's attention for next time.

wjkharris

Westin said:

“...they were clearly breaking EU law here.”

Which EU law do you believe they are breaking?

As per EC Regulation 261/2004, it is a legal requirement If my flight is cancelled, I have the legal right to either: a refund - including other flights from the airline that I won't use in the same booking such as onward or return flights or an alternative replacement flight to get me to my destination.