Kiwi.com
reviews and complaints

I have bought an e-ticket from kiwi.com on June 18th but had to cancel it in 20 minutes due to visa requirements.
They replied the following :
"Your refund application has been received. We'll contact the airlines and let you know your possible refund amount within 30 days."

It's been more than 30 days now and no one contacted me in this regard.
Every time I call Kiwi.com they say that they can't get any reply from the airlines.

Dear Kiwi,

I am writing to protest my treatment by rentalcars.com, your preferred rental car agency, and perhaps owned by Kiwi.

Recently I used Kiwi to book flights from Baltimore to Milan and Stockholm (booking number 6442403; June 28- July 13). My flight into Malpensa airport on WOW was three hours delayed and arrived at 2 in the morning. The Avis desk was obviously closed, so I was unable to pick up mu car on June 28th through no fault of my own. All attempts I made to contact rentals.com in advance were futile. They certainly don't make it easy to get contact information. Upon speaking to a representative the next day (after spending a half hour on the internet to find a functioning telephone number), I was informed that according to their policy, if someone is more than one hour late for booking, it is a complete loss to the customer. I was pre-charged for the rental for the entire ten days, something I have NEVER experienced by any rental car agency before. Rentalcars.com just scoffed up the entire $500+. Avis didn't get a penny. A complete boondoggle for them. This policy is a travesty! How many unsuspecting travelers arrive over one hour after they plan to no fault of their own? The fine print in the contract is not very forthcoming about this. Upon having my lawyer talk with them (I intended to sue, and I have never sued anyone in my life), a portion of my fee was returned. However, I am still incensed with this companies policy, its unfairness to travelers, and by association with Kiwi.com. I am sure this is not the first time you have heard of this. I do not intend ever to book with Kiwi again, and plan to enter this complaint on as many travelers websites as I can in order to inform other unsuspecting travelers of the horrendous customer service that is "offered" by rentalcars.com and by association, Kiwi.
Sincerely,
Marilyn M. Raymond

I booked a round trip from Poland to USA via Iceland with kiwi.com. The journey was ok from Poland to USA. However, it's a complete mess traveling back to Poland. My first return flight was scheduled on 17th July, 2018 at 14:20 at Raleigh. It was delayed due to bad weather. So, I couldn't take my connecting flight at Boston. I called the support 3 times before departing from Raleigh and informed that I will miss the connecting flight at Boston. However, the support advised me to take the delayed flight to Boston, and kiwi.com would arrange an alternative. And, they also stated that if the waiting is more than 8 hours accomodation will be provided by kiwi.com. I followed their advice and reached Boston around 11:30 pm local time. When, I called the support for alternative flight, I was told that I must wait for 4 to 6 hours for arranging an alternative and I was denied for accommodation as it will not be 8 hours. Then, I waited at the airport along with my 2 children until 5 am for the alternative flight. But, again I couldn't accept the offer as I don't have a Visa to recheck in my baggage at London airport. Again, I called the support and explained the situation, and I was told they will find alternative which will take another 2 to 4 hours. I asked about accommodation, and this time they said it will be provided only after midnight and if waiting time is longer than 8 hours. Now, I realize that they are cheating on accommodation. I'm still waiting at airport with my children for last 7 hours without sleep, food and bath and most importantly no alternative flight yet. What a mess

I booked a flight using Kiwi.com from Cusco (Peru) to Lima (Peru) for travel on the date of 11-JUN-18. I was not previously given an e-ticket or boarding pass, and was told by a Kiwi.com representative that they would check me into my flight when the time came, so I did not need to worry. I arrived at the airport in Cusco 3 hours ahead of the time that I was told I needed to be there. When I arrived, there was noone at the check-in desk and after talking to a security guard at the airport (and trying desperately to communicate in Spanish, a language that is still new to me), I was told that the flight had already departed; the time had been changed and I had not been notified. The security guard at the airport said (and I am quoting): "did you book with Kiwi.com? It is very common for them to do this [not alert customers to flight changes]". Note that it was not even possible for me to have checked the flight time before I left to go to the airport, because Kiwi.com had not provided any information regarding my flight! There is absolutely zero way that I could have known about this flight change, without them telling me - which they did not. I was forced to purchase a new, more expensive flight and missed my original flight. Kiwi.com, after WEEKS of contacting them and demanding a refund, have refunded "part" of my new flight (the base fare, without taxes included, and this refund also ended up being 15$ less because my bank deducted fees for the refund). However, I am happy that I got anything at all. That said, at this point, they still owe me for my original flight, which I did not end up getting on, or taking. Through no fault of my own, might I add. This original flight was 55 Canadian dollars, and I am owed this back.

I booked a flight May 20th from Cartagena to Madrid (with a stop in Medellin) on Kiwi with Avianca. Kiwi sent my flight information which included that both flights would be operated by Avianca. July 6th, I received an email from Avianca informing me that the Medellin to Madrid (10 hour flight) was going to be operated by Wamos Air, whom only have a handful of very old planes that have no room and a number of problems. I called customer service.

1st phone call: The lady, while nice, took over an hour to confirm that the flight indeed was not on Avianca (kiwi.com is still unaware of this information; all flights on Avianca from Medellin to Madrid are on this horrid airline). When I asked my options, she wanted to change the days, which would still result in the same airline. I asked to cancel my trip, and she said that she could not be sure if I would receive my full refund. I let her know that I should not be culpable because it is in fact their mistake and I should receive the full refund. She went back to consult again, leaving me on hold, and the call dropped. I asked her at the beginning of the call to please confirm my phone number so if we lost the call, she could call back. She confirmed my phone number, but after the call died, she did not call back.

2nd phone call: I have now been on hold for going on 45 minutes waiting to speak to another agent (estimated at 15 minutes), whom I will have to start the process over. While nice, she was completely unaware of their policies along with anything else, as she had to continuously consult with others. I just want my money back so I can take care of this myself, but I cannot after nearly 2 hours on the phone, over 90% of that time on hold.

And as I see below, the customer service team requests you contact them (which means calling), which gets you nowhere.

Update: After 50 minutes (originally told 15 minute wait), a new lady answered. I explained the whole situation. She then went to consult, came back and I had to walk her thru where on Avianca's website this information is (which is on the front page of the site's travel scroll **you're welcome kiwi.com**) although it still became a task. Now am on hold again as she consults with the team again. 1:15 into the 2nd call, which was has been longer than the original call.

2nd Update: She also wants to contact Avianca about a full refund. I explained to her, as I did the first agent, that I already spoke to Avianca and because they have already given this information on their website (apparently for months) will not give a full refund. I also explained, as Avianca explained to me, that it is the agent's responsibility (in this case kiwi.com). They need to be aware of these changes and inform their customers. I explained I want to cancel, and the burden falls on Kiwi.com as far as a full refund because of this reason. She went back to consult, putting me on hold.

3rd Update: She returned to say that they would review my case within 24-48 hours. I told her 48 hours is cutting it close as my flight is in 3 days, in which she responded that they will contact me in 24 hours. She mentioned that if I want to cancel, however, it would be voluntary, and therefore subject to partial refund. I corrected her immediately. I would like to cancel my flight because Kiwi.com gave me INCORRECT information which I have record of. On my ticket from Kiwi.com it states that Avianca is the operating airline. It does NOT say Avianca operated by Wamos Air, so while I want to cancel my ticket this is not because I do not want to go anymore. I am canceling because Kiwi.com gave me incorrect information regarding the flight. If I had known this information, I would not have booked the flight. The deception is on Kiwi.com as they are not informing the passengers of the true travel plans, and to note this as the reason for my cancellation. She noted. Call ended 1:29.

In total 2:30 spent on the phone, a customer explaining the airlines policy, including walking one of their agents thru the actual airlines' website. All because I asked for a refund because Kiwi.com is unaware of the business of the airlines they are selling.

4th Update:

I received an email 3 hours after my phone call informing me that I could apply for a full refund, but that they are not obligated to refund for up to 30 days. Since this was the case:

3rd phone call: The third lady I have spoken to on this adventure. After giving her my booking number, she reviewed the information, and was still fully unaware of anything that happened, including asking me for the name of the booking agent before and claiming in her system it was a man. She then said that I will still have to change my flight online, although last night on my 2nd call they were going to help with this process. I explained I do not want to do this because they should be liable for the change since the original flight was booked under false information given by Kiwi.com. I also explained that I am willing to change airports and dates on both ends of my trip, but she said that she is not able to do this. I demanded to speak to a supervisor as she fumbled through explaining that she is trained to handle these situations. After 10 minutes of explaining my situation, she still did not seem to understand that Kiwi.com's bad information was the culprit, nor did she want to transfer me to a supervisor. She was also unaware of the Wamos Air / Avianca Flight switch. At 40:00, she put me on hold to reach a supervisor.

48:00, Cian (sp) returned (I asked her name since she was unable to find the information in the system of the previous women I spoke with). She said that the supervisors were still on with other customers, and that they could call me back, which I immediately said no to given that the 1st person I spoke with said she would call me back and never did. Now back on hold at 50:00.

While on hold, I've searched thru the options for flight change, all of which include an extra charge of $500 or more. Almost all of these changes are more expensive than buying the ticket outright on their own site.

1:10:00: Cian returned and transferred me to her supervisor Jeff. I explained to Jeff the situation. He saw the information on Avianca's website and agreed that the customer should be advised as to the carrier they are flying with and that their system does not have the change. At 1:16:00, he placed me on hold to see what he could do.

1:23:00: Jeff tried to book me on another flight from Medellin to Madrid the next day. I explained to Jeff that if he read the full information on Avianca's website, he would see that the problem is ALL flights from Medellin to Madrid are on Wamos Air as of this time, and not Avianca. He then said the concern then is the change of price since the flight is soon. I had to explain to him, like the others, that this should not be my concern since Kiwi.com booked the flight with INCORRECT information, and did not make me aware of this. He read the information on Avianca's website again, and now understood that all flights on this route are on a different airline. I gave him other options I am willing to consider and he said that he would check if they can change or cancel. Back on hold at 1:27:00. Hitting the 4 hour mark on the phone with Kiwi.com shortly.

1:45:00: Jeff returned to tell me that because of US DOT regulations, they do not have to disclose the airlines that are operating with others, therefore, there is nothing they can do. I explained to him that neither Avianca nor Kiwi.com are US companies so what do US regulations have to do with any of this. He then tried to backtrack the information, finally saying that they do not have to disclose when a carrier is changed. He then informed me that because of this they will not pay the fees to change my flight. He also informed me that because of this policy that the cancellation would be voluntary and subject to the fees of the airlines.

In other words, they have shunned their responsibility in this, do not have to let you know what carrier you are flying on, and it is not their problem.

Call ended at 1:53:00.

Total call time between 3 calls: 4:23:00.

Stay away from this company! The website is purposely faulty (auto-fill-in) so you pay extra in order to make changes to your reservation. I tried to change the name on the ticket and they canceled it without my consent and now they will not give me a refund. Getting a hold of them is very difficult and time consuming. I emailed them repeatedly and I was hung-up on after waiting 45 mind on hold. When I was finally able to talk to someone the about the mixup the only things she keep saying is that the airline does not give refunds. I am out $820.
Stay with the well known company and keep checking for lower rates. This company scams people that are looking for a deals.

We had booked a flight from Panama City to Boccos Del Toro. Our booking said the departure airport was Panama City PAC which we had flew into the day before so we knew where we was going. After riding in the cab for over half an hour and paying $50, we arrived to find it was the wrong airport. There is another internal airport 25mins back in the same direction we came from. This was not clear at all. In fact, it was labelled wrong. After paying a further $50 back to the right airport we arrived to check in. The time currently was 12:30 and our flight was meant to be at 2:30. When asking if it was on time, the man said yes 5pm. The flight had been rescheduled the day before and kiwi had not notified us. We had had no email and when logging on to our booking, it still said the flight was at 2:30! We have wasted a whole day and are stuck in a small airport for 4 and a half hours. Furthermore when we have tried to phone them, the number just repeats the menu options. And when messaging the urgent airport chat, no one bothered to phone us back.

To conclude, this has been an awful service and wasted a day of our holiday. I will never book with them again and I advise people not to too.

I have had huge problems trying to cancel/refund a booking. (made May 12th)

I made a booking in error (that was my fault), and immediately tried to cancel the booking. I contacted Kiwi.com within minutes of the booking, after trying unsuccessfully to stop the purchase through my credit card company.

I explained to the customer service representative what had happened, and that I did not want the ticket. He agreed to look into the matter, and see if the flights could be cancelled before they were confirmed by the airlines. He asked to keep me on hold for a few minutes, and would then get back to me.

For some reason, the connection was lost and I had to call back Kiwi. Eventually, I talked to another customer service agent who told me that they were looking into it, and would send me an email in 2-4 hours explaining the state of my booking. I accepted this, and went to sleep.

In the morning, no email had arrived and so I again called Kiwi.
I was then told that they had cancelled all the flights, but did not know whether I would get a refund. The total for the flights was over $2000.

This was unacceptable. I explicitly asked to be informed of the status of the flights, and what was involved in cancelling the flights (ie, how much it might incur); if the cost was too high, then it would be better to keep the flights, despite the problems. Kiwi.com should not be cancelling flights without the consent of customers.

Now, after 5 more days, I still have heard anything from Kiwi.com, and do not know whether I will get the money back. This seems entirely unreasonable.

Kiwi.com seems to be fine when nothing goes wrong, and there are no unexpected events. But as soon as a problem arises, they're complete lack of customer service is apparent.

So, I have a flight from Bodrum to Cologne and from Cologne to Mallorca.
The first leg of the flight is fine, but my second leg is with Ryan Air, which is not a problem (this time)
24 hours prior departure I decide to buy a seat and an extra luggage, but I find out that is not possible, because kiwi says that I have to do it 48 hours earlier.
The problem here is that kiwi decided without asking me, to check in my flight with Ryan air, and send me the boarding passes. This action, deprives me from managing my flight with Ryan air through their app. Because when I log in in the app and try to have access to my flight in order to make changes, it does not let me do it, because KIWI did this for me, using their own credentials!
. So Ryan air allows me to add extras, even up to 2 hours before departure, but kiwi just destroyed this beautiful feature by deciding to check in my flight without my consent.
Tomorrow I am flying seat 33, and also since the connection time is short, they say that I cannot check in luggage...this people only wants to sell and people have to deal with their stupid rules...
im so disappointed, please people, trust me...think about it before booking through them...

I purchased and paid my international flight over a month ago.
2 weeks prior my trip, they changed my schedule flight where i can't make my connecting flight and when i ask for refund or put me on an earlier flight so i can catch my connected flight either one they won't and will not accommodate me either those options. This company have and had complaints by the thousands so Consumers Protection Agency should do their jobs and get involved and put them out of business.They are taking advantage and ripping of Americans citizens.
It's a highway robbery and they know people don't have time to file a complaint with Court of Justice or to get an Attorney, because they doing it in a time frame about 2 weeks prior to their flights.

This is my first and will be the last time.

People are out there, I repeat please do not put your self in risk like the rest of us did unknowingly all because I and many of us didn't checked this company.

Warning to all of the consumers out there.
Warning!

Stay away from this travel agency. They lied to me and they are not returning $900 to me. February 28, I booked a trip on March 4, from New York to Stockholm then from Stockholm to Istanbul. They charged from my account right away. March 1, I changed locations on the same date, they charged again from my account when they already charged the first time. When I called costumer service, to request refund, they said that the money will return between the 30 days, today I called costumer service and they said that the money will not be returned. This information is not stated no where about no refunds, they charged me twice while I was just trying to change the locations, not in policy no where it is written that the money won't be returned. This is ridiculous that they charged me more then they were suppose to, charged me twice for the same thing. One more time: stay away!

I recently booked a flight for my daughter from London to Tel Aviv. We went through Skyscanner to Kiwi.com who made the booking with WizzAir.
The booking was confirmed and the money was accepted by Kiwi.com.
Several days later Kiwi.com sent an email to say that the flight schedule had been changed and that my daughter would now have a 27 hour stopover in Warsaw instead of the 3 hour stopover in the original itinerary.
This was not acceptable and when they were unable to change the flights we asked for a refund so we could book other flights elsewhere.
They replied that this was a three flight booking and that they would only refund the leg of the journey that been changed.
This is unfair as we bought the flight as a package (we only made one payment, not three) and they should at the very least refund our entire booking.
You should not direct visitors to your site to Kiwi.com as they are a dishonest scamming company who should not be allowed to conduct business.

I made a one way reservation on kiwi.com that costed me about 400E and they charged me 9863 MXP (Mexican currency converted) that included 1 mexican (interjet) airline and 2 norweigan (norweigan) airlines, at the moment of buying the way back I started to have second taughts about the trip because the price got rised after a couple of days, so I decided to explore the cancelation procces that kiwi.com showed me it would be of 932 minus 20 E of penalties (this 20 where explicitly in E) and a total of 470 without explicitly indicating the currency. Not expecting that the worst case scenario in those numbers was going to be the real one because it was not sowing explicitly the currency, I decided to cancel my reservation, what a surprise that I had received a first email telling me that my reservation was "cancelled" and a refund of 0 MXP was in a process of being paid.in the mean time, one day after, another email arrived saying I would be refunded 560.84 MXP.
Contacting the companies both kiwi.com and Norweigan I asked if that was the case I would prefer to have my tickets as they where, and they answered that it was not possible because they where already "cancelled" (even when I offered to pay them back is gorgeous amount refunded)

after complaining on trustpilot I received an email explaining me that "because I paied in MXP the amount to be refunded was 470 in MXP (not E) and it was not logical to think about 932 E because I didnt pay that amount, and as a way to compensate they would be going to refund me the 20 E of penalties if I wanted" so considering his email, I should think that the worst case scenario was going to apply if I hit the cancel button (even if the numbers dont mach anyway because the second email for cancellation was saying 560.84 MXP (nothe the booking status as confirmed) and the explanation of the kind guy said 470 and after he confirmed suddenly the 560) for shure another explanation would exist like conversion rates and +- whatever it is required to "explain how the system works"

but when cancelling button apeared, to remark there was no currency saying what was going to apply

so, sadly I ended up without my flight reservation and witouth the 90% of the money, that just disappeared between kiwi.com, norweigan and interjet

attached their kind explanation (in spanish) about how I should take care from their system (is amazing how someone can explain a system way of working, to explain how they let me off from the money, making it my fault because even as he said - if it was not clear I should had contacted them before hiting the button-, because an unclear, human designed, verified, tested computer system)

—
Mi nombre es Miguel y me pongo en contacto con usted desde el Departamento de Relaciones con el Cliente de Kiwi.com en relación a su negativa experiencia con la cancelación de los vuelos.
En primer lugar lamentamos mucho el inconveniente experimentado con el bajo importe del reembolso.
En ese sentido me gustaría informarle que cuando usted compró los vuelos lo hizo en la divisa de Pesos Mexicanos, pagando por la compra 9.863 $.
Por esta razón cuando usted solicitó la cancelación le fue mostrada la misma divisa.

Basándonos en los registros del proceso podemos confirmar que la información mostrada fue la siguiente:
Total airline refund (some flights are non refundable) $ 932
Cancellation fee 20EUR $ -462
Total refundable amount $ 470

Como puede comprobar la cantidad a reembolsar por las aerolíneas $932, si hubieran sido dolares americanos o Euros habría superado con mucho lo que usted pagó en total por la reserva, lo que no cuadraría de ningún modo las cuentas.
En dicho caso, y si la información no estaba suficientemente clara debería haber contacto con nuestro servicio de Atención al cliente para una posible clarificación, y le hubiéramos podido confirmar que la cantidad estaba expresada en pesos mexicanos.

Una vez que procedimos con la cancelación con las aerolíneas, y como le hemos informado, ya no nos es posible volver a re-instaurar los billetes, lo que de nuevo lamentamos.
Por otra parte, y entendiendo la frustración de esta confusión hemos decidido como gesto de buena voluntad, no aplicar la tasa de cancelación de 20 EUR, con lo que la cantidad que le podemos reembolsar ademas de los 560.84 $ Pesos Mexicanos ya envianos, es un nuevo reembolso de 20 EUR = aprox 462 $ Pesos Mexicanos.
Entendemos que este importe es muy reducido, pero desafortunadamente es lo único que podemos reembolsarle. Intentaremos si nos es posible enviarle el reembolso de vuelta a su tarjeta, si no nos fuera posible le contactaremos de nuevo para que nos indique otra forma de reembolso.

Por favor no dude en contactarnos si tiene nuevas preguntas o es necesaria alguna clarificación sobre lo anterior.

Saludos Cordiales

Kiwi.com is a scam corporation preying on travelers. They know it. Their victims also know it and pay the hefty price including horrific airport/airline experiences. Be forewarned.

We have called and emailed and they are rude and seemingly pleased with the lack of consumer ability to get resolution from them or a refund.

Our travel plans are ruined and Kiwi.com cost us $1600 of airline tickets.

They seem to be able to defraud folks with impunity.

My name is maria sánchez. I had a very hard time traveling with spirit since I had to pay so much extra for my flight. I submitted a refund form to spirit explaining that it was not my fault since they canceled my trip last minute without any option of rescheduling leading me to re buy a ticket for double amount of the original ticket I paid for. Spirit costumer service refund the amount for the cost of $1.199.74 to a mastercard ending on *8585 (not mine but a mastercard from skypicker) on oct 2nd at 9:41pm.
The amount refund to this mastercard is for the flight confirmation number k7u66c.
Spirit told me to contact you to get the refund amount from this agency which I used to get these tickests.
I really appreciate if someone can please get back to me on this issue.

Maria sánchez
Mapasanchez83 @gmail.com
[protected]

Very unhappy quote amount for my cancellation ticket at kiwi.com which I asked for cancellation right away that I noticed the booking confirmation in first 12 hours of the ticket purchased. Why I only get the refunded amount of eur62.29 which I paid for eur6+? This is absolutely unacceptable, I spoke to them and they said wasn't beyond their control at all, it's sounds helpless, so I sent an email to airlines and surprisingly they could not trace my booking number and asked me to get it from the agent where I purchased. Unfortunately the operator mentioned they could not give me the ticket number after verified my personal details due to the ticket number is confidential, it sounds super ridiculous because I don't see the point for verification with the customer details at first, I was asking my right for my ticket number which the airlines asked me to do so at second. At third, what was the operator just said? Confidential of the ticket number? Is it insane? I paid the fuxxxxx eur600 and they refused to tell my ticket number? Unbelievable exceptional explanation discomfort me, the operator even asked me why I contacting the airlines as the agency is available? (Ya, they are available is just that unavailable for assistance), why I called? Because they keep telling me that they can't do anything, because they charged me over price for the cancellation, because even the airlines they could not find my booking is freaking me out. I suspect they actually charge me the price without providing ticket number confirmation yet and leave all the responsibility to the airlines in illegal process that not allow even asking at all, I regularly travelling around and this is a very first time being informed by someone that I have no right to ask for my flight ticket number in my life, could you believe it? I mentioned clearly enough if they could not give me the information I believe they took an illegal process of my bill then I will turn to econsumer government for reporting case and he just said will respect my decision which I definitely will do so if my booking issue still didn't come out the satisfy solution. Furthermore, how can you refunded a very small amount which is like nothing to me? Everyone please concern about my case to avoid unusual incident happen again and again, here to share my bad experience with you who read my story in flight ticket agency among all the complaint boards and internet, wish you are not the next coming victim with loss, I will keep update this profile in travel webs and forums if there's any news.

Never use them for booking flights. I spent some time on searching for tickets, booked them and after this got an email from them saying there had been an error. Tried again and again, but the result was always the same. I phoned them and was offered another non-stop flight same as the previous one but cheaper. Going through needed procedures I noticed that they were trying to send me a connecting flight with a 7 hour stop! Awful.
I declined everything and went to another website.

They don't stand behind their offers. They may be nice when talking to them but your problem will never be resolved. I think that my problem was serious because I got an email from them saying that my flight wasn't available. And I have already booked it! After this, I tried to find something acceptable for my family and their support was useless af. I'm very disappointed with them.

I had made a booking on airindia flight 569 on 25th may departing at 6.20 am from chennai to reach bombay at 8.20am through skypickers.com
I have not received my e-ticket yet. Could you please check why I have not received it so far.
My details
Name: madhavi kumar
Age: 48 sex: f
Amount paid by citibank credit card on 10th april 2017 -$ 61
Please revert to me immediately on this matter at [protected]@hotmail.com or send an sms at [protected].
Thank you
Thank you