Kiwi.com
reviews and complaints

I hv made a flight booking on 23rd Mar from Singapore from Kiwi.com On 25th Mar I was supposed to travel from Guangzhou to Hanoi and it was cancelled by the airline. So I had to book another flight from my own expense and applied for a refund for the cancellation through Kiwi. As per the Kiwi guarantee if the flight s cancelled is cancelled by the airline I'm supposed to receive full amount, but they replied to my email after a month that there won't be any refund.
Booking reference- [protected]
Date of travel 23 mar 2019 to 29 mar 2019

Dear Kiwi

Unfortunatly I have a complaint to make about a flight I booked for myself and my girlfriend Liselotte under the booking number [protected].

We left Heathrow at 22.10 on Wednesday 17th April and arrived in Wuhan, China at 15.45 on Thursday 18th and were supposed to board a flight to Phuket at 22.10

We were told when we arrived in Wuhan that the flight was cancelled

The staff of Southern China airways were very unhelpful and left us waiting until 1.00am on Friday 19th when they finally arranged a hotel after 9hours. During this time I phoned Kiwi customer service to ask for advice and but was told by the advisor there was nothing they could do and that the guarantee only covered our flight from Phuket to Siem Reap.

We stayed in the hotel for 4 hours being promised to leave to Guangzhou at 8.30 Friday 20th But the flight was delayed by 12 hours due to weather conditions meaning we missed the transfer to Phuket.

When we arrived in Guangzhou at 22.30 Friday 19th we then immediately queued at the delayed flight transfer desk.

Queuing for 3 hours and being pushed aside several times we finally rearranged a transfer flight to Phuket at 12.30pm Saturday 20th.

We were told to go to gate 50 to arrange free accommodation for that night but when we arrived there were no hotel rooms available.Having no promised accommodation arranged for us, we waited at Guangzhou airport from 1.30am to 12.30pm (11 hours) to finally get to Phuket.

Whilst in Guangzhou airport I phoned Kiwi customer service to help arrange our flight from Phuket to Siem Reap and was told to phone them when we were boarding the flight so they knew when we were landing so they could arrange our flight as promised under the guarantee.

We arrived in Phuket at 16.00 only to discover that we had no alternative flight from Kiwi which was promised to us to be sent via email as we boarded in Guangzhou.We immediately went to the air Asia desk to ask for the next flight to Siem Reap and were told there is one flight a day at 5.35am.

We arranged a hotel in Phuket for ourselves then called kiwi again and asked if they could book us this flight under the guarantee. We were told to wait for a confirmation call between 2 to 4 hours again receiving no call in the promised time.

Kiwi team booked another transfer flight to siem reap and phoned at an inconvenient 3.30am to inform us of an alternative flight they arranged which was to go via a transfer through Bangkok and would take an extra day of our time.

We did not ask for this and could not understand why you couldn't give us the 5.35am direct flight to Siem Reap so we booked it ourselves for 6350THB (£190)

It was not the intention to pay for this flight but due to the disorganisation of your team we had lost all faith and were determined to finally start our holiday

We finally arrived in siem reap at 6.15am Sunday 21st, 2 days later than arranged.

Being so disappointed in your service, false promises and lack of understanding for our situation.We deserve a full refund of £880 for the flights from Heathrow to Siem reap.

Also we would like to claim back the additional £190 flights from Phuket to siem reap, and our hotel in Phuket for 900THB.

Your sincerely

Jamie Bailey

Hi,

My name is Charles Soares. Had booked a one way fare from Melbourne, all the way through to Goa, India. Had booked a one way ticket as my mother is suffering from cancer and is very ill. Although am on an Indian passport, am an australian permanent resident and have been for the past 13 years. I had an onward itenary to my destination. All the above requirements satisfied my condition to attain a transit visa while having to change terminals and flights in Singapore. However, my initial journey from Melbourne to Singapore never materialized. The Jetstar stuff demanded that i have a visit visa before leaving melbourne. I was not allowed to board the flight in melbourne and subsequently had to cancel all connecting flights. I ended up booking new flights. In lieu of the above, i request kiwi to provide me with a full refund for all the trauma caused to me today. God forbid if something were to happen to my mum while me not being there i would hold kiwi and Jetstar responsible for this mishap. If this matter is not handled appropriately, i will take the matter up with an external agency.

Name: Charles Edward
Surname: De Quadros Soares
Date of Journey:8th May 2019
Melbourne->Singapore->Chennai->Goa
Jetstar->Air India Express->Spicejet
PNR:
MJZLVG:FLZEEI:U7YUHV

1. Date of incident : 12.03.2019
2. +[protected]
3. The salam air flight was delay for more than 3 1/2 hours from doha to muscat (flight no is ov132). So I last my connecting flight air arabia from muscat to sharjah (flight no g9117). I am totally new to this place and during night. And no one was their to help me. I suffered a lot in the night both physically and mentally agony.
4. Request to refund.

Booking N0. [protected]. On 25th April we flew from Alicante to Southampton with Vueling, making a stopover of just over two hours at Palma, Mallorca airport. We booked disability assistance throughout. Flight was over half an hour late taking off and when we arrived the assistance person couldn't find the check in desk for Flybe, the next flight. We had to collect our luggage and with everyone passing us from pillar to post we ended up being rushed through x-ray as they were boarding at the time. We thought we would have a leisurely meal at the airport but no such luck. Unbelievably the same thing happened on the way back. The plane was over an hour late taking off and the assistance person was worse than the first. The airport is huge and nobody seemed to know where we should go, so it happened again, the two hours 40 minutes when we could have had a leisurely meal was taken up with the same problems so again we were rushed through. There were no direct flights on the dates we picked but we weren't given a different choice of dates, so picked the one which we thought at the time was best but it turned out to be the worse. It would have helped the situation if we didn't have to collect the luggage each time instead of it going directly. We couldn't print the boarding passes out before we went, so that was another problem at the airport.

Booking number [protected]
Flight date 22nd April

I had a terrible experience with Kiwi.com and from doing more internet research it would seem that the trustpilot overall rating is a lot different from most customers opinions on other sites, it would not surprise me if most of the 5 star reviews are fake. It's possible that if nothing goes wrong with the booking you may get to your destination without issues but if anything does change then you're in for stressful time.

48 hours before we were leaving for our holiday I was informed that the interconnecting flight coming back was landing in a different airport so we wouldnt be able to make it home. As part of the "Kiwi guarantee", they say they will find suitable alternatives if there are any changes outwith of your control. The alternatives they gave involved either a 10.5 hour layover or I could spend an extra 330 euros and reduce it to 5.5 hours. I told them this wasn't a suitable alternative as I was travelling with a 2 year old and was even willing to land at a different final destination to try and reduce the layover time and give them more options but this was when the trouble started...

For most of the holiday I was stressed as they kept saying "give us 24-48 hours", in the end I emailed several times and did 10 international phone calls (spanning 10 days) to try and sort it out. In the end, I had to pay for another flight (last minute) in order to get home at a reasonable hour. It doesn't help that you speak to a different person every time and it is clear that English isn't their first language so communication can be a problem as well. Most of the phone operators were very friendly and empathetic but could never do anything to resolve the issue and would always say that it was sent to the relevant team (who you can't contact directly).
I will never use this booking company again and I hope that at least someone sees this and thinks twice or digs a little deeper into the online complaints as I just went off the trustpilot reviews which led to a complete disaster of a holiday.

Still waiting on a refund for the interconnecting flight that I never used, can't say I've got my hopes up for that though!

Internal flight in Indonesia. LBJ-DPS on Lion Air. Booked via Kiwi. Ref: 48 336 926 . Booking made fewer than 7 days before flight.

At 22:02 on 01/05/2019 airline contacted Kiwi to inform that my flight was now 7 hours earlier. This was hardly acceptable but at least it was sufficient notice to book another flight.

Kiwi never contacted me, nor did they pass across my contact details. They had both my telephone number and email address from booking. They emailed and texted me when I booked.

Kiwi's phone number in the UK on booking confirmation does not work. The number simply disconnects. I tried 10 times. Nor does the Live Chat function. When I click "Need assistance at airport", I'm told to contact airline.

I've had to book a flight in 2 days' time. I've lost a £400 reservation in Bali plus 2 days' holiday. Negligent and shameful.

Sir,

I phoned two times this week for my complaint, with your servicedesk (NL: +31 [protected] )

Bookingsdocument from KIWI.com mentions flight from HER to BRU (Brussels, Belgium, flightnumber : TB2252 ; TUI FLY ) departing at 21 april 2019 22:30 h local time. We came to Heraklion airport about 20:00h en the flight to BRU already left at about 19:00h? We were NOT notified by kiwi.com or TUI fly.

So, we had to book 3 new tickets from HER to AMS (Schiphol, Amsterdam; Holland); Transavia, flight HV 6876 (21 april 2019) and i had to pay 525, 00 eur for 3 new flight tickets. We also had to arrange a airport taxi service from Amsterdam Airport to our house in Belgium (> 200 km) and we had to pay an additional 115, 00 eur.

Can you confirm that KIWI.COM will pay back the cost of our extra flight (or the TUI flight) and the additional taxi cost.

Erik Witters
Boterbloemstraat 27
3970 Leopoldsburg
Belgium

erik.[protected]@telenet.be

+32(0)[protected]

They have a nice customer support which helped me a lot with my lost baggage at the airport. They contacted Norwegian and gave me all the information needed. I really recommend. They also have the security system which might seem to be fraud but in fact they are preventing us from it. I am a frequent flyer and I can say that Kiwi.com is the best option to save money!

Cancelled flight to the US, got a partial refund, no breakdown so I guess it was government taxes. Provided medical certificate as instructed by Kiwi.com, after I initially cancelled, signed by senior medical consultant. This I thought would have guaranteed me a refund of the balance, about £500, not a chance. Emails galore, more twists than a slippery snake. Answer kept coming back, no, no, no. So many excuses, didn't follow the correct procedure, doctor's letter not correct etc., decision made accept it. They just do not and will not refund if they can possibly get away with it. You wouldn't think this crowd were in the travel/holiday business. I certainly will on no circumstances use them again, ever, and would advise others to steer well clear. Next time, I will read up on any online company before using them, this company has destroyed all my trust. I would rather pay more to a reputable company for a decent and honest service.

Good day

I had my booking automatically placed on hold and then cancelled, due to the airline deciding after I paid online that they were going to increase the cost of the ticket by 50%.

I needed to get to my destination, so I went back online, only to see the same flight was still advertised at the original price I paid. (there was no price increase) so I booked it again. Paid online with my credit card again. And what do you know? Two hours later I got a notice saying unless I paid 50% more than my original booking, my ticket would be cancelled and refunded.

Now if this isn't a ploy by either kiwi or the airline to get people to choose the cheaper flight and then actually coax them into paying more than the other flights, well then I do not know what is!

Not only do I have no flight now, I have also paid twice on my credit card and have to wait 10 business days for these refunds.

Very disappointed in this tactic being used here.

First booking: [protected]
Second booking: [protected]

You ask for me to provide a desired resolution:... Please make sure that either you, or your partner airlines do not make such outrageous policies. The price at the time of booking and completing/processing payment surely cannot change. Twice.

Ps: I went online again now and the price is still the same for this flight. (the original price I paid last week and the price I paid yesterday) so why do you want me to pay 50% more! The advertised price has not changed. I bet you if I booked and paid again the same thing would happen.

I was told I'd get a full refund as the airline agreed to this and you sent me and email before I cancelled confirming this and then you have only refunded me a fraction of what I paid. I cancelled a day later so how can that change so quickly. I'm Owed £200 from kiwi.com and I will get my Grabdad who is a solicitor to address this if need be and then sue you on top of it. Just refund me what is owed to me please.

I had booked a flight from Stockholm to Dubai on kiwi.com. Booking number: [protected]
The flight of first part was by Norwegian from Stockholm to Dubai, which was cancelled & Norwegian offered us an alternate flight from Stockholm-Copenhagen & Copenhagen-Dubai with a long halt at Copenhagen, which we accepted as we had no other option since we had a connecting flight from Dubai-Mumbai to catch. But when we were waiting at Copenhagen, we got a call from Jet Airways that their Dubai-Mumbai flight was cancelled due to operational reasons & they were also not able to provide us with any alternate flight but will give a full refund of the amount paid through the agent. We had no option & we called kiwi.com as they have a kiwi.com guarantee which promises that if any flight is cancelled they will provide an alternate option for the same at no extra cost. But here they said that since it was a force majeure situation where the airline has filed for insolvency they cannot give us an alternate option. They also said that they will provide full refund of the amount paid for the flight. By the time all this happened it was time to fly from Copenhagen-Dubai, so we left & decided to go to Dubai & find alternate flight from there. From Dubai, all flight to Mumbai were full or very exorbitantly priced, so we waited almost 10 hrs on Dubai Airport & took a flight Dubai-Pune at much higher prices & also spent on Pune-Mumbai Taxi to reach Mumbai.
After coming to Mumbai, I filed a request for refund of Jet Airways flight which was cancelled with kiwi.com. They processed the same & sent me the refund of 341.09 USD, but as per their Invoice they charged me 500.14 USD for that flight including baggage which they showed separately in their Invoice. I requested them for a full refund of amount I paid as the flight was cancelled, but they refused & said that we will only refund the amount they paid to jet airways & no additional baggage charges charged in the Invoice.
As the flight was cancelled I just request for a full refund of the amount paid by me. I have already spent a lot more money on my return flight & had to face lot of mental & physical stress for the same.
Kindly help me sort this matter & receive appropriate compensation.
Attached is the ticket & Invoice from kiwi.com

I am stuck in the airport because my flight was cancelled by Smartwings. No notification email sent at all. I just found out at the airport when my flight is not in the list. So I called the Airlines and they told me to contact Kiwi.com directly since I booked the flight with them. I contacted Kiwi.com and told them my ordeal but they only passed it back to the airlines. Now I am told to wait 4hrs (I am at the airport) and the Airline will just send me an email. No assurance at all even when I have mentioned the Kiwi Guarantee. This is the first time this happened to me and would never wish this happen even to my worst enemy. Now I am thinking of booking a different flight but I need a refund for my Dubai-Prague unused ticket!

Booking number: [protected]

This is the worse company I have ever used to book tickets... The first and last time.
Very misleading and providing incorrect information.
I booked tickets on the 17th march for the amount of £1165.00 and I cancelled these tickets due to incorrect dates within 5 minutes.
They have now refunded me £291.00 because apparently that's all the airline has returned. I have lost out on £885.00 only because I cancelled due to the dates. This is absolutly ridiculous.
When you call the company they advise you to talk to the airline and the airlines do not query anything further as this is booked through a travel agency airline. This is the worse company I have ever used. I will be taking further action as this is a lot of money for me to loose. What a rubbish company and procedures.

Twice now I have booked a flight through kiwi.com and the price has been advertised at £64 when paid. Then in the following days I receive an email saying the price has gone up by £28 and I must pay the difference or get a refund. I am appalled that this has happened to me twice now. This is false advertising and I feel as though it draws you in with a cheap price only to then make you pay more. This con is unacceptable from an airline and I am expecting compensation for this.
The second time it happened to me I had no time to book another flight as I am travelling remote and so had to pay the difference because of this sudden price change, exactly the same as before. The fact this has happened twice is terrible.

Looking forward to hearing from you

Ellie

Our flights from windhoek to johannesburg on air namibia had been cancelled. I informed you and you had not even received that information. On 15 march I requested a different flight.

On 16th march you wrote:-

As per your concern regarding the cancellation, we would like to inform you that as you have accepted the alternative flight march 25 17:30 windhoek (wdh) - johannesburg (jnb) 19:15. We have forwarded your concern to our relevant department for the changes. Please be informed a confirmation for the same will be sent to you within the next 48 hours on your registered email address along with the updated e-ticket.

On 18th march I requested a response as I had heard nothing.

You responded on 18th march as follows:-

We would like to inform that our relevant team is still working on the case so please allow us some more time as our team is waiting for the reply from the airline. Once done we will send you the updated e-ticket along with the confirmation.

On receiving this inadequate response I complained and received the following on 19 march

We do apologize if the request is taking long, we completely understand that this travel is valuable and important to you. This will be taken with urgency and I have forwarded your reservation to our booking team to update your flight details. I will personally handle your reservation and call/email you within 24 hours to give you an update. We hope for your understanding and patience regarding this matter.

My response was to request an immediate refund of my payment so I could go to a proper travel agent

I have not heard from you again, but you will hear from me again!

Nick swanepoel

Hello, I booked a series of flights with the booking: Booking [protected].

I had paid for baggage on every flight but for some reason the Manila - Kuala Lumpur was not added. Air Asia said I had to contact you directly, but at the time I needed to board so had to pay their extra fees which came to 4100php (see attatched image).

I booked the flight on February 12th and the flight departed February 18th at 12:40pm.

Please could you look into this amount being refunded as soon as possible?

You can contact me on [protected]@gmail.com.

Thank you,

Melissa Tamati

I have booked my flight from Glasgow to Bhopal through kiwi.com. It is operated up to Delhi by Emirates and then by Jetairways for Delhi to Bhopal in India.

When I was booking the flight it showed me that I will get 3 hours 10 mins break for my flight from Delhi to Bhopal on 15th March. However today I got SMS from Jetairways that my flight from Bhopal is rescheduled and will leave 1 hour 50 mins earlier.

So I am getting nearly 1 hours and 30 mins to change airport(Delhi International to domestic), recheck baggage and catch flight.

I asked some other travellers and they suggested me that everything can't be done with in given time period.

I called Kiwi.com to reschedule the flight but they are asking for extra money and I think it's not my fault so they should do it without taking any extra fees

Re booking [protected]

Kiwi cancelled my flight from Bristol to Stornaway offering an alternative flight but via Amsterdam. I accepted the flight in good faith.
After phoning the Airport in Amsterdam I was told that i would need a passport even for a connecting flight.

On checking I discovered that my passport has recently expired. There is no time to renew.

Distressed by this time and not being able to speak to anyone at KIWI but aware that there are time contraints with changing bookings I cancelled the flight.

However I still needed to get to Stornaway on the dates originally booked.

So I rebooked with KIWI but have lost a around 36 hours off my original break. I also had to alter the accomodation booking and the car hire and some appointments I had made for the first day as no longer able to keep them.

Finaly speaking to someone at Kiwi ( I have trouble as I am deaf) he informed me that I have lost the money for the original ticket purchas as it was my fault by accepting the flight via Amsterdam despite that it was not clear that I would need a passport when I accepted this alternative. Clearly a passport was not required for the original booking.

I have since been refunded £8.50 on a £574.80 purchase. The new booking has cost me at least £65 more. So by KIWI suddenly changing its mind about the availability of my flight I have lost my orignal purchase money, the extra cost of tickets, a day and a half off my already short time away, wasted over a day trying to sort this out ( rebook accomadation, alter car hire and the pre arranged appointments) along with considerable stress and anxiety.

I would like an apology from Kiwi plus my original booking fee of £574 refunded in full along with the extra money the new flight has cost.

Regards
Vivienne Bennett