You are not protected if airline cancels one of your flights

Please be extremly careful when reserving tickets with Kiwi.com, especially when you book multi destination and tickets that are much cheaper than on the website of the respective airline. Two months ago I reserved a flight from Europe to Jakarta and the return flight back from Medan/Sumatra to Europ. I got a confirmation from Kiwi, they debited my account right away, everything in order. Yesterday they tell me that Qatar Airways has cancelled my return flight, but it's not true, I called Qatar, the flight is mainained and you can even book flights for it on the kiwi website, so total lie. Qatar says that they never confirmed my outgoing reservation to Kiwi and that it had been a pending booking since two months which kiwi omitted to tell me... (Now qatar are overbooked and they just dump my booking because I pay cheaper than what they can sell the seats for apparently, so be aware of this, if you buy cheap tickets not directly through them). Since Qatar considers the multidestination as Two Separate bookings I cannot claim full reimbursement from them, they say nothing wrong with the outbound flight to Jakarta so no refund. But Kiwi won't reimburse me just the return flight, although they pretend it was cancelled; they say we can only make a "request" for reimbursement to quatar but only for the whole trip not just half of it! And qatar already told me, no way, they won't refund the whole amount. So it's insane! If I file for reimbursement I won't get refunded more than half of my money and Kiwi does not give me back the money for a so-cancelled flight! Which they mistakingly fully confirmed to me! So do you know the ONLY OPTION they offered to me? That I pay 2000 USD dollars more in order to get another flight with Qatar, while I could fly with Singapore Airlines for much less but they are totally inflexible. So never ever reserve flights with Kiwi, you are not protected in case of cancellation (unless you pay their super expensive insurance policy and in that case you can usually directly book through the airlin itself). Just book through the airline directly, you will safe yourself a lot of money in the end. I will post this evaluation on every website I can find, because it is just so unfair and unprofessional. Those companies make huge profits and they don't give a damn about you losing 2000 USD while it's not your fault at all.

I have booked 2 tickets through Kiwi.com and soon after the payment i was notified that one of the 4 flights had been cancelled and i needed to pay more money for another flight or request a refund that would take 3 months! - a very good joke... Aaand we would not know the amount refunded so it may as well be 1 dollar:(
I have contacted the agent to understand why 2 flights had to be cancelled if only one had been suspended by the airline and to enquire about the refund and i got a very funny message saying a refund WAS NOT PROMISED! Is this company for real?
Anyway, this is kind of dealing makes me wonder why they have not been suspended yet and how can they still continue to cheat and steal. DO NOT RECOMMEND AT ALL. If you have extra money please donate to charity.
Update
Following my complaint i have received a call from a Customer Service representative who offered an instant refund of 180 euro and asked me to either buy the leg of the cancelled flight or cancel and buy a new ticket. I cancelled and then was told that the remaining flights were non refundable and he would do his best to reverse the cancellation but as a gesture of goodwill he would give me a 100 euro credit redeemable on Kiwi.com only. I waited for 5 days for the cancellation reversal and finally bought new tickets using the Kiwi.com credit. I wrote back to the representative but no answer.
This morning after the new ticket purchase i got a polite message saying nothing could be done so for those of you who did not get it so far here is the trick.
Customer buys cheap ticket and has no Kiwi guarantee. Kiwi claims flight was cancelled and it is not refundable so if the ticket is made of more than one legs, it falls through.
A Kind Customer Service person calls from a number in the UK and says, no worries, we have your back, we will redund as much as we can and now not 3 months later but the kindness stops short of the ticket being restored. Kiwi.com kindly offers 100 euro credit towards 2 lost tickets which locks you into buying a fresh ticket from them. They make money on the tickets you could not use, the new ones you bought and the cancellation/resale of tickets you gave up on. A Very well organized scam.
Oh and, after taking payment for the 2nd ticket, we keep getting messages saying the filght reservation hasn't bèen confirmed and their team is workibg hard at it. Very impressive paid tickets but no reservation. Really Kiwi.com?

Date of experience: 05 January 2024

Booked with Kiwi on march 2023. A round trip 28 days. First of all. Y planed my trip. She's her other booking agencies for best price. Kiwi came up.

So did the research on them. Read the reviews. Al about 60% positive.

DONT BOOK WITH KIKI. They will charge you for every time your fight will change, full price. Now what about their protection plan. Well that is all bunch of nonsense. At the end you still pay for the change. No diferente.

My flight was to Colombia. Booked a round trip with them. $446.33*. No changes in the first 2 months. Then "airline" changed my flight was charged $277.14*. Called and spoke to a representative of this change and it was corrected and no further changes will be made or the "protection plan" will cover it, that's what I was told on the phone. No email was send to verify that change "everything is in your itinerary and in the app" operator said.

No changes for 5-6 months.

Then in oct-nov got an email stating that airline change my flight. So I called in to kiwi and spoke to an operator about this change. He told me that the airline changed my flight and I DID NOT have a fight back(Colombia to Mexico). So I told them that then you have to find me an alternative and put me in a flight. Operator said NO. You don't have the protection plan. I said WHAT. I spoke a an operator about this a couple of months ago that this will the taken care of. You need to fix it. My vacation starts in 1 month.

Operator. I can't do anything. The airline changed your fight. We do not have control over that.

So what is the alternative cost that you are offering?

Operator: $630
Me: WHAT you're crazy. I already paid for a round trip. And your charger me for a flight that you are responsible for. That doesn't make sense. That is the important flight (Colombia to Mexico). I want to speak to a supervisor.

Operator: there is no operator at this point. One can call you in 4-6 hrs if you like.

Me: what are you talking about. You're telling me that there is no supervisor right now at this moment?

Operator:no. A supervisor will give you a call back in 4-6hrs

Me: okay then. What is your name(tajamul)

I was given a call back, but when I was asleep. So then send an email stating that the issue was resolved. Yes. They call you when you are asleep so they can send the notifications on their end that it was resolved.

I called back in the morning to kiwi and spoke to a supervisor. Told my story over again and again. Stating that go back on the recorded conversation that my issue was going to be resolved at your end. Supervisor read the "protocol customer sentence "
The one that they memorize. All an all they didn't do anything to correct the problem. They didn't go back on the record is to verify that the 2 operator will include the "protection plan". End of call

I called the airline directly to the airline (Avianca) told them my issue. Representative from Avianca stated that. The fight that I gave him(number & time & location) was still active(on schedule) but your name/info is not in our system. That kiwi removed me from the flight.

That's when I called my credit card and reported that they are a SCAM.

I booked a flight returning home all on my own.

DONT BOOK WITH KIWI. THEY WILL MAKE YOUR TRIP A NIGHTMARE, unpleasant, STAY AWAY. LOOK ELSEWHERE OR GO DIRECTLY TO THE AIRLINE THAT IS USED OFTEN IN THAT COUNTRY

This was my first time using Kiwi. I had no experience with the company before and knew nothing about it. My son has been experiencing constant respiratory illness for two months and we made the decision to send him out of the cold and air pollution of Mongolia to a warmer and cleaner environment in Taiwan. In addition to his respiratory issues, he was experiencing flu symptoms with a high temperature and we wanted to get him better medical attention than what is available here in Mongolia as soon as possible. The Kiwi flight we were offered was Korean Air from UBN to ICN, a less than two-hour layover at ICN and a connecting flight on Tigerair from ICN to TPE. When my wife and son arrived at ICN Terminal 1, the Tigerair flight was departing from the same terminal. However, my wife was informed that she had to leave the Terminal since she was not checked in to her connecting flight. (Mind you that I tried to checkin for them online, but they said we had to notify them much earlier than we had and also could not because of a minor under 15 accompanying my wife.)
When my wife left the terminal and went through immigration as instructed, she was met by all of the airline's kiosks closed due to a late-night flight. My wife and son were stuck at ICN with no way to fly out. If this issue were due to a delayed first flight or my wife not making it to the gate on time, I would have no problem taking the hit on losing the second flight and having to purchase another. However, the whole flight was impossible from the beginning. There was no way that they could have made the second flight from the moment we purchased the tickets through Kiwi.
The response for a denial of refund from your company was that we did not notify Kiwi up to 48 hours before our flight. However, we purchased tickets less than 24 hours before the flight. The other reasons listed for the denial of a refund were that it was our choice to cancel the flight (which was not the case), COVID (which was not the case), or a lack of documentation (also not the case). The missed flight was not the result of our error or Korean Air, but was a faulty flight schedule on Kiwi's part and should have never been offered in the first place.

I left a review on TrustPilot. I have left Facebook comments on posts. All I receive is the same generic answers and nothing beyond that. Give me a legitimate number to talk to a specific person about my case, please. They do not treat their customers like they care.

AVOID THIS COMPANY AT ALL COSTS!
There thieves I can't express this enough, I don't ever write reviews but this company is a scam. I used them to fly to Japan from Australia I got to the airport to find out my first flight to Singapore was delayed and due to that delay I would miss my second flight from Singapore to Japan, I called them to notify them this as they "guarantee" a no out of pocket expense if you miss a connecting flight due to a delay they told me to get the first flight and everything will be worked out once I arrive in Singapore. I arrived in Singapore and they told me the only option I had that wouldn't cost me anything was to take a flight to china then to Japan with a 15 hour lay over, they wouldn't give me a option for any of the direct flights even tho I originally had a direct flight from Singapore to Japan. They told me if I wanted to get the direct flight I would have to pay $740.00 AUD, due to my time schedule in Japan I had no option but to take this flight and pay but they later called and told me that flight was fully booked once I had payed them. ( this was a lie because I went to the counter in the airport and booked myself on this flight paying for it again and the flight was half booked) they now won't refund me my $740.00 they have told me that its already been refunded but no funds have entered my account I've asked multiple times for proof of a refund but I've been given excuses that there email system is down, they then hang up on calls so that you have to call back and talk to a complete different person. The company is structured to be so frustrating to deal with that you give up so I cannot express enough to use a different company I will be posting this on multiple review sights the company is a SCAM!

"Booked" flights that were cancelled immediately via virgin as the are not authorised. Left me with two cancelled booking numbers which i only discovered when tried to use to book extra bag on the first. Kiwi then issues another booking ref - Same again. Scam ended up booking another flights and recovering money via card company

1st response from kiwi - can't find the bookings (neither could I, or virgin)

2nd response from kiwi -it's in a backlog and will be investigated. What's the betting they say "fully refunded" where as in actuality it was a debit card claw back by my bank. Doesn't take into account the huge stress, immediate additional cost and lies just before Christmas. Not that virgin maintain they are not authorized at all to book virgin flights in the first place …

Latest from kiwi, below. Both here and to my email they have failed to address that they are selling flights from virgin that they are not authorized to sell. I have it in writing both tickets were cancelled as KIWI is not authorized to sell virgin flights. The flannel below show what sort of company this. Here is the response from virgin:

From: Customer Care
Date: 22 January 2023 at 18:03:31 GMT+2
To: Richard James lang
Subject: Response from Customer Care – Reference VSCR-******* / Email:*******633

Dear Mr. James lang 

Thank you for taking the time to contact us.

I am sorry to hear the issues that you have had with Kiwi, I have no doubt the inconvenience that this must have caused at the time.

I can see that booking reference DAQCPA was booked on the 22nd of November and CPRDUT was booked on the 20th of December.

Kiwi is not a recognised travel agent with us and do not have our ticketing authority this is the reason why your tickets were not accepted. We informed Kiwi that the booking was rejected on the same day as the flights were booked and no money was accepted.

Based in the Czech Republic, Kiwi.com is a third party that sells flight itineraries which may contravene our Conditions of Carriage and general booking policies, leading to a poor experience for customers. We have repeatedly instructed them that they remove our flights from their website. Kiwi.com.

This includes the encouragement of partial travel, failure to use tickets in sequence, and use of 'hidden cities' in itineraries, portrayed as 'travel hacks' which ultimately can cause multiple problems during the customer's journey. For example, hold luggage being separated from passengers or not included on the booking, incomplete documents resulting in denied boarding, and issues if your flight is changed or cancelled. We're aware that bookings may provide insufficient transparency of cost breakdowns.

I do hope that this helps, I can understand the frustration that this must cause. Please be assured that we will continue to request that they stop advertising or administering Virgin Atlantic flights.

Once again thank you for taking the time to contact us, I do hope that we are able to welcome you onboard in the future.

Kind regards,
Kimberley Hutchings 
Customer Care

Virgin Atlantic Airways Ltd
The VHQ, Fleming Way
Crawley
RH10 9DF, UK

If you wish to respond please just click "reply" to this email to ensure your individual Case VSCR-******* is updated and we will get back to you as soon as we can.

Dear people, this is a Scam company and I am 100% sure that they have bought fraud reviews who tended to give them 5 Start ratings. Please check other review sites such as product reviews that gives honest experience from their customers. I have been looted by this company for almost A$8000. I had booked flights from Kiwi.com for a trip from India to Australia in 2021 at the peak of pandemic. There were no options available and only this website showed tickets available. Little did I know that I was entering a den of scammers who would end up scamming me for almost A$8000. I booked tickets and it give me a wierd itinerary from India to Doha, Doha to Greece!, Greece to Abudhabhi, Abudhabi to Australia. Weird as it sounded I booked the flight anyways not knowing that I was falling into this trap. The flight was for my Wife and my 4 year old son. We were separated due to covid for almost 1 year and therefore, we wanted to reunite at any cost possible. After I booked the flights I got to know that the flights from Greece to Abudhabi and Abhudhabi to Australia were all getting canceled. I called the Kiwi.com agents and informed that if the flights got canceled while my wife and son are transiting, it will spell disaster for them. They advised me that if the flight gets canceled they have other options available. After reading reviews I came to know that there were people who were forced back to come back to their home country after staying 2 or 3 days in hotels as the flights were not allowed to land in Australia and ended up spending heaps of dollars. I was in a pure state of shock when I learned this as my wife would be completely helpless in a foreign nation with my 4-year-old son. I told Kiwi.com that if the flights gets cancelled then they will have to pay me the entire booking amount as I had taken their bogus Kiwi.com insurance as well. Kiwi.com customer service informed me to cancel the flights on my behalf if I was worried so that they will get the maximum payment, which I firmly declined. I even confirmed from the ground officials from Greece that the flights are not allowed to land or take off from Athens airport (the port where we were supposed to transit from). I waited till the boarding day to see the status, however, I asked my wife and son to stay back and not board the flight anyways because we were sure and certain that the flights were indeed getting cancelled. The day when my wife and son were supposed to board the flight, I finally got the email that I dreaded, that the second itinerary from Greece to Abudhabi and Abudhabi to Australia from carrier Aegean Airlines has cancelled. I immediately requested Kiwi.com for a refund, to which they said that it has been sent to "processing". After their so-called processing for 20 days I got the refund amount of roughly A$1200 and they said that the case was closed. Kiwi.com said that Aegean airlines didn't have any refund policy and even told me that they can't pay me my insurance or other charges for the services that I didn't even use. I had also used their BOGUS KIWI.COM GUARANTEE and they simply didn't refund me a single penny (even stole the money that I had paid for the guarantee. I was shocked to the core after learning that I was robbed off A$7500 from Kiwi.com. I mailed to their customer service, their managers and even their founder Mr Oliver Dlouhý all in vain. They booked the first flight through Qatar airways from India to Doha which got refunded back and they sent me this tiny amount stating that this is all they could recover. To date I am fighting to get my entire amount back, I even contacted the Interpol but they said that they cannot intervene as it is a trading-related issue. I request everyone to NOT fall in this trap. These people Kiwi.com along with their founder Oliver Dlouhý have been scamming people from a long time. They know all the loopholes to avoid the authorities and despite their terrible fraudulent activities they are allowed to operate legally in Czech republic. It is a shame for the Czech republic govt, that the are allowing such scammers to operated globally. I was fooled enough to be scammed by Kiwi.com due to my circumstances. But you guys please make sure that you don't fall in their trap. Some of the flights which they book may be genuine but most of them are bogus and if they get cancelled there is no way to get your money back. Take care people

We are a family of four consisting of two young children purchasing as flight from London to Singapore using Etihad by using kiwi.com. On the day of our flight the most horrified moment for traveling with children happens, our name is not in the flight we booked! The depressing moment is best explain in time capsule below:

3.6.2023,EY20 2.50pm departing London to Singapore via Abu Dhabi

11am- Start to Queue up at Etihad Check in Countrr LHR Terminal 4
11.30am- We were informed our booking is not in the system.
11.30am-2pm -Horrified 2.5hours calling Kiwi.com numerous times (4 times and incurring roaming charges) but we're asked to wait as our case is thrown to another department within their office.
2.20pm-Etihad Check In Counter closed. ALL 4 OF US STANDING IN FRONT OF THE COUNTER LIKE A POOR KID BEGGING FOR HELP! Etihad doesn't care of us and neither took the effort to call kiwi.com
2.28pm-Received message in kiwi app asking us to move to terminal 2 as they changed us to Turkish Airlines departing 6.30pm same day. Our hotel booking in Abu Dhabi for a night transit is burnt (amounting USD70)
2.55pm- Arrived Turkish Airline Check In Counter and they move us to earlier flight departing 4.40pm as connection is too near for 6.30pm flight for IST-SIN Sector.
4pm- Waiting at gate and our names were announced on the PA system. Turkish Airlines inform all 4 of us that no food is allocated for us for LHR-IST as we came in late!

kiwi.com, you are inhuman organisation with no responsibility in the welfare of your customer. You create a depressing and bad stigma in my 2 children mind causing anxiety, fear and unforgettable bad thoughts in LHR airport. May God has mercy on your sin!

Due to a delay in my first flight, I missed my connection. No help, no refund. DON'T BOOK HERE!

Kiwi.com is probably the biggest scam I've fallen for since I can remember using the internet. I was working in Afghanistan for 6 months and had holiday mid-way and I went home because my cousin was getting married. My company flew me to Tajikistan and then I was on my own. Because I was shor ton cash I searched for the cheapest option and it took me to kiwi.com where I had to take 2 flights with 2 different airlines but there was a 2h40 layover which seemed enough and the ticket assured there was "Kiwi protection" during said layover. Once I got to the airport to take my flight from Tajikistan to Istanbul, I realized it was delayed. It ended up being 1h30 late. Once I got to Istanbul, I ran as fast as I could to passport control because I had to exit and enter again as kiwi told me it wasn't possible to check-in for my second flight online. When I got to the check-in desk, check-in was closed and the flight was about to depart. I tried to seek help from kiwi only to find an email letting me know my flight first flight was delayed (missed the timing right?). I looked for flights on the same day but there weren't any so I had to book one for the following day as I had to get home for the wedding. I ended up also having to pay for a hotel room and obviously transprotation and food, which kiwi didn't care at all about. They told me my flight was non-refundable so many times but were unable to take any accountability for the fact that they were the company booking the journey and theoretically providing layover protection. I was told I had enough time t catch the second flight even though they knew I had to exit and re-enter due to their inability to help me online check-in. I find this not only infuriating and insulting, but also fail to understand how it is legal and somehow my fault when I was the only one with zero control over all that happened and was left in such a vulnerable situation. Whatever you do, DO NOT BOOK WITH KIWI.