Kiwi.com
Reddit take
AI summary of the Reddit excerpts below — not a quote
Kiwi.com is an online travel agency (OTA) that is widely criticized by the Reddit travel community for its unreliable customer service and high-risk booking practices. While users appreciate its powerful search engine for finding cheap, complex itineraries, the consensus is that the platform often leaves travelers stranded during flight disruptions or when simple ticket changes are needed.
Pros
- Powerful search filters that allow for broad searches by region, country, and date ranges.
- Occasionally offers significantly cheaper 'hacker fares' or multi-airline combinations not found elsewhere.
- Useful as a search engine to discover routes before booking directly with airlines.
Cons
- Extremely poor customer service characterized by long delays, AI chat loops, and conflicting information.
- Frequent use of 'self-transfer' itineraries which offer no airline-backed protection for missed connections.
- High fees for simple modifications, such as name corrections, which can sometimes exceed the ticket cost.
- Difficult and lengthy refund processes, with some users reporting service charges even when bookings fail.
Caveats
- Booking through Kiwi as a middleman often prevents airlines from assisting you directly with changes or cancellations.
- The 'Kiwi Guarantee' for missed connections is reported by users to be difficult and time-consuming to claim.
- Some itineraries require travelers to re-check bags and clear security between flights, which is risky with tight connections.
Best for
- Budget-conscious travelers with flexible schedules.
- Finding complex or creative flight routes that are otherwise difficult to piece together.
Avoid if
- You require reliable customer support or easy ticket modifications.
- You have tight connections between different airlines.
- You prefer the security and direct communication of booking through an airline.
This summary uses balanced time weighting with about a 6-month half-life. The evidence comes from 41 mentions in r/travel with a median source age of approximately 182 days.
Sentiment
2 positive (5%) · 4 mixed (10%) · 35 negative (85%)
Trust + time weighted score: -80% · raw score -80%
What redditors said (10 of 41)
Kiwi.com said it would be $109EUR so don’t pay this it’s a scam.
So kiwi.com is useless and it’s been two months dealing with them to correct my name on my ticket. They initially said they could do it but for $109EUR I gave up and paid it. They have now said they can’t and will issue me a refund (which I’m still waiting for).
I needed to say it somewhere as I’ve never experienced how bad their customer service is. I needed to correct my name (which I did two seconds after making my booking) I have now spent two months trying to get it fixed. This is back and forth communication on adding three letters to my booking. I then get told it’s fixed then a day later I get told it’s impossible.
i was very stressed and stupid while booking my flights (bucharest to tbilisi with a transfer in istanbul with pegasus airlines) and i used kiwi as it was reccomended by google, and now i have looked through many bad reviews and realized that i messed up.
Kiwi has to rebook you. My guess is it will be very difficult to impossible to make them do that.
I’ve used Kiwi a few times, no problems to report. I’ve even had a leg to a multi-leg flight cancelled the day before I was meant to leave, and I was automatically rebooked on a new equal-ish itinerary the next day, no need to deal with customer service at all. Of course direct is better though.
I would cut your losses, get every refund you can from Kiwi and next time book directly with a carrier you can deal directly with when things go south on you.
However if Skyscanner says “self transfer” (and Kiwi is notorious for this) then that means your flights are booked on two separate tickets which means you have no protection in case of first delay (Kiwi does provide a “guarantee”, but it will take ages to figure out how to claim it).
I would never book with any company like that - I always go straight to the airline. In general I think it’s wise to take the time to do a quick google search before you book, and kiwi are known for ripping people off and leaving them hanging when it comes to refunds or assistance in the case of a cancelled flight. Avoid in the future!
Kiwi is my favorite for this, since you can also search by region, country, etc and over specific ranges to find the cheapest days to fly to France between August 1-5, for example.
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