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An open question for a Sunday afternoon – is the Kiwi Missed Connection Guarantee any good?
I’ve noticed flight booking site Kiwi coming up more and more frequently in my searches recently and it heavily promotes a very interesting looking unique feature – the Missed Connection Guarantee.
What are you babbling about?
Like many other sites these days, when you search for flights Kiwi shows options that include connecting from a flight with one airline to another with a completely different airline.
So, say for example you want to fly to Astana in Kazakhstan (why not!), Kiwi might suggest flying with Ryanair from London to Budapest and then from Budapest to Astana with Wizzair.
Booking flights in this way can potentially save you a lot of money, but the risk is that if the first flight is cancelled or delayed and you miss the connection, you’re in a bit of a pickle.
Kiwi’s Guarantee claims to address that risk:
The decision of whether you want a full refund or an alternative flight is up to you when there are less than 2 days before departure, otherwise Kiwi chooses. The terms (Article 4, Scenario B, i) state that the alternative flight option is limited to twice the value of your original flight.
The Guarantee also covers the cost of transportation to another airport (up to 100 Euros) if required, overnight accommodation if delayed for 8+ hours, and up to 10 Euros for food/drinks if delayed for 4+ hours.
In order for the Guarantee to apply you need to meet the following conditions:
- Respond within 24 hours to any offers from Kiwi.
- Don’t make any flight changes without Kiwi’s approval.
- If Kiwi agree that you should buy a flight that’s not available online, you need to send them an email with proof of payment within 14 days.
Bottom line
I haven’t booked anything with Kiwi yet, but given my usual luck with cancellations and delays the Guarantee is definitely something that interests me.
Have any readers tried Kiwi and tested how the Guarantee works in practice? Let me know in the comments!
I’ll be slightly more reticent about using Kiwi next time, as I’ve just had a slightly strange and expensive experience.
I booked tickets from Brussels to Malta (Eurotunnel + Brussels flights being much cheaper than UK originating flights during half term week). I received an e-mail, in german stating that they required additional information on my credit card. I had to call multiple times as their Indian call centre operates over very poor quality lines, and I lost the connection twice (once my fault, once theirs). The number given to call was in Germany (presumably as the nearest place to Belgium?) Eventually I got through their questions, although it did mean that I had to stay up until 3am to make it happen (long holds + cut-offs). Eventually my additional bill for giving them the same information that I added on the original booking was a £30 phone bill. The final time, I found a local UK number!
Hmmm – not quite as easy in reality then perhaps as the whole “24/7 customer service” thing the website makes out. Was it still the rubbish call centre even using the Uk number?
If you booked a Ryanair flight for a tenner, you are hardly going to get to Astana for 20 quid at the last minute. Looks an awful lot like one of those insurance policies that are so full of fine print that it is worthless.
My daughter’s flight was delayed, so she arrived at the kiosk 52 minutes before the next one and the airline wouldn’t let her on. We called Kiwi to take advantage of the guarantee, but they said her first flight arrived over an hour ahead of the other flight so they wouldn’t honor the guarantee. Her first flight arrived 1 hour and 17 minutes before the previous flight. The issue is that arriving, and getting off the plane, getting to the other terminal, and getting to the kiosk doesn’t happen telepathically. It took her 25 minutes. At Gatwick, I’d say very reasonable. Kiwi won’t see one more dollar of mine.
BUYER BEWARE. It’s not as good as it seems!
I see that we are supposed to contact them to get our refund but they are not putting thier phone number beside that demand. I’d like thier number in my conntact before I venture out on my 4 flight trip to Copenhagen.
Never had such a bad experience! I knew the flight was delayed so i would miss the connection but they told me i still had to go there. Once i got there they offered to give me my money back or give me a flight which was a bad timing. THEY ARE NOT PREPARED TO HELP YOU if it is not convenient for THEM. They left me stranded without help! They also didn’t reply to me neither by phone nor by email, like they said they would.
DO NOT USE KIWI.
They give cheap offers which ends up costing a lot more.
Kiwi’s guarantee looks tempting, however, it has major drawbacks where the guarantee does not apply and which render it entirely useless:
1. Most negative reports on the web report missed connections due to long waiting times at the point of transfer due to immigration processes or waiting at the baggage reclaim. Clearly, this is not covered by the guarantee, as the guarantee only covers delays or flight cancellations – but no delays during the transfer which happen much more often!
2. Exclusion of “Force Majeure” in Art. 5.e of their T&C: The guarantee does not apply in cases where Force Majeure caused a delay or a cancellation of a flight. That’s a very broad term and includes, amongst others, “meteorological conditions incompatible with the operation of the flight concerned, security risks, unexpected transport safety shortcomings and strikes that affect the operation of an operating air carrier, significant limitation of airport(s) and/or train station operation” plus many other cases, and their list is not even exhaustive. This just about lists exactly the cases which cause delays and cancellations most often: thunderstorms, strikes in France or overcrowded airports with air traffic control restrictions have always been the reasons why my flights have been delayed in the past, and every airline – in order to avoid paying compensation set out by the respective EU regulation – will state that their cancellation or delay was due to Force Majeure, which not only rips you off your right to compensation by the airline but also renders the KIWI.com guarantee useless.
3. More than 48h before departure, it is up to KIWI.com to decide if they rebook you on a flight or just offer you a refund. Needless to say: if you booked a low-cost ticket, the refund of the ticket won’t help you much as the air fare you paid for used to cost close to nothing but shortly before departure the prices of air faires will have soared.
4. The guarantee is limited, e.g. in Art. 4.1.B.i: “In case We are unable to find a reasonable alternative Flight(s) or other means of transportation due to a disproportionate price difference between the potential alternative transportation and the original price for the unused Flights, we may agree with You on Our proportional contribution to the costs associated with the mutually agreed alternative transportation”. In other words: You want a guarantee to cover the costs in case you have to buy a new ticket which, on short notice, will OF COURSE be disproportionally more expensive than what you have paid. However, in such cases, KIWI.com does not have to pay the entire fare, so it will be you to cover the rest.
Bottom line: The “guarantee” excludes exactly the cases which would matter the most as they cause delays and cancellations most frequently – and delays at the airport during transfer are not even covered. Furthermore, the guarantee is limited and you might have to pay some amount yourself anyway. It’s an insurance I would never in my dreams consider buying.
Either book completely separate tickets and be aware of the risk (and potential costs and potential disruptions to your holidays), or buy a single ticket for the whole journey to be safe and to enjoy your holidays. In that case, the airline needs to get you to your destination, regardless the reason for the disruption of any flight. That’s far better than any “guarantee”.
Kiwi will use every possible excuse to void the guarantee and find a way to blame it on you. It’s all a lie. Try to avoid this travel agency at all costs, it will end up costing you more than your thought. It’s better just to buy directily through the airline whenever possible, Just look for other reviews
I was traveling from Warsaw to Malta via Lyon yesterday.
Wizz air flight was delayed in Warsaw and I ended up missing my connecting flight to Malta by the time I arrived in Lyon.
I called the kiwi grantee number I found on my ticket and within 10 minutes exactly they booked me on another flight traveling today from Lyon to Malta via Frankfurt (Lufthansa) and gave me a free hotel for the night (the hotel was quite nice) and they said they will refund my card €100 to cover Taxi & food expenses.
It was all done over the phone, the person who spoke to me was actually very helpful and nice and he sounded to understand that I was so frustrated for missing my flight.
I would recommend the option for sure.