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I'm having trouble with a travel agency and I don't know what to do.

One of my flights was cancelled by the airline. I looked on the travel agency website and it stated I could contact the airline directly so I did and obtained an alternative flight. When I informed the agency, they said it was too late because they had automatically sent a refund request without me knowing.

Because everything was under the same reference number, that request cancelled all my other flights. The thing is, the tickets are non-refundable so I will barely get one of my four flights (including 2 cross-Atlantic) refunded.

Hence, I requested that they withdraw their request since I never asked for it in the first place and it impacted the whole trip. They refused and wouldn't even tell me the reference number of the request so I could tell the airline not to take it into account. What can I do? I don't want the refund, I just want the flights I paid for.

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    You definitely picked the wrong OTA to book with. See related questions
    – Traveller
    Commented Jul 17 at 10:14
  • Are on the flights on a single ticket, or does the itinerary involve self-transfers? What package / fare type / options / services did you order/get? E.g. "Disruption Protection (Premium or Basic)", "Assisted Refund Service", "Standard / Flexi"... Their terms & conditions are a maze.
    – jcaron
    Commented Jul 17 at 10:40
  • Also, what country are you in, what are the origin/destination countries of each of the flights, and what is/are the airline(s) involved? How far in advance were you informed of the disruption?
    – jcaron
    Commented Jul 17 at 10:41
  • The Kiwi T&C says they reject offers from the airline under some conditions and request a refund instead so likely did approve it by accepting the T&C.
    – Anders
    Commented Jul 17 at 11:10
  • I do have self transfers that are not disrupted so far. I got the very basic package with no disruption protection/assisted refund service, etc. I am in France. I have a flight from France to Spain (not canceled), a flight from Spain to Mexico and from Mexico to Mexico (canceled by the agency), then a flight from Mexico to Mexico (cancelled by the agency), a flight from Mexico to Spain (cancelled by the carrier) and a flight from Spain to France (not canceled). I read the T&C and I don't see anywhere that they have a right to cancel the flights without my approval
    – Busy Bee
    Commented Jul 18 at 12:25

2 Answers 2

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Kiwi's operating model generates a lot of risk for its customers and as a result is full of customer complaints (as already mentioned in the comments).
Unfortunately, I doubt you will get the flights from them. However, you might still be able to recover your money. If you paid with credit card you could make a chargeback request arguing the agency is not providing the service you paid for (the four flights).
I have been in a similar situation with them and I made a chargeback request successfully. It is also important to first request a full refund directly from Kiwi and only start the chargeback in case they refuse your request.

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    "generates a lot of risk for its customers" is a very generous was of phrasing "is a scam".
    – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
    Commented Jul 17 at 21:19
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    I don’t think it's fair to classify Kiwi as a scam. It's no more of a scam than many airlines themselves and most OTAs anyway.
    – fregante
    Commented Jul 18 at 8:31
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    Why is this site full of folks simping for scam sites? Any "OTA" that does not actually obtain and issue you bookings at the time of payment (rather than promising to do so but waiting to actually do it til they can get a price that gets them a higher margin, and cancelling on you if they can't make enough profit) is a scam. Yes, most of them are scams. That does not make the behavior any less of a scam. It just means we have a catastrophic failure to regulate scams out of existence.
    – R.. GitHub STOP HELPING ICE
    Commented Jul 18 at 18:31
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    @DonQuiKong -- WTF sort of podunk airline can't accept a booking directly?
    – UnrecognizedFallingObject
    Commented Jul 19 at 2:19
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    @UnrecognizedFallingObject probably one that thought it's cheaper to have someone else handle that? But that's beside the point. Scam has a meaning and kiwi doesn't qualify. It's not the correct term for the intended criticism.
    – DonQuiKong
    Commented Jul 19 at 9:12
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Report the incident to your bank/credit card issuer and dispute the transcation as the merchant not delivering on the service you paid for and and demand a chargeback. The words in bold are key phrasing you should use, especially if the customer service workflow is gatekept by chatbots. You should have a very clear case and get your money back, leaving the scammers (kiwi) out of luck.

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